DRAINAGE SYSTEMS FOR A HIGH-END FINISH

ALLPROOF INDUSTRIES PROVIDED INDIVIDUALLY MEASURED SHOWER DRAINAGE SHOWER CHANNELS FOR A LARGE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT IN MELBOURNE. THIS CUSTOMISATION REMOVED MANY OF THE UNSIGHTLY VARIATIONS SEEN WITH STANDARDISED FITTINGS. ALLPROOF FOLLOWED TIGHT INSTALLATION SCHEDULES WHILE COMPLETING THE WORK.

At Victoria & Vine, a New York inspired development in the inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, Vision shower channels made by Allproof were installed in all 241 apartments.

The highly detailed project specifications meant the drainage requirements of the bathrooms in these apartments had to be met on both on an aesthetic and performance level. Its overall service and a production schedule also had to fit into the challenging construction timeline.

About the project

Victoria & Vine’s 241 apartments include a $7 million penthouse with access to a health club, infinity pool, rooftop lounge, a co-working space and business lounge.

The development was designed by Cox Architecture and built by Hickory. It is a blend of nine individual buildings 15 with a combined 200m street frontage consisting of 11 retail spaces including food and beverage offerings. The multitiered property uses a variety of materials including reclaimed brick, glazing and pre-cast panels to emulate New York’s meat packing district, and references the heritage-listed Foy and Gibson warehouse in Collingwood.

Installation issues

In construction projects there are always minor variations, and rooms are rarely laid out within 0.5mm of the exact planned dimensions. That is what would be required to achieve perfect fit for an off-the-shelf product – and it is near-impossible.

Even if this were technically possible, determining those dimensions would itself be difficult. The designer would have to provide the exact finished dimension of the room at the pre-build detailing stage. Wall build-up of linings, membrane, tiles and adhesives would have to be determined perfectly to avoid either a huge make-up of silicone, or force a tiler to squeeze in a channel that is made too large for the actual space. Such measures would ruin the aesthetic of the shower channel as well as the quality of the overall room finish.

The best solution is frequently to select a supplier that can fabricate the channels perfectly to suit the area in each individual shower. The simple fact is that products will often need to be made-to-measure on projects that prioritise a high-end finish. Custom fabrication can deliver the modern appeal of a wall-towall channel while navigating the challenges of making an off the shelf product fit. Another consideration is the location of the outlet. In large multi-level projects, there are often structural elements or other services preventing a channel from having a centre outlet. Selecting a custom channel allows for the outlet to be located at a point where a floor waste gully can be installed for ease of piping out, or to suit pre-installed passive fire protection.

Made to measure

Allproof Vision shower channels are manufactured from highgrade stainless steel in off-theshelf and custom sizes. The channel comes with a VF80 puddle flange which is designed to fit within a trench created in the subfloor. Waterproofing is dressed into the puddle flange as per AS 3740-2010 Figure

3.9 with the channel installed over the membrane, and the channel’s outlet directed into the drainage flange.

There are some key benefits to this method. The surface area of membrane adhered to the flange is greatly reduced over a channel with an integrated flange. Also, the puddle flange can be installed prior to waterproofing, allowing all other trades to complete their role without additional delays. Should a channel with an integrated flange be selected instead, this would mean other trades could be held up by the production time of custom length channels for each room as waterproofing needs to be applied to the channel itself.

The tiler needs to leave a reveal of 80mm plus allowance for silicone where the channel is to be located. Once they are ready, measurements need to be taken for the channel length and outlet location and sent to Allproof.

Upon delivery, the shower channel cam simply be dropped into place on a bed of levelling compound, with a bead of silicone around the tiles and channel edge. The tiled floor and channel will catch surface water and the membrane will pick up any subsurface water that is able to track through the grout. The membrane then directs sub-surface water towards the outlet through falls outlined in AS 3740-2010 clause 3.4.

Selection

Cox Architecture Hickory are wellrespected companies with a large number of high-end projects in their portfolios. Experience has given them a grounded perspective on how product and supplier selections can add value to project processes, with service and quality ranked highly. Typically, Hickory will review products and share information across their site managers so that suppliers that provide consistent, excellent service can be used repeatedly on future projects. This was a key factor in Cox Architecture and Hickory’s selection of Allproof Vision shower channels.

According to Yianni Psihogos, project coordinator at Hickory, Cox Architecture and Hickory have been “dealing with Allproof for a long time and it made sense to use them again especially with the service we get.”

Quality control

Upon being selected, Allproof provided the required installation information along with product training and technical details. Almost 400 shower channels were supplied in phases. Once Hickory completed the tiling in a sequence of rooms, it took measurements

17 and sent them to Allproof.

Allproof manufactured the channels to these measurements, thoroughly checked them through a rigorous quality and assurance process before clearly labelling each channel with its room number or reference before delivering to site for installation.

Victoria and Vine opted for a wall-to-wall channel, however, the aforementioned benefits would also apply to stock channels with the addition of removing lead times and reducing site measures.

The benefit of selecting an established drainage supplier with standardised products over smaller custom fabrication shops is being able to draw on a wide range of tried and tested products. A drainage manufacturer such as Allproof will hold stock in standard sizes and have the production techniques to ensure supply through busy periods of demand.

By selecting suppliers that specialise in specific products, installers can expect the product they receive will be fully compliant, tested to all applicable standards and suitable for use with robust warranties. For example, drainage manufacturers prioritise having an up-to-date understanding of the National Construction Code (NCC), AS/NZ Standards, installation methods and compatible systems.

Victoria & Vine had a specific aesthetic the architect and builder were looking to achieve. A different option to accomplish a modern shower design with a stock channel would be using the tile insert grate. This allows the channel to blend in with the surrounding floor tiles and becomes a very discreet drainage solution. Another solution to reduce construction costs would be to pull the channel off the side walls allowing for floor tiling either side (potentially 50mm). This means a channel can be ordered well in advance as installers aren’t reliant on getting the final tile-to-tile measurement. Additional economy could be found in utilising stock or standard sizes. n