Fixing cracks on the terrace and servicing the metal roof in Mauritius


Now that we are done with the roof, we are moving to the next project which is to fix cracks on the terrace and then service the metal roof to protect it from rust as well as clean it.

The terrace that we will work on, is a part of the whole terrace at the back of the apartment, we will not be working on the whole surface of the whole terrace. Part of the terrace was covered with an additional layer of concrete. However when this job was done, no metal was used nor any membranes which would have probably led to less cracks. I didn’t know that back then, else I could have made suggestions to the mason. Also, new concrete is difficult to make it stick on old concrete directly which I also didn’t know. At any house or family in Mauritius, it would always be good to have someone in the family or a contact for a second advise/opinion and also to pay close attention to what is being done. You or someone must always watch and at least in regular intervals.
If you don’t really know how things at least a little bit should be done, you will in many cases get work delivered that might have a lot of faults. Also, never take the first suggestion provided, always look for a few different solutions to get a problem fixed, especially when the first suggestion always is: Bizin Kass BETON! I constantly hear that from persons I have worked with, and what it means in Kreol is, we must break some concrete to solve the problem – in many cases there have been solutions that didn’t involve the need to break off any concrete. Just my 2c for some hard learned lessons! Please share with me your experiences too in the comments section.

Fixing Cracks on Back Terrace Project 2 - Holes drilled in Cracks

24.05.19
We pierced some holes in most cracks so as to get better access to the whole crack when we will fill it with various products. We didn’t finish on that day and continued on the next day.

25.05.19
We finished piercing all the holes and used a syringe to put in some liquid Jaycocrete first (we also did that yesterday a bit in the holes that we had already pierced). We then let it dry. A lot of these holes absorbed quite a lot, so we had to put in some more several times until its thirst was quenched. Then later on we covered the surface with a sealer from Permoglaze. The same sealer we also used on the roof. We spread it over the whole surface and filled all the holes with it. To my surprise some of the sealer went through a big crack that I didn’t know of and led to some drips falling in a room on the ground floor. Bear in mind that we didn’t pierce holes through the whole roof, only through the layer of concrete that has been added on top of the roof (I mean the terrace by that). It’s the sealers job to fill out cracks, so in a way a big crack that we didn’t know of also got fixed with this product. After we were done with the sealer, we let it dry and took a break on Sunday.

27.05.19
Cracks that are real bad we covered it with Polybond. The other areas we have started to cover them with Premofix concrete mixed with Polybond, sealer and binder. We are now resurfacing the whole area and filling the remainder of the holes with this product and then we will let it dry.

28.05.19
We covered the remaining area with Premofix concrete mix and let it dry. The Premofix we prepared it with Polybond.

29.05.19
We covered the whole area with binder. Letting it dry overnight and tomorrow another layer of Premofix concrete mixture will be added on top, then we should be done with the terrace flooring.

02.06.19
These last days we worked mainly on other tasks. After we added another thin layer of Premofix recently we have let it dry till today, there was no urgency to add another layer of Binder which we did today to finish this project. So far the surface is nicely flat without any cracks. Even sound wise the areas that sounded hollow now sound filled. We only gave the metal roof a thorough washing, as it turns hot under the sun I don’t think it will be a good idea to put any Binder underneath and there was no rust present. The rusted screws we covered them with a primer.

Some observations
Binder is best put on days when it’s not windy and on a clean dry surface. It then turns into a thin layer of plastic sort of. If there is dust or any little leaves or insects, they become crystallized in it, which can give your floor an appearance of being dirty even though it is not.


One thought on “Fixing cracks on the terrace and servicing the metal roof in Mauritius

  1. VenillaM

    Thank you so much Dietmar. I was googling to find solutions for cracked flooring that will not cost me a kidney and found your article.
    Really helpful.

     
    Reply

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