Builder Waterproofing Services

A developer buys waterproofing on completely different terms from a homeowner. The work is bought before there is a leak, it has to fit a slab cycle that will not wait, and its real cost lands years later — in the defect-liability period, when the society is formed and the first monsoon complaint arrives. Leakproofs by Betterwork works as a specialist subcontractor to builders, civil contractors, PMCs and architects across Pune and PCMC on that basis.

Construction stage is the cheapest waterproofing decision available

Nothing you can buy later is as cost-effective as getting it right during construction. A construction joint treated with a water bar and a properly formed kicker while the shuttering is still up costs a fraction of injection grouting the same joint from inside a finished basement two years later — and the remedial version is disruptive, visible and never quite as good.

The decisions with the largest downstream cost are made early: whether the basement is tanked externally or relies on internal treatment, whether the podium build-up allows for drainage above the membrane, whether sunk slabs are formed deep enough for a proper fall, and whether penetrations are sleeved rather than core-cut afterwards. We would rather be in that conversation at design stage than be called to price a repair. Our reference notes on construction and expansion joints and podium and parking decks are written for exactly that discussion.

Sequencing that fits a slab cycle

The commonest cause of waterproofing failure on a live site is not the material. It is being given a substrate that is not ready, on a date that cannot move. Concrete needs to have cured and dried to an acceptable moisture content before most membranes will bond; a coating applied to green or damp concrete will blister or delaminate regardless of how good it is.

What we ask for, and what we commit to in return:

• A realistic window between casting and treatment, agreed at award rather than negotiated on the day.
• Substrate handed over prepared — laitance removed, honeycombing made good, no standing water.
• Our own crews mobilised in the numbers needed to hold the programme, including night and weekend working on critical-path areas.
• Written sign-off of each area before the trade above us starts, so responsibility for damage after our work is unambiguous.

That last point protects both sides. A membrane punctured by a subsequent contractor fixing a railing is a genuine and common failure, and it is far easier to attribute when there is a dated sign-off and a photographic record.

Sample panels and specification lock

On projects of any size we lay a sample panel before bulk application — a defined area, applied at the specified thickness, signed off by the PMC or architect. It settles finish, colour and coverage expectations before the same argument can happen across 40,000 sq ft, and it gives the consultant a physical reference to check bulk work against.

Thickness is the specification, not the brand. We record wet and dry film thickness during application and report it. If a competing quotation does not state microns or coverage in kg per m², it is not a comparable bid — see dry film thickness and coverage.

How we contract

Most developer work is placed one of three ways, and each suits a different project:

• Supplied-and-applied rate contract against a BOQ — the usual structure. We carry material and labour, you carry area measurement and payment terms.
• Labour-only application where the developer has a direct material tie-up with a manufacturer. We apply to the manufacturer’s specification and to their inspection regime.
• Turnkey package covering surface preparation, concrete repair, waterproofing and protective screed as a single scope — appropriate on redevelopment and repair projects where the substrate condition is the main unknown.

Retention, running-account billing and area-measurement conventions are agreed at award. We are set up for vendor empanelment and supply the documentation pack — GST registration, insurance, safety policy, sample warranty certificate — before the first invoice rather than after it. See credentials and compliance.

Defect liability is where waterproofing actually gets judged

Under Section 14(3) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, a promoter carries liability for structural defects and defects in workmanship for five years from possession, and is required to rectify at no further cost. Water ingress is among the most frequently raised items in that window, and it arrives after handover — when the site team has demobilised and the society is asking the developer, not the applicator.

The Leakproofs by Betterwork applicator warranty is written to sit behind yours: a term of up to ten years on the treated area for eligible completed work, with exclusions disclosed on the estimate. What matters commercially is that the documentation survives handover. We provide the specification, the thickness records, the material batch documentation and the water-test results as a project file, so a complaint in year four can be answered with evidence rather than assumption.

Working on occupied and redevelopment sites

Redevelopment and repair projects in Pune are rarely empty. Where a wing is occupied while another is worked on, the constraints are the ones societies care about — access, noise hours, debris routes, water supply interruption for tank work, and keeping fire escapes clear. We plan those into the programme rather than treating them as site nuisance, because the developer inherits the reputational cost of getting them wrong.

Areas and scope we cover for projects

Basement rafts and retaining walls, podium and parking decks, terraces and refuge floors, lift pits, sunk slabs and toilet blocks, water tanks and STP structures, external facades, expansion and construction joints, and remedial injection grouting on completed structures — across Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and the surrounding project belt.

For a project enquiry, send us the drawings and the programme rather than a square-foot number. Site visit, method statement and a rate-loaded BOQ response follow from that.