PROJECT
23 specialised BASF MasterEmaco S 5410 CI , a fibre reinforced structural repair mortar with active corrosion inhibition , was used in the repair of the concrete structure . These repairs could then be followed by waterproofing , plastering and the applying of a Marmoran finish , as well as glass replacement and general painting .
1 2
For its tenants , Union Square is conveniently located right across the road from the busy Noord Street taxi rank , which is among the largest in the country – serving local and international commuters . For Raubex Building , however , this location made for challenging logistics , especially as the property extends onto the sidewalk and street on every side , providing no lay-down area for materials and equipment .
“ Most taxi activity would begin early in the morning and continue until 19:00 ,” Jardim says . “ This meant that our deliveries were made mainly in the evenings . The night shift would then move the material to the floors where it was required , to facilitate the following day ’ s work .”
Material was conveyed using a two-tonne hoist that ran the full height of the building . Rubble was also removed at night , by tipper trucks fed by wheelie bins . He notes that the building ’ s first-floor plinth was just about the only space available to lay down materials and equipment .
“ This project provided us with another opportunity to support local participation with the use of local labour and to train small local businesses , mainly in carpentry , specialised
Simon Oliver
1 and 2 : Plumbing ducts before closing up .
walling system installation , tiling , brickwork , plastering , painting and electrical work ,” he says .
There were several of these businesses from Johannesburg ’ s Ward 59 involved , as part of Raubex Building ’ s local participation programme , and this included PC Builders , a 30 % QSE partner on this project .
Plumbing Africa spoke with the Wet Services Engineer , Simon Oliver of Design One Consulting who provided this overview :
The age of the building and the change of use from office block to residential meant that none of the existing wet services were able to be reused , so were removed . New water and foul drainage needed to be installed which required a considerable amount of core drilling especially for the foul drainage stacks and soil vent pipes .
As the building was of rib and core construction , co-ordination of all the additional core drilling was required . Similarly , regarding the location of plant , the hot water plant and tanks . For this , the building was vertically split into four zones – each zone having their own hot water generating plant and storage tank for a central circulating system , each zone supplied 5-6 floors to limit pipe sizes and high water pressures from the tall high rise building . Original design was to be a heat pump system , however once structural load limitations were known this was changed to gas geysers and a new Egoli gas supply .
The existing basement booster pumps were no longer installed or operational , so a new bulk storage tank and booster pump set were installed with only one of the roof water tanks being suitable for refurbishing , cleaning and re-using . Due to the nature of the building ’ s lightweight construction , the basement bulk water storage tank could not be placed directly on the basement level ’ s first floor . A dedicated structural beam supporting structure bolted to the columns and suspended above the basement floor had to be installed before the bulk water storage tank could be installed .
At the onset of the project , there was a required element of employing local community and up-skilling through Jo ’ burg at Work and Expanded Public Work Program ( EPWP ), the design kept to more traditional materials of copper pipes for water services and uPVC for waste and foul drainage . In this way it would be easier to up-skill the local community with known wet services construction materials without having to buy expensive tooling as required for installing such as Pex-Al-Pex for the water services .
Between the ground floor shops and the first floor is a service zone of approximately half a floor . This zone contained an ( now redundant ) air conditioning plant which the client did not want to pay to be removed . In this service zone all the horizontal drainage was installed that collected from the foul drainage stacks above from the various residential units , before dropping at two specific points to high level Basement 1 and connecting to the exiting sewer outfall . This required on site co-ordination and sometimes re-routing of pipes to achieve the necessary falls and installation .
The whole development is built in accordance with the Social Housing Regulatory Authority ( SHRA ) guidelines .
November 2020 Volume 26 I Number 09 www . plumbingafrica . co . za