‘To prevent the: + Uncontrolled use of scraps to replace concrete as structural elements in building structures * The use of substandard Grade 15 or below concrete instead of the basic Grade 25 concrete for Columns and Beams in Residential and Factory Structures. + The use of cheap recycled Polythene films as a Damp Proof Membrane to prevent rising damp under reinforced concrete floor slabs. + The use of China Roofing felt or hot bitumen as a Damp Proof Course (DPC) on brickworks. RECYCLED POLYTHENE FILMS USED BELOW CONCRETE, FLOOR SLABS GRADE 15 CONCRETE USED IN COLUNMS AND BEAMS OF ‘CONCRETE STRUCTURES rECHNICAL FUNDAMENTAL ___ ANALYSIS Oi oMri Comme Cm elemento ty the building of residential housing and factories. ntain al nsist on Basic Building 1ilding Facilities? * The use of subgrade diluted untested flexible cement base waterproofing coatings. Builders and Developers were once a symbol of confidence to the home buyer. However, things are taking a big change. Potential buyers of residential buildings are more weary these days with the Quality of Materials used or unused in their prospective purchases. It will not be long before Developers have to prove that no substandard building products are used in their developments with inferior workmanship included. ue 7 CHINA ROOFING FELT AND. BITUMEN USED AS A DAMP PROOF COURSE (DPC) FOR BRICK WORKS UNUSED SCRAP USED TO FILL ‘STRUCTURESBuilding codes are sets of rules that specify the standards of building materials and the methodology of construction of buildings and nonbuilding structures. Besides its main purpose, building codes also include the identity of the correct building material types for concrete building structures. These codes are meant to insure correctness in design specification for buildings and provides a guide for the less knowledgeable building contractors to conform, to basic employment of approved and tested building materials in their construction works. ‘The Adherence to Building Codes for material usage by Contractors would relief Professional Architects and Engineers from having to ponder over substandard materials offered by Contractors for approval in their projects. It is meant to protect the members of the public from being short changed or cheated, and. insuring their safety at all times whilst living in a concrete structure they know nothing about. It also insures that builders tow the line in good construction, practices. Building codes are generally intended to be applied by professional Architects, Engineers, Constructors, Sub- contractors, and Regulators to insure public safety for dwellings which will eventually be occupied by ‘members of the public who have taken much pains in saving and undertaking the long term financing of a property. These buyers need not have to bear the extra burden of building defects arising in later years due to the neglect of Developers and the manipulative builders choice of cheaper building material substitutes. Manufacturers and Distributors of Building products will have to understand the needs of building structures well before introducing products which have the bearing of quality for use by Contractors or sub-contractors in building projects. Products have to conform and be tested to the current and past standards such as the ASTM, ISO and BRITISH STANDARDS before any supervising Architect or Engineer will allow products to be used by Contractors in their projects. Insurance Companies insuring residential or industrial property will be concerned with properties that use substandard concrete for their framed structures and. substandard protective films for the protection of concrete ground floor slabs, Real Estate Developers and Infrastructural Developers such as Governmental organisations will be funding, perceived projects based on feasibility and cost studies made prior to the execution of any prospective development. Comfortable Budgets are laid out by Developers based on the Specifications of Materials, set Bills of Quantities, Labour for Workmanship and funding provisions for miscellaneous items which may have been left out In any building project, competition begins from day one. Architectural firms and their supporting peers such as Professional Engineers and Quantity Surveyors will bid competitively for any development farmed out by the public or private Developers. It used to be such that Architectural Firms are the controlling authority of projects; they will design and oversee the completion, of projects with little interference from the funding Developers who would generally have accepted their design concept and their due diligence in completion, and handover. Likewise, Contractors will be invited to bid for the projects by the Architectural Firms based on the Bills, of Quantity. Successful contracts occur when all participants are paid fully and well with reasonable profits for work done based on the accuracy of the bills of quantity. No participants in any contract would like to be seen as a philanthropist which they can ill afford. Design and Build Contracts