Waterproofing in Carlton
Most Carlton leaks are shared. The terraces were built touching each other, so the gutters, the valleys and the party walls belong to two households - and so does the water.
The Carlton buildings we get called to
Victorian terraces
Box gutters and valleys running between two houses, with no fall, no overflow and no way in without going through a roof. When one blocks it backs up under the tiles and comes through a ceiling on both sides of the party wall at once.
Rear and upper-storey additions
A modern wet area bolted onto a 140-year-old solid brick wall with nothing detailing the junction. The old wall wicks, the new membrane stops in the wrong place, and the damp shows up in the original part of the house.
Walk-up and high-rise flats
Concrete balconies and roof decks on their original detailing, with spalling where water has been reaching the reinforcement for decades.
Why Carlton is built the way it is
Carlton was built as working-class terraces on narrow allotments, put up tight against one another. What survived the slum clearances of the 1950s and 60s is now largely under heritage overlay, which is why a repair here has to be right and also has to look unchanged from the street.
Permits, if it ever comes to that
Carlton is City of Melbourne, and the thing to know here is the heritage overlay rather than permits generally. Where a property is covered, work that changes how the building looks from the street can need planning approval first - re-roofing, or a box gutter in a different profile. We find that out at the assessment, before it costs anyone time.
What we do in Carlton
All of it, everywhere we work. These are the ones Carlton calls us about most.