Rhondda Heritage Park, Waterproofing & Refurbishment of 1100m2 Roof Terraces, Wales

The Rhondda Heritage Park Underground Experience Centre is a maze of walkways, nook and crannies
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The covered outdoor area for Santa's Grotto Experience, ready with a whole new surface
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Heavy footfall is expected all around the site, which had to be completely strengthened, refurbished and waterproofed
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Major display areas benefit hughely from the Quartz Terrace and Polyfinish floor seal
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Notice the liquid roof terrace system extending up walls and upstands
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The polymer system provides a welcoming, weathertight transition from metal structures
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The jointless, seamless waterprrofing system extends over edges and up detailing to create a perfect seal
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No nook or cranny was neglected. Photo shows neat, perfect-forming seal even in areas with less footfall
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The same perfect-forming seal is crucial at hte base of metal structures. These feet are now thoroughly protected.
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Notice the easy-on-the-eye channels to keep this balcony area puddle-free
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The same channels and upstand-protection extend to smaller balcony areas such as this one overlooking the site
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The combination of quartz flooring and waterproof sealing adds definition and purpose to darker areas
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Even less well-lit areas provide no issues for the versatile polymer system
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One of the panorama balconies, expected to see heavy footfall year-round
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A closer view of the water channels and thorough waterproofing around exposed outdoor areas
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Photo showing an array of angles and obstacles
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One of the larger outdoor areas, which also benefitted from the polymer system
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Again, notice the waterproofing extends up walls and upstands and protects railing feet
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The refurbished areas are in perfect keeping with the Heritage site as a whole
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Some of the degraded mastic asphalt, displaying a high degree of damage
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Rhondda Heritage Centre:

Rhondda Heritage Centre is a tourist attraction in Trehafod, Rhondda Cynon Taf (CF37) that lets visitors see into the lives of the coal mining community in the area from the 1790s until the 1980s. Tours through the Lewis Merthyr colliery mineshaft are led by former colliery workers. Rhondda Heritage Park itself exists on the site of the former Lewis Methyr Colliery and is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage. Until the end of the 20th century, the Rhondda Valley was one of the most important coal mining areas in the world.

The Project:

RM Polymers was tasked with the affordable, high-quality waterproofing and refurbishment of 1100m2 roof terraces at the Rhondda Heritage Park Underground Experience Centre. The brief included fast, unobtrusive intallation to allow the Centre to continue operating tours throughout, and the requirement to preserve as much of the (vast) existing substrate as possible in order to minimise environmental waste and disruption to the Centre.

The roof terraces form the main walkways for the tours to the engine houses and include masses of detailing and unique items and structures, such as the highly challenging minehead stock wheels 'Bertie' and 'Trefor'. There was also the additional challenge of working on large amounts of detail to degraded mastic asphalt upstands and decking.

The entire project had to be completed within 5 weeks to coincide with Santa's arrival at the Centre.

What we did:

We used Polyroof Protec 20 Balcony System, reinforced with 450gsm matting, bonding it to the mastic asphalt enhanced with Polyroof PD Primer, thus structurally reinforcing, refurbishing and waterproofing in one. We programmed the works to minimise rerouting of tours, finishing walkways with Polyroof's hard-wearing Quartz Terrace & Polyfinish floor seal systems, designed to handle the sort of heavy footfall the Heritage Centre expects from 17,500 bookings for their "Santa's Grotto Experience" and more.

Despite the Welsh weather and thanks to Polyroof's support, the Heritage Park's assistance and our dedicated team (who gave up their weekends to ensure Santa could visit the children of the Welsh Valleys!) we were able to complete this memorable and rewarding project successfully.

Take home:

This project demonstrates superbly (yet again!) what a game-changer Liquid Roofing is in the roofing industry - thanks to the development of liquid roofing products environmental waste on this project was reduced by 95%, saving approx 100 tonnes of waste. Theft risk of lead flashings is eliminated by using Polyroof Protec, which terminates jointlessly and seamlessly into the flashing chases. And financial savings of 300% were passed onto the customer by using these products (versus total roof replacement, with longevity factored in).

The Centre's expectations were surpassed by the finish of the work areas, thanks to our whole team's commitment to professionalism and to the Polyroof Quartz and Polyfinish terrace systems.

The LRWA Awards 2023:

The Liquid Roofing and Waterproofing Awards is an annual industry award celebrating outstanding technical workmanship and excellence. Entries are judged by a panel of independent judges (including specifiers and technical experts) on degree of difficulty, workmanship, problem solving and aesthetics. Our Entry is for Liquid Roofing Project of the Year >1000m2 and for Liquid Waterproofing Project of the Year Award (Car parks, bridges, balconies, walls, etc).

Where now?

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