and Lump Sum Contracts are a pain for professional Architects and Engineers, it leaves them beholden to the Main Contractor. Such contracts seem to have absolute rational and financial advantages for the Developer as it saves cost with the exclusion of the Professional Architects and Engineers. ‘As such, these 3 in 1 contracts would have shown the economies of scale on paper. Likewise, Lump Sum Contracts are also appealing for Developers as Developers are given the finite lowest tendered price and have little concen for anything else. These tender methods are common and bidding contractors are given little time for submission. Tendered contracts gets to be cheaper with mistakes made by the bidders. Whilst all possible means have been developed to slant pricing for building contracts other than the adoption of fair measure. The losers are generally the Developers and certainly the end user ot buyer if the project is a housing project. The end users or buyer will have to bear the consequences of building defects, and finishing failures. Contractors are no fools nor ate they Philanthropist, they will do anything to provide the cheapest of the possible cheapest of products or services to complete ajob.RECYCLED POLYTHENE FILMS RECYC POLYTHENE FILMS SHOULD NEVER BE USED AS A DAMP PROOFNG MEMBRANE UNDER GROUND FLOOR CONCRETE SLABS TO RESIST RISING DAMP These Recycled films are manufactured from used polythene scrap which are collected in bulk, washed and melted down into granules. These recycled granules are then used to blow films for use as ‘Temporary protective sheet covers, black garbage bags or carrier bags. Recycled films are used only for low grade applications, such as bin liners, because of the contamination effect of the printing ink, making it only suitable for dark colours, such as grey or black. COLLECTION OF PLAS ‘These are crushed, washed, dried and processed into recycled granules or pellets. They are then used for the blowing of films into garbage bags, temporary protective films and carrier bags. Films manufactured from recycled granules are filled with MICROSCOPIC PORES which will allow vapour to permeate through and will render the film useless for the very purpose of preventing rising damp through reinforced concrete slabs. Recycled Films do not conform to International Standards for use as a Damp Proof Membrane. Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into alternate products which will be deemed useful. Since plastic is non-biodegradable, recycling it is a part of the global efforts to reduce plastic in the ‘waste stream, Plastic recycling includes collecting any type of plastic, sorting it out into different polymers and then chipping it before melting it down into pallets. After this stage, the recycled granules can be used for the making of plastic chairs and tables or flooring boards. PICTURE SHOWING ‘THE COLOUR AND QUALITY OF RECYCLED LDPE GRANDULES PICTURE OF HIGH QUALITY VIRGIN LDPE GRANDULESCOST COMPARISON The comparison of cost in relation to differently manufactured products is a point of contention In the case of a large milk factory in China, the plant decided on the use of Melamine as an additive for the manufacture of infant milk powder. Its implementation of such an adverse additive into its formulation was not to improve its quality for the betterment of newly born infants but one of manufacturing concealment of formulation which resulted in the use of Melamine. The ingestion of such formulated milk powder resulted in the death, disfigurement and long term health impairment of thousands of Chinese Babies in China. All this had to happen because infant milk had to be made Cheaper for better profitability in China irrespective of the known lurking irreparable harm it will cause to growing infants. Deceit or fraud in the food industry should never have been made to happened especially in a large and established manufacturing facility ‘The guardians of the manufacturing plant did not, observe CODES OF GOOD PRACTICE. The development and the building of shelters such as residential housing, factories and other building types require due diligence from planning, designing, material specification, construction till the completion of building projects. Material usage must be scrutinised and specified for use. Otherwise bidding contractors cannot fathom the quality of products needed. With the proper writing of specifications for very basic material types (sometimes deemed unimportant) it prevents any denial of misinformation during the tender stage through to product selection. This discourages the frequent attempts in the presentation of substandard products as alternatives for use in building projects. It would be inappropriate listening to claims that known inferior materials are quality materials which have been used and had not failed for the last thousand years. Be it the mythology of construction or material usage a saving is a saving to the pocket and it is worth the while lying through one’s teeth on the contemplated use of targeted subgrade materials to