Project

• Famous Southern California amusement park’s popular water flume ride featured approximately 20,000 square feet of exterior structural plaster planters which had started to leak.
• Contractor: Don Dancey, Innovative Painting and Waterproofing, 250 N. Orange Avenue, Brea, CA 92821.
• A larger-than-normal, 12-man crew was required to work this job in 12 hour shifts, day and night, to tackle the mountain because when they won the job, they were already behind schedule.

Problems & Challenges

• Innovative did not originally win the bid. The small amount of work performed by the original contractor was sub-par and had to be removed before Innovative could begin their own prep work. They had exactly 2 weeks to accomplish the job.
• Certain areas around the ride’s perimeter were accessible to the public and could only be worked on in off-hours after the park had closed.
• The site itself created hazardous work conditions: applicators had to spray while climbing around large rocks, squeezing into tight crevices, and climbing up and down overhanging “cliffs” and "canyon walls." This meant that all crew members wore full PPE, including 5-point safety harnesses and were tied-off at all times.
• The problem of the leaking planters? As you’ll see, this was an easy solution for the experienced polyurea applicators.

Scope of Work

• Substrate condition was mixed — some new plaster, some old, but it all had to be removed, along with landscaping, soils, failed membrane, and contaminants. This was hand-scraped and/or grinded off using 6066 Heavy Duty 7 grinders from Milwaukee Tools. Surfaces were vacuumed clean with Ridgid 6.5 horsepower industrial vacuums.
• Voids and cavities were filled with Master Builder’s Emaco T-430 (Degussa). All drain and pipe penetrations were caulked with Sonneborn’s NP-1 urethane sealant.
• 1/4" x 1/4" keyway saw cuts/control joints were installed 2” above new soil transitions using WDC.009 Clear Wire Tape from TrimTape.
• Required surfaces were primed with Polycoat’s U-22 100% solids primer using a Graco Reactor E-XP2 plural component proportioner and Fusion spray gun.
• Finished with 2,000 gallons of aromatic polyurea, sprayed to a thickness of 125 mils.
• Installed drain mat protection boards and gravel bags at drains as required.

Site Challenges& Unforeseen Issues

• Biggest site challenge may have been the site itself: the unusual structure turned the coatings crew into mountain climbers — and nighttime mountain climbers at that.
• Although the ride was obviously closed, the park remained open so the crew had to ensure that coatings activities would not impact park guests.
• Strict 2 week deadline actually became an asset.
• Innovative not only came from behind to meet it, they beat it — finishing the 2 week job in just 3 1/2 days! This not only highlighted their incredible teamwork, but also the tremendous time savings offered by polyurea.

Project Status

• Project was completed in 2005 and is still in excellent condition.
• The park learned about the many benefits of polyurea and it has subsequently been specified in a variety of projects on park property.