Central Square EC1

Background

Mount Anvil and One Housing Group partnered to build a new luxury development, featuring studio apartments as well as one -, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments. These living spaces were designed to be surrounded by private gardens and water features in the heart of fashionable Clerkenwell, England.

The plans for this new development called for 274 units within 10 stories set atop of 4,500 m² (48,438 ft²) of commercial space, including room for basements and parking.

To provide permanent protection against water for the space surrounding the basements and parking, Mount Anvil and One Housing Group’s construction team was looking for a long-term concrete waterproofing solution.

Solution

Given the access restrictions to the site due to its development being done in London’s busy Clerkenwell inner city location, the construction team selected Kryton’s integral concrete waterproofing system, which included the waterproofing admixture KIM and the Krystol Waterstop System.

The benefit of this system is that it eliminates the need for an external waterproofing membrane, which means the construction team no longer needed to make room for the equipment and crew that would have had to apply that membrane. Instead, all the team had to do was add KIM to the concrete mix, allowing the concrete itself to act as the waterproof barrier. Then, they could apply the Krystol Waterstop System to the construction joints to ensure the structure surrounding the concrete remained watertight.

This meant that roughly 3,000 m³ (4,000 y³) of concrete in the slab, lift pits, and basement walls was being waterproofed with KIM.

Additionally, to protect the construction joints from water ingress, over 1,500 m (5,000 ft) of Kryton’s Krystol Waterstop System was used to waterproof joints in the basement and parking areas.

All of which led to a strong waterproofed foundation for a development that won bronze for best partnership scheme and silver for best interior design at the WhatHouse? Awards in 2012. During that same year, the project was also awarded as development of the year for the Sunday Times’ British Homes Awards, and it went on to earn a number of prestigious bathroom design and landscaping awards.