Four Main Factors Affect Your Waterstop Selection

There are many kinds of waterstops including metallic waterstops, rubber waterstops and plastic waterstops by raw material and internal waterstops and external waterstops by installation method. Choosing the right waterstop can be a confusing task if one is unfamiliar with waterstops. With years of waterstop production experience, we summarize several factors that affect the waterstop selection to help you choose waterstops correctly and quickly. When choosing waterstops, we may consider from the following aspects.

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Material

According to its raw material, waterstops are divided into plastic waterstops, rubber waterstops and metallic waterstops. Their features are respectively listed below. For more details, please refer to Waterstop Types & Performances.

Category Features

Plastic waterstop

• Excellent resistant to corrosives and low temperatures.
• Outstanding waterproof performance.
• High tensile strength.
• Long service life.

Rubber waterstop

• High elasticity, excellent wear resistance.
• Aging resistance and tear resistance.
• Strong adaptability to deformation.
• Great waterproof performance.

Metallic waterstop

• High strength.
• Firm bonding.
• Great corrosion resistance
• And can be firmly fixed on the steel bar by welding.

Installation Method

Waterstops are often used for the installation of construction joints, deformation joints, expansion joints, etc. According to its construction methods, waterstops are divided into internal waterstops and external waterstops.

• Internal waterstop for wall applications

  Internal Waterstops

  Internal waterstops are mainly placed in the concrete deformation joints, expansion joints, and other concrete structures. Due to its excellent material elasticity and structural form, internal waterstops have strong adaptability to concrete expansion and contraction, thereby achieving great waterproof effects.

  The most important feature of the internal waterstop is its symmetry. That means the front and back surfaces are symmetrical and provided with the same protruding flutes, which makes its left part and right part symmetrical when being divided from the middle part. It is further divided into internal waterstops with a center bulb (CB type) and internal waterstops without a center bulb (CP type).

• External waterstop for ground slab applications

  External Waterstop

  External waterstops are waterstops specially placed outside the construction joints for waterproof and stopping leakage. It has a flat surface on one side and a concave-convex surface with protruding flutes on the other side. During construction, the flat surface is attached to the construction joint.

  It is mainly applicable to the floor or outside wall of the concrete structure (concrete water face). It is further divided into external waterstops with a center bulb (EB type) and external waterstops without a center bulb (EP type).

For more installation information, please refer to Waterstop Installation Guide.

Size

The waterstop size mainly depends on its width and thickness as the length can be extended by cold joint method and and hot joint method. In addition, the size of the waterstop is also in connection with its water pressure and deformation. When choosing waterstops, you may identify its width and thickness in accordance with the following standards.

• Application Environments

  Water Pressure:

  < 4 m

  Vertical Deformations:

  &#; 10 mm

  Waterstop Specifications

  Width:

  &#; 200 mm

  Thickness:

  &#; 5 mm

• Application Environments

  Water Pressure:

  4-8 m

  Vertical Deformations:

  &#; 30 mm

  Waterstop Specifications

  Width:

  &#; 300 mm

  Thickness:

  &#; 6 mm

• Application Environments

  Water Pressure:

  &#; 8 m

  Vertical Deformations:

  &#; 20 mm

  Waterstop Specifications

  You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Hengyang.

  Width:

  &#; 200 mm

  Thickness:

  &#; 5 mm

• Application Environments

  Water Pressure:

  > 4 m

  Vertical Deformations:

  > 10 mm

  Waterstop Specifications

  Width:

  &#; 350 mm

  Thickness:

  &#; 8 mm

In addition, when its structural section size is greater than 500 mm, the waterstop shall have a minimum width of 300 mm. When the waterstop is placed at the corner, its turning radius shall not be less than 300 mm.

Application Environments

Waterstops are mainly used in infrastructure projects, underground facilities, tunnels, sewage treatment plants, water conservancy, subway projects, etc. We shall choose corresponding waterstops according to its application environments, such as corrosion resistance, acid and alkali medium and temperature requirements.

• Rubber Waterstop
  Generally used in basement exterior walls and post-cast strip with applicable temperature ranging from -45 °C to 60 °C. Rubber waterstops are unaccepted where the temperature exceeds 70 °C and there is strong oxidation or organic solvent corrosion like oils.
• Metallic waterstop
  Suitable for construction environments with corrosive elements. It is also commonly used in projects with small area yet high impermeability requirements , such as casting pits and electric furnace foundation pits in smelting plants. It should be noted that the metal waterstop has poor resistance to deflection and deformation, and shall not be used in areas where the contact width changes frequently.
• Plastic waterstop
  Suitable for a variety of environments, mainly for environments with corrosive organic solvents and high pressure such as oil refineries and reservoirs. When welding to waterproof boards, synthetic resin waterstop made of the same material is highly recommended for welding (EVA, PE, ECB, HDPE and PVC).

