Question 1

Do both elevators shut down when you waterproof a double pit?

Accepted Answer

No. We shut down one car and work in that pit while the other stays in service, then swap. At least one elevator is running at all times, which is why the building notice is straightforward and there is no accessibility problem to manage. It is the question we get asked most often about double pits.

Question 2

Do the fire alarm sensors need to be dealt with during elevator pit work?

Accepted Answer

Elevator pits are full of sensors and many are tied into the building fire panel, so they have to be put into test mode before work starts or the fire department gets called. That is done by the elevator technician or the property manager, not by the waterproofing crew. We also run HEPA dust extraction connected to every tool, because a shaft acts as a chimney.

Question 3

How long does elevator pit waterproofing take?

Accepted Answer

We aim for one day per pit, so a single pit is a day and a double pit is two. Jobs sometimes spill into an extra half day per bay. The things that stretch it are active running water, floor slope correction, and blocked access at the floor-to-wall corner rather than the size of the pit itself.

Question 4

Can a contractor guarantee a leaking expansion joint will be fixed?

Accepted Answer

No method carries a 100 percent guarantee, including full excavation. A consulting engineer on one GTA condo board acknowledged this about his own top-side recommendation, because the exact locations of every membrane and joint crack are unknown before digging. Injection has the advantage of being repeatable at low cost if a joint needs a second pass.

Question 5

Should a board be suspicious of a much cheaper waterproofing proposal?

Accepted Answer

A board should ask what physical work each price buys, not assume the lower number is thinner. On one GTA condo, a $500,000 injection proposal and a $4 million excavation proposal addressed the same joints with comparable success rates. The cheaper approach simply did not include digging up and rebuilding the deck.

Question 6

What happens if an injection repair does not seal the joint the first time?

Accepted Answer

The joint can be injected again, in the same or different locations. Because each pass is relatively inexpensive, a joint can be treated four or five times and still cost far less than a single top-side excavation. That repeatability is a large part of why the approach works financially for condo boards.

Question 7

Does an expansion joint repair require an engineer in Ontario?

Accepted Answer

Waterproofing does not require an engineering stamp, because sealing a joint is not a structural repair and does not determine whether the structure stands. An independent engineer is still worth having on larger projects to validate the installation, and boards commonly involve one above roughly fifty thousand dollars.

Question 8

How long does the garage have to close for an injection repair?

Accepted Answer

The garage does not close. A 20-foot joint span typically requires about ten parking spots to be vacated for roughly two days so nothing gets dripped on, while traffic continues normally. A top-side excavation on the same joint usually means the area is fully closed for five to six months.

Question 9

How can a property manager tell the elevator pit waterproofing was done properly?

Accepted Answer

Ask for a completion report listing what was installed, confirm the pit carries a warranty, and then look at the pit. We finish pits with a turquoise floor and white walls specifically so defects cannot hide — any new crack, stain or seepage shows immediately against those colours, and the turquoise photographs like a green screen because nothing else in a pit is that colour.

Question 10

Is a wet elevator pit the elevator company's responsibility or ours?

Accepted Answer

The pit structure is the building's responsibility, not the elevator maintenance company's. Inside the pit the practical split is straightforward: anything made of metal belongs to the elevator company, anything made of concrete belongs to the waterproofing contractor. The sump pit is a plumber's item, and it is usually accessed from a separate room entirely.

Question 11

Who is allowed to open an elevator pit for an inspection?

Accepted Answer

Only the elevator maintenance company listed on that elevator can open the shaft and give access to the pit. That company has to be present the entire time anyone is working inside it. A waterproofing contractor cannot let themselves in, so any pit inspection is a three-way arrangement between the property manager, the elevator company and the contractor.

Question 12

How long does a garage expansion joint repair take?

Accepted Answer

A negative-side injection on a 20-foot joint span typically runs about two days: injection and forming on day one, form removal and cosmetic finishing on day two. A top-side excavation repair on the same joint is usually a five- to six-month project with the area fully closed.

