The four coats standard: waterproofing done properly

Here is the one line that says the most about how we build. Where most builders put two coats of waterproofing in a wet area, we put four, at our own cost.

You will never see it. It goes on before the tiles, disappears behind them, and is never looked at again. That is exactly why it matters, and why it is the honest test of a builder you cannot stand and watch all day.

A bathroom, laundry or ensuite has one job the rest of the house does not. It has to hold water back, every day, for decades.

Waterproofing is the hidden layer that does that. It sits under the tiles and behind the walls, and it is the only thing standing between water and the frame of your home. When it works, you never think about it. When it fails, the damage is already done by the time you notice.

Waterproofing is invisible once the tiles go on, which makes it the easiest place in the whole job to save a little money and a little time.

An extra coat costs materials and a day of drying. Skip it and nobody can tell by looking. That is the quiet temptation in every wet area, and it is why the work you cannot see is the truest measure of a builder.

We use four coats because a wet area is the last place in a home to be doing the minimum. Twice the standard, on the part of the job nobody will ever inspect, is the point.

It costs us more and it takes us longer, and we do it anyway, because the alternative is a room that fails quietly a few years after we have gone. We would rather you never have that phone call to make.

You cannot watch every hour of your renovation. So the real question when you choose a builder is what they do when nobody is looking.

Waterproofing is the cleanest answer to that question. Ask any builder how many coats they apply in a wet area, and why. The number, and how readily they can explain it, tells you a great deal about the rest of the work you will never see.

We would rather show you than tell you. If you want to understand how we build the parts of a home you cannot see, our Home Renovations page walks through our standards and how we keep you across the work at every stage. Better still, come and have a look at a finished bathroom and tell us what you think.