Rubber waterstop for construction projects

Metallic waterstop for construction projects

Plastic waterstop for building construction

These four factors aforesaid can help you choose waterstops suitable for your project quickly. In addition to waterstops, we also produce various types of waterstop strips and sealants. You can use them together with our waterstops to improve the waterproof performance of the project. We can also provide you with drawing planning, troubleshooting, installation guides and other services to make you free from any worries.

Various Types of Rubber Waterstops for Different Concrete Structures

Rubber waterstop is a commonly used waterproof element placed in the construction joints and deformation joints of foundation works of the concrete structure when pouring concrete. It has good elasticity, strong adaptability to deformation and great waterproof performance. In addition, it has great wear resistance, aging resistance and tear resistance. It is widely used in building constructions, underground facilities, tunnel culverts, canal aqueducts, dams, liquid storage structures, etc.

There are many types of rubber waterstops that are used in different applications. If we fail to choose a proper rubber waterstop, it will absolutely bring a poor waterproof effect. Then how to choose the right rubber waterstop?

Generally, building waterproof degree, deformation joint deformation, hydrostatic pressure, application environments, operating temperature and economic factors are taken into consideration. Specifically, you may consider it from the following aspects.

Application Environment

• Natural rubber waterstop is enough for general waterproof purposes.
• When being used in corrosive environment with weak acid and alkali, neoprene waterstop is a good choice.
• When being used in environments with oils, nitrile rubber waterstop is highly recommended.
• When being used in environments with possible mold erosion, rubber waterstop with mouldproof function is a great choice; of which, its mouldproof grade shall be Grade 2 and above.

Operating Temperature

Operating temperature -25 °C to 60 °C -35 °C to 60 °C -40 °C to 60 °C Waterstop Neoprene Waterstop Natural Rubber Waterstop EPDM Rubber Waterstop

Structure Section Type

• Internal Rubber Waterstop

  Internal rubber waterstop is one of the most popular rubber waterstop characterized by symmetry. That is, it has symmetric ribs on both front and back surfaces. Besides, the ribs from center to edges are symmetric as well. It can be further divided into CB type (with a center bulb) and CP type (without a center bulb).

  CB-type internal rubber waterstop

  It refers to internal rubber waterstop that has a center bulb. It is also one of the most commonly used waterstop types. Characterized by close combination with concrete, great water-tight sealing effect and strong adaptability to joint expansion and contraction, it is mainly applicable to settlement joints, expansion joints and seismic joints of various concrete structures.

  CP-type internal rubber waterstop

  It refers to internal rubber waterstop without a center bulb. Featured by close combination with concrete, great water-tight sealing effect and excellent elastic tensile deformation, it is mainly applicable to the construction joints, complete shrinkage joints, incomplete shrinkage joints and expansion joints of various concrete structures with little deformation.

• External Rubber Waterstop

  External rubber waterstop is a kind of rubber waterstop with one flat surface and a surface with ribs. During the construction, the flat surface is placed on construction joints, therefore, it is named as external rubber waterstop or flat waterstop. It is a waterproof structure placed outside the deformation joints and settlement joints of underground concrete structures (water face). Its material elasticity and structural form make it have strong adaptability to the expansion and contraction of the concrete. In addition, pay attention to the protection of external waterstops installed when backfilling the outside of the concrete siding.

  External rubber waterstop is further divided into EB type (with a center bulb) and EP type (without a center bulb).

  EB-type external rubber waterstop

  EP-type external rubber waterstop

  External rubber waterstop in concrete structure

• Swellable Rubber Waterstop

  Swellable rubber waterstop is a kind of rubber waterstop provided with expansible strips (red part as shown in the picture). Expansible strips extremely increase the adhesion between the rubber waterstop and the surrounding concreted, meanwhile, it solves the problem of circular-leaking. So the rubber waterstops with expansible strips are widely used as enhance anti-leaking products.

  Swellable rubber waterstop

  Swellable rubber waterstop in concrete structure

Steel-edge Rubber Waterstop

The steel-edge waterstop can change the water penetration path and extend the water by-pass seepage line. In the construction environment where the leakage water may contain corrosives, steel-edge waterstop can withstand certain corrosives.

Benefits

• It adopts a non-equal-thickness structure and divides the waterstop into the reinforced area and the waterproof area to makes all parts withstand stress evenly and reasonably.
• It adds installation holes in the steel plate and connects with steel reinforcements to make the waterstop fixed firmly and not easy to shift.
• The good bonding of galvanized steel plate and concrete makes the waterproof performance better.

In the protection project, steel-edge waterstop can ensure the waterproof effect of the project. It is also commonly used in projects with small area yet high impermeability requirements , such as casting pits and electric furnace foundation pits.

Steel-edge rubber waterstop

Steel-edge rubber waterstop in concrete project

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