improve the bottom line in construction projects. Subgrade materials are generally not produced for any specific technical purpose but are used randomly by the less professionals as an alternative to the specified Would one venture into buying airless tires made from recycled plastic for your New Mercedes Car instead of the normal pneumatic rubber tyres or would one buy a shirt weaved from coconut husk instead of cotton It is not possible to bring about price comparisons as the said by-products used for the manufacture of tyres and shirts are not used as yet commercially to manufacture products which will provide a safe bearing to the vehicle or its occupants, nor would it provide a sustainable service life. Likewise, films made from Recycled LDPE granules cannot perform as a vapour barrier and will break down within a year. However, PE films manufactured from pure Virgin LDPE Granules will perform its function and last a hundred years under reinforced concrete slabs. ROTTEN TOMATOES HAVE NO VALUE, THEY ARE THROWN AWAYCOSTING Locally manufactured films made from Recycled granules have their abnormalities: @ Rolls of such recycled films are labelled as 250 microns in thickness, 3.7 m in width and 60 m in length However, when such films are tested for its thickness, they end up with just 170 microns, which is 80 microns less in thickness or 32% short of the published rate. @ Recycled films are generally manufactured to dark colours such as Black, Dark Grey and Brown, ‘The deeper colours are used to hide carbon black and impurities found in recycled granules. Recycled films are sold in hardware stores for RM 160.00 per roll or just under RM 0.70 cents per m2 Technical films that are manufactured from Virgin LDPE granules and engineered to withstand rising water vapour under concrete slabs cost 10 times more per m2. Rotten tomatoes are thrown away because they have no commercial value but fresh tomatoes fetch a much higher price than the price of rotten tomatoes. Hence, comparison has its dictates. It must be made between two similar materials of the same proven quality. RECYCLED POLYETHYLENE FILM must never be specified or substituted for use as a DPM under concrete floor slabs. It goes against the basic building codes and ethical codes if non-functional products are used in building structures. If such subgrade materials are found to be in use, it will not be wrong to terminate the use of such products immediately to prevent a non-functional product from being used further, A wrong is a wrong and it has to be corrected and not allowed to procreate. It is far better than having to extricate concrete slabs to remove the recycled films. Recycled Black Films Films ® ® Rising Damp from the ground is a Universally accepted phenomenon made know to Building Professionals which may have been taught briefly to most individuals during their educational pursuits. Recycled Brown The restraining cover posed by Ground floor conerete slabs over soil or the ground creates a build-up of resistive force of ground moisture constantly meandering naturally vertically upwards to reach the surface. Whilst most of the liquids and vapour finds saturation at the surface these will be absorbed or sucked up into the porous layer of concrete and force itself up through capillary action till it reaches the surface where it will condense to form droplets of water on floor finishes. The constant wetting of floor surfaces will render floors unusable for inhabitants of housing and a waste of massive wet floor space if itis a factory or a warehouse. Residential flooring materials are destroyed by wetting through rising damp and Factory floors will be rendered useless for production. Owners are not even able to paint concrete floors with Urethane or Epoxy coatings.DAMP PROOFING MEMBRANE LAID IN FORM WORK PRIOR TO CONCRETING OF GROUND BEAMS ie of ey 5 i em DAMP PROOFING MEMBRANE LAID UNDERGROUND BEAM CONNECTION MADE BETWEEN GROUND BEAMS AND FLATS RISING DAMP IS VERY REAL AND WE SHOULD NOT TAKE NATURE VAPOUR FOR GRANTED BUILD-UP OF THE CHALLE! CONFORMITY IS TO USE DAMP PROOFING MEMBRANES WHICH ARE MANUFACTURED FROM VIRGIN POLYMERS BELOW ALL GROUND FLOOR SLABS BE THEY SUSPENDED OR NOT. RISING WATER VAPOUR FROM THE GROUNDINSTALLATION OF DAMP PROOFING MEMBRANES The installation of Damp Proofing Membranes is a very simple process of just unrolling the film onto a graded substrate, installing specially manufactured tapes called IRONGRIP for overlaps in-between sheets and all perimeter terminations to ground beams. Finally, a protection course of protective screed is laid over the membrane which would serve to prevent unexpected damage to the film. It does not take long to execute the above. It will be useless to purchase a product and not install it well with all terminations and overlaps sealed well with IRONGRIP tapes. PARTICULAR — SPECIFICATIONS FOR DAMP PROOFING MEMBRANES (DPM'S) Damp Proofing Membranes will be laid under all ground floor reinforced concrete slabs within the boundary of the project in question. PREPARATION Inrespective