Parking has become a vital part of today's mobile community, especially in metropolitan areas including airports, which are growing at a faster rate. This means continually providing more parking spaces by building new car parks and more frequently extending and refurbishing existing ones. Successful parking structures are designed to meet users' demands, which usually include feeling safe and welcome, plus knowing that their cars are in a secure environment.
Systems Plus Knowhow
Sika solutions make a positive contribution to car parking garages' overall building performance while also reducing construction and operating costs. With longstanding experience in providing solutions for new build or renovation car parking garage project needs, Sika products and systems fulfill a wide range of applications, including:
Coating for ground bearing slabs, intermediate decks
Coating for top decks and exposed areas
Coating for ramps and entrance areas
Flooring for interior areas, walkways and staircases
Floor joint and detailing solutions
Fire protection and joint sealing
Waterproofing for underground structures
Concrete repair and refurbishment
Structural strengthening for EV upgrades
Roofing
1. Traffic Coating for Top Decks & Exposed Areas
Because of their exposure to the elements, top decks and externally exposed areas of parking structures suffer from the stress of vehicular traffic and chemical attack, seasonal and daily thermal variations and fluctuations which cause dimensional changes in the structure and its components.
Sikafloor® parking structure systems are specifically designed to accommodate and absorb this stress and ensure waterproofing protection is durably maintained over time. In these exposed areas, it is very important to properly plan the drainage and the deck color. Lighter colors have higher solar reflectance and can therefore help to keep the building cool. Sika provides system solutions for every application area and exposure requirement.
2. Traffic Coating for Ramps & Entrance Areas
Car park entrances and ramps usually have the highest traffic load in terms of frequency, breaking and acceleration, sometimes in combination with higher speeds, which dictate the need for the highest resistance and durability. High slip resistance is frequently an additional requirement in these areas, in order to prevent cars from crashing into curbs, walls or barriers.
Sikafloor® MultiDur EB-14 is a cost-effective and tough, rigid system designed to withstand these high demands. The polyurethane resin based Sikafloor® Multiflex PB-32 is a tough elastic system which can also absorb some movement of the structure. The ramps and entrance areas are often sections that cannot be closed or blocked off for maintenance works, or if they can, then only for a very short time. For repair projects in these areas, very fast curing and tough elastic Sikafloor® Pronto systems, are ideal and enable the areas to be put back in to service with minimal delay.
The unique Sikafloor® OneShot systems are the ultimate problem solvers for this type of critical application. They combine the performance properties of a top quality deck coating with the application speed of a spray-applied polyurea membrane. The whole system build-up is completed in less than one day and trafficable after just a few hours. The Sikafloor® OneShot system properties in service also exceed performance requirements in terms of wear resistance, crack bridging and durability for a long service-life.
3. Traffic Coating for Intermediate Decks
On intermediate decks, car traffic can impart significant and often high stresses on the surface, into the concrete substrate and the whole structure. Therefore, tough and rigid systems are used to protect against damage in a cost-effective way. Sikafloor® MultiDur and fast curing variants Sikafloor® Pronto, which are based on methacrylate, are durable deck coating solutions.
In a filigree load carrying structure such as many modern parking structures, cracks are likely to form and then to open and close in the decks. With Sikafloor® MultiFlex, Sika provides solutions that are elastic and crack-bridging as well as wear resistant to accommodate such cracks and abrasive traffic loads.
4. Slab-on-Grade / Ground Floor Coating
Epoxy resin based, rigid Sikafloor® MultiDur EB-14 is a standard solution to protect the ground bearing slab. With high wear and chemical resistance, it is a cost-effective standardized solution for typical ground floors in multistory car parks. When lower levels of exposure are anticipated, good protection can also be provided using Sikafloor® HardTop CS-23 W, which creates a monolithic concrete floor finish that is an economic solution for surface hardening and good wear resistance.
In some buildings, groundwater pressure can impose additional stress on the ground floor deck coating system from below, which can sometimes appear as blistering in flexible coatings and/or in delamination across a larger area. In these situations, a water vapor permeable coating system as Sikafloor® MultiDur WB-10, can relieve and accommodate this pressure without adverse effect on the resinous top coating system. Most of our Sikafloor® epoxy resin based primers fulfill EN 13578 as being suitable for use on wet concrete and can also provide a safe base coat for subsequent resin coating layers.
