Sika Liquid Plastics has developed a rapid range of liquid applied membranes for social housing refurbishment schemes with cure times of as little as 20 minutes, even at very low temperatures.
The Sikalastic Rapid range utilises PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) technology, offering one of the fastest curing times of any liquid applied membrane in the market.
PMMA has proved to be advantageous for situations where the contractor’s access to the area to be treated may be restricted, and a fast application is desirable. A typical scenario would include communal walkways and stair wells within housing blocks frequently seen in urban areas, where residents require access to their home within an acceptable time period.
Sarah Spink, product manager at Sika Liquid Plastics, said: “While maintenance of public areas is essential, we found that providers are keen to carry out works with minimum disruption to residents and to keep costs down where possible.
“The Sikalastic Rapid range leverages our expertise in liquid applied membranes and has been developed in response to contractor feedback to offer both rapid cure and high performance across a range of applications. Fast application allows the contractor to be on and off site in the minimum amount of time, whilst reducing the possible need for temporary access, such as staircases, which can be costly.”
The Sikalastic Rapid Range can also be utilised as a liquid applied waterproofing membrane on flat roofs with limited access and gutters, where speed of application is a major advantage, the solvent free cold applied liquid resin, which consists of two components, cures following an extremely rapid in-situ polymerisation, which is activated by the addition of a peroxide catalyst. This curing proceeds rapidly even at temperatures around 0°C.
The membrane is reinforced with a polyester fleece and is installed wet-on-wet, meaning the polyester reinforcing fleece is first saturated with liquid resin, bonding the membrane to the substrate, with the surface layer then applied onto the bonding coat whilst still wet – therefore forming a single seamless membrane of uniform thickness. The advantage of this type of application is that on smaller roof areas, a one-day application may be possible as there is no need to wait for drying between coats.
Sarah continues: “The full Sika Liquid Plastics service and guarantee package will be available with the Sikalastic Rapid range which includes initial consultation, technical specification design, and UK wide on-site technical support for the installing contractor, with final project sign off. The Sika Liquid Plastics guarantee covers all materials and workmanship for up to 20 years, when using a Sika approved contractor.
“Due to the specialist application of this technology, it is important to ensure the correct support is in place for approved contractors. For those with extensive experience within PMMA technologies, Sika Liquid Plastics will ensure its dedicated national team of field technicians will fully support the contractors throughout projects.
“For approved contractors with a little less experience using the Sikalastic Rapid range, they would be required to attend a bespoke training course at the Sika Liquid Plastics Training Academy in Preston, to ensure that all installers meet the standards required – but the support will not end there - full onsite assistance from our Applications Team will be given on live projects, reconfirming our commitment to quality.”