of the siting of the concrete slab, be it suspended or not, damp proofing membranes shall be laid onto well prepared substrate. The soil shall be levelled and tamped down with a vibrating tamper till a flat surface is achieved. Where hard core is used tamping works will have to be executed to insure that all hard core protrusions are made level PROTECTION In addition, it will be absolutely important to install a bed of granite quarry dust over the hard core prior to the laying of DPM. The granite quarry dust should be approximately 50 mm in thickness. INSTALLATION Rolls of DPM are generally rolled out onto the prepared substrate. Where the width of the roll is insufficient to cover an area, the overlapping of sheets is allowed on condition that all overlaps in-between sheets have an overlapping cover of 150 mm and held down with two lines of technical tapes known as IRONGRIP. No overlapping without taping is allowed no matter how wide the overlap is, Perimeter terminations against ground beams must be allowed up to 75 mm or 100 mm up the walls of ground beams. Walls of ground beams affected by perimeter termination of DPM must be washed down clean of all laitance or mud. ‘The surface of ground beams must be conditioned with a coating of Sealflex printer. Sealflex primer is allowed to dry before IRONGRIP is installed along the perimeter of the ground beam, It will be understood that two layers of IRONGRIP is needed to secure the Damp Proofing Membrane. FINAL PROTECTION It will be necessary to install 50 mm thick layer of cement and sand screed or grade 15 concrete as a protection course over the laid Damp Proofing Membrane. This will ensure that damage or rupture to the membrane will not occur. Foot trafficking and reinforcement installation is the general cause of damages to membranes. All Damp Proofing Membranes or films. will conform to the below said requirements. + DPM films must be manufactured from 100% Virgin LDPE polymers through the blown process, * No Recycled polymers must be used for the manufacture of such films. As such, all opaque, black, creamy or grey colored films are disallowed for use under concrete ground floor slabs. + The finished film shall be smooth to the touch and shall be translucent + The thickness of DPM films shall not be less than 300 microns in thickness after taking the variable of 10% into account. + Tensile Strength Min 17 Mpa + Tear Strength (Transverse) 49 Newtons/mm + Impact Strength 800 g + Elongation at Break 300% + Burst Strength 27 Newtons/mm + Melting Point 112°C * Puncture Resistance: Min 2200 ¢ + Water Vapour Permeability @ 20°C & 80% RH 0.258 gisqm/d + Chemical Resistant ResistantDAMP PROOFING MEMBRANES MANUFACTURED FROM VIRGIN PE POLYMERS DAMPGUARD 300 SUPER DPM 300 MICRONS DAMP PROOF COUSE FOR BRICKWORKS Whilst Rising Damp from the Soil is prevented with Damp Proofing Membranes, the brick walls of buildings too are exposed to the similar phenomenon of Rising Damp. Wetting will travel upwards to approximately 1 meter up a brick or brick plastered wall to cause the exudation of water stains, efflorescence, delamination of paint works and the eventual decay of cement sand plaster. ‘The proven and best solution would be to provide a sheeting or barrier film along the lowest course of brickwork. These films know as Damp Proof Courses are ‘manufactured specially for the purpose of preventing Rising Damp from occurring. The English have for decades been producing specialities for Damp Proofing of Brick walls. This is because of the extensive use of brick works in the United Kingdom. BS 6398 TYPE A—asingle layer of tough hessian coated both sides with special asphalt bitumen. PARTICULAR SPECIFICATION FOR DAMP PROOF COURSE (DPC) FOR BRICKWORKS All brick works will receive a layer of Damp proof course manufactured purposefully to prevent or resist ‘water vapour from moving up brick or brick plaster walls. No products such as roofing felt, bitumen will be accepted for use. Damp Proof Courses conforming to VAPOR BLOCK 15 381 MICRONS VISQUEEN HP 500 MICRONS the British Standard 6398 and BS 6515 will be the only products acceptable for use in this project. BS 6398 TYPE B — a fibre based saturated sheeting coated with a grade of special bitumen. BS 6398 TYPE D— a hessian based bituminous. DPC with a membrane of sheet ead coated with bitumen. BS 6398 TYPE E — a fibre based bituminous DPC with a membrane of sheet lead coated completely with bitumen. BS 6515: 1984— an extruded Polymer film of 500 microns in thickness and widths to fit various sizes of bricks. Brickgrip which is manufactured to BS 6515:1984 is lighter and cleaner to the touch and its surface is embossed with diamond shapes to prevent slips from occurring. This relatively new product is inexpensive and is a qualified product for use in brick walls. China made Felts with Bitumen are not designed for DPC works. They are low grade roofing felts designated for use over workers site quarters or any temporary shelters. WE HAVE SOFT COPIES OF THE SPECIFICATIONS. DO GIVE US A CALL AND WE WILL SEND YOU A copy.