Sikafloor® EpoCem systems have a 30-year track record and act as a temporary moisture barrier (TMB) to allow successful resin coating system applications on green or damp concrete. This shows the ideal way to achieve durable long term success for applications on such challenging substrates. Sikafloor® EpoCem bonds perfectly to green or hardened concrete, whether dry or damp and uniquely prevents osmotic blistering of resin based coatings over damp substrates.
5. Floor Joints & Detailing Solutions
Floor joints in parking garage decks are a major challenge in both new construction and repair of existing structures, since their water tightness is one of the key factors for durability. With specially designed connection flanges, Sika® FloorJoint PD and Sika® FloorJoint PDRS are combined with Sikadur® Combiflex® SG to provide 100% watertight movement joints. With regard to modern parking structures and customer preference, environment and aesthetics play an increasingly important role. In addition to creating a lot of undesirable traffic noise, traditional metal-edged and mechanical movement joint systems have clear limitations where the joint line and widths are variable or complex.
When noise reduction is specifically required, the Sika® FloorJoint PD joint panel proves its strengths. This prefabricated carbon-fiber reinforced polymer concrete panel fits seamlessly and virtually invisibly between joints, adjacent resin coating systems and floor coverings. In difficult areas where ramps and deck or floor slabs connect, vertical movement in these joints can often occur and cause problems. Here is a potential for larger vertical joint movement caused by the extended slab length. In these situations, Sika® FloorJoint PDRS is the perfect solution. The concentric integral rubber seal allows for greater movement and at the same time it protects the watertight Sikadur® Combiflex® system from damage.
6. Waterproofing for Underground Parking Structures
Sika has over 100 years of experience in providing below-ground waterproofing solutions. The selection of the most appropriate waterproofing concept and system for any specific project is dependent on many factors. It is important to involve a qualified waterproofing specialist at the early stages of design – for both new and refurbishment projects.
Underground car parking areas are no longer just utilitarian spaces, where a dark, damp and uninviting environment is acceptable. To ensure an attractive appearance and an inviting, useable and pleasant environment, a buildings’ basement waterproofing is of utmost importance, and also essential for the smooth operation of an underground car park. There are also potentially disastrous consequences of damage caused by water ingress that could result in major additional costs during the life cycle of the structure and potentially reduce its life span. Fortunately, Sika has developed secure, proven waterproofing solutions for both new build and renovations of underground parking structures.
7. Concrete Repair & Refurbishment
A basic requirement for a car park flooring system is a sound concrete support structure and floor slabs. Adequate monitoring and maintenance of reinforced concrete is essential in order to ensure the designed service-life of both the protection systems and the structure itself.
Especially now with the increase in electric vehicle adoption, the assessment, repair and strengthening of car park structures becomes more critical.
Sika has a full range of well-proven products and systems for all aspects of concrete repair, including many innovative solutions that are ideal for use on parking structures, including:
- Steel reinforcement protection
- High performance repair mortars
- Protective water-repelling hydrophobic impregnations
- High performance protective and aesthetic surface coatings
- Penetrating corrosion inhibitors
- Joint sealing and waterproofing systems
- Structural strengthening systems
8. Roof Systems
Sika produces single-ply membranes and liquid applied membranes (LAM) designed for built-up parking deck and flat roofing systems, as well as thermal insulation and all required ancillary materials and accessories. More than 50 years of success in this field all around the world has now clearly documented that Sika parking deck and roof waterproofing solutions provide outstanding performance, with reliable, sustainable, and long-lasting results.
Current demand in the flat roofing segment is driven by the need for eco-friendly, energy-saving solutions such as green roof systems, cool roofs, and solar roofs, which can all simultaneously help to reduce CO2 emissions. Whilst refurbishment projects continue to gain in significance for mature markets such as Europe, emerging markets elsewhere are still moving towards higher quality roofing solutions with complete Sika membrane system solutions. For parking structures, Sika roof membrane systems are primarily used to meet demands for ballasted or green roofs and utility roof decks where the top layer of the system build-up is also designed as a hard-wearing surface for pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
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