Question 13

How can a property manager tell the penetration repair was done properly?

Accepted Answer

Ask to see photographs of each layer before the excavation is backfilled. A sound repair shows loose material removed back to solid concrete, a bonding agent, a hydraulic waterproofing cement, then a cold-applied membrane with a fibreglass or geotextile reinforcing layer sandwiched inside it. If the only photograph is of finished concrete, there is no way to know what is underneath it.

Question 14

How long does it take to drain a condominium pool?

Accepted Answer

Draining a condominium pool takes a minimum of twenty-four hours, and slower is better. It is not a pump-capacity limit. A full pool holds its shell expanded under load, so emptying it lets the structure contract, and both the drain and the fill are deliberately slowed to keep that movement small.

Question 15

How long is a condo pool out of service for repairs?

Accepted Answer

Crack repair takes about two days and the pool refills the next day, so roughly four days end to end once the drain-down is counted. Resurfacing takes ten days to two weeks because the finish has to come off before the hidden damage can be found. A full refurbishment runs about three weeks.

Question 16

What is the pool bonding wire and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

The copper equipotential bonding conductor runs the full perimeter of the pool beneath the deck tile and drops to a ground connection at a dedicated bolt. It is almost always torn during deck demolition because it is buried and sometimes cast into the concrete. It has to be re-run through the existing studs, and it should be photographed before the paving goes back — after that it cannot be verified without lifting the paving.

Question 17

Why is a pool perimeter joint water-tested before the paving goes back?

Accepted Answer

The perimeter expansion joint is flood-tested the moment it is rebuilt, before any paving is relaid, because a defect found afterwards means lifting the paving again — which is most of the labour in the job. Testing an open joint costs an hour. It is the only formal quality hold point in a pool repair.

Question 18

Why does a crystalline system take longer than a membrane in an elevator pit?

Accepted Answer

A crystalline system takes several days in an elevator pit because of its sequence, not the application itself. The concrete has to be ground open to its pores, the material applied, then kept hydrated for days under a curing film so it does not dry too fast and let go, and then left to cure before anything else happens in the shaft. A polyurea or polyaspartic membrane cures in about four hours.

Question 19

Can elevator pit waterproofing be done without shutting the elevator down?

Accepted Answer

The car whose pit is being worked on has to be out of service, because the elevator maintenance company locks it out and has to be present the whole time anyone is in the shaft. In a building with more than one elevator that is the only car affected — we do one pit, then swap. In a single-elevator building it is one day: in during the morning, out in the evening.

Question 20

Is it cheaper to move a floor drain or to re-slope the floor?

Accepted Answer

Re-sloping is almost always cheaper and less disruptive. Relocating a trench or point drain means breaking the slab, cutting into the drainage line and re-tying it, which is a far bigger excavation and a much longer shutdown. In a two thousand square foot production room with three drains in the wrong places, we re-sloped the floor rather than move any of them.

Question 21

When can concrete repairs be done in a plant that never shuts down?

Accepted Answer

Inside a planned window rather than at a time that suits the contractor. Statutory holidays are the big ones, and we have worked Christmas at plants where that is one of only a couple of full shutdown days in the year. Otherwise the work fits a wash-down cycle or a changeover on one line while the rest of the plant keeps running.

Question 22

Does curing time come out of the shutdown window?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it is the most common planning mistake we see. Surfacing and coatings want at least twenty-four hours before traffic goes back on, and that has to sit inside the window. A five-day shutdown is really four days of work and one day of waiting. Any programme that treats cure as something happening after handover will put traffic on green material.

Question 23

How is dust controlled when grinding inside an occupied facility?

Accepted Answer

With HEPA-filtered vacuum extraction on the grinding and chipping, plus containment of the work area set up before any tool is switched on. In a food plant the cleanliness requirement is absolute, so there is no version of the job where dust gets dealt with afterwards. The same approach applies in hospitals and other occupied buildings.

Process & hiring