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This month, Brian Rooney of Stego Industries has written the second in his series of essays addressing the impact of the VOC regulatory changes taking effect in September, specifically as they relate to under-slab vapor barriers.

Last month, while in Banff, I had the opportunity to take a walk on the Neogard coated top deck of the parking garage at the Banff Springs Hotel. After 10 years, the Auto-Gard coating looks great. See the project profile below for more information on this impressive project.

Hopefully you are finding time to enjoy great weather.

Best Regards,

Marla

The VOC Laws Change
September 9, 2010

As of September 9, 2010, Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) concentration limits for architectural coatings will go into effect. These regulations cover all Architectural, Industrial and Maintenance (AIM) coatings under the statutory authority of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.

There is a two-year "sell through" period allowing products manufactured before the implementation date to be sold until 2012.

In order to accommodate multi-phased projects and previously specified jobs, we have a limited inventory of non-compliant products available.

The following products will not meet the new maximum 400 g/lt VOC requirement effective September 9, 2010:

• Dry-Trete 40
• Chem-Trete 40D
• Chem-Trete 40H
• Chem-Trete 40 VOC
• Chem-Trete PB VOC

Click here for a list of products that meet the new VOC requirements.

For more information, please contact Marla at 416-233-1603 or marla@dre.ca.

Project Profile: Banff Springs Hotel

The Banff Springs Hotel was built more than a century ago and shares a rich history with Banff National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The hotel was styled after a Scottish Baronial Castle and has an award winning stand-alone parking garage built in the late 1980's.

The exterior deck coating system (non-Neogard) was in need of maintenance approximately 10 years ago. Neogard was called in by the owner and Read Jones Christoffersen Structural Engineers to review the existing system on the top exposed deck and discuss performance of Neogard's AutoGard line of traffic bearing waterproofing systems.

Since the deck is an exposed deck with unvented metal pan construction and a poured-in-place concrete deck surface, the AutoGard system was selected based on performance history and a long Canadian track record on exterior applications.

Neogard's licensed applicator, Place Crete Systems Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, removed the old system and replaced it with AutoGard. The 35,000 square foot exposed top deck has performed well for over 10 years under severe winter conditions and snow removal.

For more information, please contact marla@dre.ca

You have to take the ground out of play
By Brian Rooney

There is a constant vapor pressure differential between the sub-grade (higher pressure) and your acclimatized building. That leads to vapor drive, moving from the sub-grade into the building, passing through the slab. Unlike above-grade, it doesn't reverse directions.

However, modern flooring is low permeance and acts like a vapor barrier on top of the slab. If the vapor-proofing below the slab isn't adequate, then more vapor will enter the slab than can pass through the flooring. The net inflow of vapor causes the relative humidity to go up in the slab. If it gets high enough that you get to dew point conditions, the vapor condenses into the liquid water phase.

The newly condensed water dissolves the soluble alkaline salts that are naturally in the concrete. The salts raise the pH into the 11-12 range.

Here's the problem. Soon, you will be using water-based adhesives and coatings. They can't withstand being in contact with alkaline water with a pH greater than 9-10. As a reminder, pH is a logarithmic scale. So, 11 is ten times more alkaline than 10.

The high alkalinity causes the adhesive/coating to re-emulsify and you end up with an expensive flooring failure.

In order to avoid this, you need to take the ground out of play. There are two operative parts to this condition: soluble alkaline salts and liquid water. You can't avoid the salts in the concrete, so you need to avoid dew point conditions.

You'll accomplish that by protecting the slab with an "effective" vapor barrier. I'll define "effective" in a future essay.

For more information on Stego, contact marla@dre.ca

Sugar Beach Opens on Toronto's Waterfront

Click here to watch "The Stars Christopher Hume hits
Sugar Beach in the heart of downtown Toronto"

I drove down Queens Quay the other day and was so excited to see Sugar Beach open. It's hard the believe that this is the former Jarvis slip parking lot! Coreflex 60 was installed on this project by Aquanorth Contracting.

For more information contact marla@dre.ca

New Acoustic Seal "QuietJoint"

Emseal's QuietJoint is sound, draft, heat, cold, and dust blocking acoustic joint filler for interior, non-moving joints and gaps. Colorized, versatile and ideally suited to filling gaps between the ends of permanent, semi-permanent, or movable partitions, head-of-wall and other conditions.

For vertical and horizontal-plane joint-gaps from 1/2" (12mm) to 6" (150mm).

26 Standard Silicone Colors, custom colors, non-invasive anchoring, thermally insulating, acoustic dampening, rapid installation, economical.

QuietJoint-SHH is coated on two faces and is ideal for gaps between opaque or solid partitions or wall. The coating can be the same color on both faces to coordinate with wall coverings.

QuietJoint-SHH

QuietJoint-SHG

QuietJoint-SHG is coated on a third face and is typically used to fill gaps between the glass of curtain wall or windows on one side and solid substrates on the other. The third coating aesthetically covers the foam core so that the foam is not visible through the glass. The coating can be the same color on all three faces or different on each face to coordinate with wall coverings. (Note: color transitions between different faces may blur).

Self-extinguishing, fire-retardant-acrylic-impregnated foam, factory pre-coated with high-quality silicone. Clean handling, UV stable, non-staining, low temperature flexible, high-temperature stable.

Supplied in full-story, 10-foot lengths, uncompressed and slightly over sized, material is compressed by hand and squeezed into the gap or opening. The material folds in its center along a tooled crease to absorb slight variations in substrates. The internal back pressure of the material locks it to the joint faces.

For more information or a sample of this product, please contact marla@dre.ca

Dew Point Calculation Chart

Dew Point: Temperature at which moisture will condense on the surface. No coatings should be applied unless surface is a minimum of 5 degrees above this point. Temperature must be maintained during curing, or Temperature should be steady at falling, but never rising.

Example: If air temperature is 70°F and relative humidity is 65%, the dew point is 57°F. No coating should be applied unless the surface temperature of the concrete slab is 62°F minimum

Ambient Air Temperature - Fahrenheit
Surface Temperature at which Condensation Occurs

Click here for the Dew Point Calculation Chart.

For more information contact marla@dre.ca