YMCA Beech House Condos and Swimming Pool

Background

This six-story luxury boutique apartment building can be found in one of Toronto’s renowned neighborhoods in the east. Known as The Beaches or The Beach, this neighborhood features a number of elegant heritage buildings. Not to be outdone by these surrounding neighbors, however, the boutique apartment building itself has a stylish appearance and includes a YMCA center.

Those who live within one of the 95 suites there are granted memberships for the center along with a gourmet designer kitchen, dog wash station, and many other high-end living features that are not commonly found all in one space.

That created a synergistic partnership between the residential and commercial aspects of the apartment building and the YMCA center. So residents have a luxurious home to enjoy and can meet their needs for physical activity at the same time when they head to the YMCA center below.

The building isn’t just designed for people’s health in mind either. It was also designed to minimize its environmental impact. As a result, the building comes with multiple green elements, including an extensive green roof, LED lighting throughout suites and public corridors, high-efficiency HVAC systems, Energy Star-certified kitchen appliances, and a smart irrigation system.

All of which needed a durable structure to stay operational. That meant during construction, the concrete spaces for the apartment building’s four-level residential parking and the YMCA center’s amenity areas needed waterproofing. The developer knew that and actively sought a waterproofing solution that would be permanent and allow them to maximize their building footprint.

Solution

The developer and their construction team eventually decided to select Kryton’s waterproofing system. They did so because they knew that unlike traditional membranes, which are often damaged during backfilling and tend to limit design space, Kryton’s waterproofing system has Krystol^® technology, and that lasts for the life of any concrete structure.

With that permanent waterproofing protection, the building would have less need for future maintenance and repair work. That in turn would reduce the long-term costs of the building.

Knowing that, the project team went ahead with the waterproofing system, starting with the addition of 1,000 m³
(35,315 ft³) of KIM into the concrete mix for all below grade concrete. They then waterproofed the construction joints and details using Krystol Waterstop Treatment and Krytonite Swelling Waterstop. With the treatment, the team applied its cementitious crystalline slurry to the horizontal and vertical construction joints. These joints were then sealed with the waterstop, which was placed at the joints ahead of planned pours.

To provide an additional permanent waterproofing barrier, the team later applied Krystol T1 to the walls of the YMCA pool.

Throughout the application of the entire waterproofing system, the developer found that their choice was perfect as it saved them considerable time in the construction process and reduced long-term building maintenance and repair costs.