Decks and balconies are often exposed to extreme weather conditions, excessive moisture, foot traffic and certain harmful elements in the environment.
To maintain your deck or balcony’s appearance and functionality, you must install the right exterior flooring product.
James Hardie™ Secura™ exterior flooring offers the best structural flooring for your tiled balcony or deck. It is durable yet easy to install and must be waterproofed for extra protection.
Let’s discuss this type of exterior flooring and the importance of waterproofing it, including the essential products and processes involved.
About the James Hardie™ Secura™ exterior flooring
While the traditional Compressed Fibre Cement (CFC) flooring is dense and has a time-consuming installation process, James Hardie™ Secura™ exterior flooring is lighter and up to 40% quicker to install.
It doesn’t require you to spend time on pre-drilling and screwing or adding trimmers. With tongue and groove joints, you can use a nail gun to secure Secura™ exterior flooring sheets to timber frames. While it is recommended for tiled balconies and verandas, Secura™ exterior flooring is also suitable for tiled internal flooring applications.
As an excellent alternative to particle board and plywood, it is sealed on all sides with an advanced polymer coating, providing your tiled balcony or deck with extra strength, impact resistance and protection against moisture-related problems.
However, to best optimise and effectively maintain your Secura™ exterior flooring, waterproofing is still necessary. Here’s how to waterproof exterior flooring.
Why do you need to waterproof your Secura™ exterior flooring?
Waterproofing exterior flooring like Secura™ is crucial to prevent water from penetrating and damaging your deck or balcony, as well as protecting ceilings and other installations underneath the deck or balcony.
With the special coating it provides, waterproofing enables you to easily clean the surfaces of exterior flooring after a heavy rainstorm or flood. Waterproofing also offers protection against leaks, mould and mildew, and keeps moisture from infiltrating inside your home, saving you from the inconveniences and costs of repairs.
Most importantly, having waterproofed exterior flooring enhances the value of your property!
How do you waterproof your Secura™ exterior flooring?
Waterproofing can make a big difference to your exterior flooring.
But to get the best results, you must use the right waterproofing products. At Scientific Waterproofing Products (SWP), we offer a wide range of Drizoro products that not only strengthen and waterproof walls, ceilings and floors, but also protect your home against cracks, leaks and foundational decay.
Our Drizoro products, which include Maxjoint Elastic, Maxjoint Elastic Express, Maxseal Flex, Maxseal Flex-M, Maxseal Traffic, MaxMesh and Maxrest Passive, are all ideal waterproofing solutions for your Secura™ exterior flooring.
Here’s how you can use Drizoro products to waterproof Securatm exterior flooring:
- Prepare the area to be treated by removing any loose materials, ensuring a clean and sound surface. If the surface has been previously painted or waterproofed, these materials must be removed.
- Wet the tongue and groove joints between each floor sheet, and then fill with MAXJOINT ELASTIC or MAXJOINT ELASTIC EXPRESS. Allow it to cure overnight.
- Wet the surfaces and brush apply MAXSEAL FLEX, MAXSEAL FLEX-M or MAXSEAL TRAFFIC onto each tongue and groove joint area according to product specifications. Afterwards, embed 50mm wide MAXMESH into the first coat of MAXSEAL FLEX, MAXSEAL FLEX M or MAXSEAL TRAFFIC while the material is still wet.
- Wet the surfaces and brush apply MAXSEAL FLEX, MAXSEAL FLEX-M or MAXSEAL TRAFFIC for 100mm onto the wall, abutting the floor sheet and onto the corresponding floor sheet according to product specifications.
- Next, embed 200mm wide MAXMESH into the first coat of MAXSEAL FLEX, MAXSEAL FLEX M or MAXSEAL TRAFFIC. Make sure that the MAXMESH is moulded into the corner at the floor/wall joint.
- Allow these joints to cure overnight.
- Wet the surface and brush apply the first coat of MAXSEAL FLEX, MAXSEAL FLEX-M or MAXSEAL TRAFFIC at the rate of 1kg/m2 over the entire surface.
- Allow the first coat to set overnight.
- Wet the surface and brush apply a second coat of MAXSEAL FLEX, MAXSEAL FLEX-M or MAXSEAL TRAFFIC over the entire area at the rate of 1kg/1m2 according to product specifications.
- Leave for a minimum of 5 days prior to the application of other finishes or processes – that is, painting, tiling or cladding.
If you’d like further guidance on our waterproofing products, simply speak to your local Australian waterproofing specialists at Scientific Waterproofing Products.
Get the best waterproofing solutions for Secura™ exterior flooring
As your local Australian waterproofing specialists, our team is here to provide you with the right waterproofing products for your exterior flooring. We also have a complete range of Drizoro cement-based waterproof coatings for all of your maintenance, repair and restoration requirements.
If you’ve got other questions or issues around waterproofing, or you’d like to find out which product is best for your needs, contact us today. You can also check out our list of local Drizoro resellers and applicators here.
As always, SWP is committed to providing the right waterproofing solution for any water-related problem or application.