Construction of a new restaurant in Chiswick included a basement area to house the kitchens, with Dampcoursing Ltd. playing a part in the tanking and damp-proofing of this area.

This site – 1-4 Barly Mow Passage – is in a conservation area within the London borough, opposite Voysey House, designed by CFA Voysey, a listed building that was once a wallpaper factory for Sandersons, and is still a primary feature of the area.

Four small terraced houses, with shops on the ground floor, used to occupy the site, and it was architect Geoffrey Powis who was commissioned by developer The Guthrie Organisation to design a new-build restaurant that blended with the surroundings.

Geoffrey Powis explained, “We had the opportunity to create a basement area for the new building, and it made sense to put the kitchen here. This freed-up a lot of space on the ground and first floors – allowing for more ‘covers’ in the available space.”

The project won a commendation

from Hounslow for the best new infill building in the borough 2007. It was particularly commended because it was a difficult site in a conservation area.

Dampcoursing’s involvement with the project was to supply and install the Newton 500 tanking for the 70m  of the basement area, and the creation of a cavity drainage system with twin submersible pumps. Vandex Super was also used on the lift shaft.

The main component of Newton 500 is a high density extruded membrane with a thickness of 0.6mm and a stud formation with a height of 8mm.

The studs allow an air gap of
5.5litres/m  , giving water vapour the opportunity to move unhindered in all directions, and damp pressure being equalised. Newton 500 relies on a physical fix and is said to be ‘sympathetic’ to the structure.

Vandex Super is applied to concrete where the active chemicals combine with the free lime and moisture present in the capillary tract to form insoluble crystalline complexes. These crystals block the capillaries and minor shrinkage cracks in the concrete to prevent any water ingress. However, the Vandex layer will still allow the transmission of water vapour through the structure.

This project has demonstrated Dampcoursing’s ability to provide damp-proofing solutions for a variety of challenges, in new-build situations – rather than the refurbishment work that the company is more likely to be associated with.

Photograph courtesy of The Guthrie Organisation