Austin Apartment Pool Refurbishment, South Brisbane

PROJECT MANAGER: Hutchinson Builders
CONTRACTOR: Peter Johnson Tiling

Located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Austin Apartments is a 21-level premium residential building with a rooftop pool that overlooks the Brisbane River. The building is 5 years old and is in a prime area, being a 3-minute walk to the Brisbane CBD. The rooftop pool is considered the luxury area for residents, overlooking the CBD area and Brisbane River, but had begun showing signs of wear and tear and was due for renovation.

Unique Elements
The 8-metre-long pool had an infinity edge on two sides that sloped back into the pool. This design meant that the glass mosaic tiles were also installed down the external walls of the pool and into the catchment trough.

The original glass mosaic tiles began losing adhesion to the substrate and started breaking off. Some of these sections were visible above the water level. This was particularly evident from along the inside edge of the angle coping and along the higher outer edge of the pool. This detracted from the aesthetics of the luxury pool environment.

The wall render and bedding screed were also damaged. Portions of the bedding screed had lost adhesion to the concrete substrate and there were hollow and loose sections of render that needed to be removed.

Solution
The team at Peter Johnson Tiling began grinding back the pool to remove the old tile adhesive and any drummy or loose sections of render. Once substrate preparation was completed, repairs to the wall render and bedding screed commenced with render applied prior to waterproofing. This was to prevent the cracking that may occur if the render were applied over a flexible membrane.

Some pool walls were rendered with ARDEX WR 120 FR, a polymer modified render that is fibre-reinforced for extra strength. The pool interior and all wet walls were primed using ARDEX WPM 300 two-component, waster-based epoxy membrane/barrier coating.

The pool was waterproofed with ARDEX WPM 002 membrane. ARDEX WPM 002 includes an advanced acrylic that prevents the membrane from re-emulsifying, is rapid drying and specially designed for use under tiles.

The glass mosaic tiles were fixed using ARDEX X 18 Fibre-reinforced, non-slump tile adhesive and ARDEX E 90 Admixture. This was then grouted with ARDEX EG 15 Epoxy Grout – an easy clean high performance epoxy grout suitable for areas where strict hygiene standards, high chemical and physical resistance are required.