Leaking balcony repairs St Kilda

• The 1960s–70s walk-up blocks Three storeys, cream or red brick, a concrete balcony slab cantilevered straight out of the building. The original membrane sits under a bedded screed and tiles. When it fails, water tracks back along the slab and appears as a stain on the ceiling of the flat below — usually a long way from where it actually got in.
• Art Deco and interwar apartments Rendered parapets and balcony walls that were never designed to hold water at the junction. The leak is often not the floor at all — it is the wall-to-floor junction, or a rusting steel lintel over the opening behind the render.
• Salt air off the bay St Kilda sits in a high-exposure zone. Salt accelerates corrosion of the reinforcement inside a concrete balcony slab. Once that steel rusts it expands, and the concrete spalls from underneath — you see it as flaking soffits and rust stains before you see water inside.
• Newer apartment developments The blocks built along Fitzroy Street and Acland Street in the 2000s brought a different problem: waterproofing installed to a deadline, falls that do not drain, and drainage outlets set above the membrane rather than into it.

A stain on a ceiling is rarely directly under the hole. Water that gets through a balcony membrane runs along the slab until it finds a way down, so the damage can appear metres from the entry point, or in the next apartment along.

Look for: a stain or blistering paint on the ceiling below, efflorescence (white chalky salts) on a soffit or garage ceiling, rust staining or flaking concrete underneath, damp skirting boards in the room below, tiles that sound hollow when tapped, cracked or missing grout along the wall junction, water pooling on the balcony after rain, or a musty smell in the room under the balcony.

Almost every balcony we are called to has already had someone silicone something. The reason those repairs do not last is that nobody established where the water was getting in before they started.

1. 01On-site inspection. We look at the balcony, the room below, the junctions, the drainage and the soffit, and we ask when the staining appears — after rain, after a certain wind direction, or all the time.
2. 02Water testing where it is needed. We isolate and flood-test sections in sequence so the entry point proves itself rather than being guessed at. See balcony water testing.
3. 03A written report with photos. What we found, where the water is entering, and what the repair involves. This is what owners corporations and insurers need.
4. 04A quote for the actual repair. Priced on what the balcony needs, not on a guess.

Not always, and this is worth asking before you accept a quote that assumes they do. Where the failure is confined to a junction, a threshold, a drainage outlet or a section of the balcony, we can often repair that area and re-waterproof it without stripping the whole floor.

Where the membrane itself has reached the end of its life across the whole balcony, a full strip and re-waterproof is the honest answer, and we will say so. What we will not do is quote a full rebuild on a balcony that does not need one, or patch a balcony that does.

We install Kerakoll waterproofing systems, and our director is a certified Kerakoll waterproofing specialist. Where a full system is installed to specification, the manufacturer warranty applies on top of our own workmanship warranty. Where balcony movement cracking is involved we are also a licensed HeliFix installer — see HeliFix crack stitching.

Most of the St Kilda work we are called to comes through owners corporations and property managers, where one balcony is damaging the apartment below and nobody can agree whose problem it is. We provide a written report with photos that says where the water is entering, which is usually what settles it.

We provide written inspection and defect reports with photographs, suitable for owners corporation meetings, insurers and building managers, and we are fully insured.

Balcony leaks rarely travel alone. We also handle concrete crack and spalling repairs, render crack repairs, cladding repairs and HeliFix crack stitching where structural movement is part of the picture.