Waterproofing To Bespoke Manchester Nightclub

You may recall in July 2013 a huge fire in Oldham Street, Manchester, that sadly took the life of fire-fighter Mr Stephen Hunt who was based at Manchester’s Philips Park Fire Station, the fire was tackled by up to 60 Fire-fighters and was described as particularly difficult to tackle because of the complex layout of the building and the amount of material inside, the ground floor was used as a Hairdressers.

Within the huge basement was a nightclub that was totally destroyed, following the clearing out of the building, we were consulted with a view to providing a waterproofed environment that was to be used again as a nightclub.

Following several detailed inspections and discussions with the Architects, Main Contractor and Local Building Control our design was agreed upon, and the order given to undertake the work, working in stages with the Main Contractor the project was completed on schedule and to the agreed budget.

In compliance with BS8102 Grade 3 a Type C (Drained Protection) system was installed using 8mm stud height profile membranes on the walls with 20mm stud height profile membranes to the floors, specific maintainable drainage was incorporated along with several pumping stations.

Interestingly, in the original construction of the building the rainwater collected from the large roof structure discharged “internally” via four 100mm diameter down pipes “into the basement” the reason we believe, was that the visual impact of the down pipes would detract from the beauty of the façade, needless to say our design ensured all rainwater was dealt with at ground level and not allowed to enter the basement.