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During early April 2021, there were consistent storm and rain events which resulted in flooding in many areas of NSW. Our building had steady rain with strong winds from the Northeast. Initially, it seemed that our building survived the storms, but within days water ingress was apparent in the Level 4 hallway and in Unit 19. The gyprock ceilings in both locations were saturated and quickly developed mold.
The photo below is from the main bedroom of Unit 19. 
The strata committee arranged for an inspection hole to be cut into the Unit 19 ceiling and another in the Level 4 hallway. Both holes were later covered with a plastic vent grill. The Unit 19 water ingress appears to be coming from flashing along the emergency stairwell wall above the roof; and from the surface of the roof in the former BBQ area. The water ingress in the hallway does not have an obvious path and could be associated with any of a number of roof penetrations (e.g. roof drain under lift motor room gangway, water pipes from hot water heaters, or a fractured hob).
The photo below is our buildings roof with the former BBQ area shown in solid white colour. 
In late 2018, the former strata committee arranged for roof resurfacing. Pricing was received by two contractors with similar but different scopes of work. Armourtech provided a quote of $199,800 and excluded certain work which may have been required. Hydex provided a quote of $75,900 without exclusions and was approximately 62% less than the Armourtech quote. It is unclear why the former strata committee selected the extremely lower quote other than for the very low price.
It does not appear that a contract was signed with Hydex, but perhaps the work by Hydex was engaged by a simple work order from the Strata Manager referencing the Hydex quote. The Hydex quote does not provide any guarantee or warranty, but Home Building Compensation Fund (HBCF) insurance was provided by Hydex and is currently registered with iCare. Unfortunately, a claim cannot be made through HBCF unless the contractor is bankrupt or disappears. And without a formal contract, it may be difficult to cause Hydex to undertake full remedial work. However, the strata committee has met with Hydex on the roof; and Doug (Hydex manager) indicated his goodwill intent to start evaluating the circumstances. The original Hydex scope of work was:
The strata committee has made visual observations of the conditions of the roof and it appears that the Hydex work was poorly conducted. These observations were made in consultation with a remedial builder, a roofing specialist and a sealant manufacturer with the following concerns highlighted:
The photos below were recently taken on the roof beyond the former BBQ area. The strata committee has the following elements underway to develop a remedial strategy for the roof:
4 May 2021 Update Attached below is a condition report from Sika Australia Pty Ltd (a waterproofing and roofing specialist) documenting observations during a 19 April 2021 visit of the roof at 42 Victoria Parade. 
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10 May 2021 Update Hi Steve B and the SC I've been enjoying my SP34151 SC retirement, but today I had a couple owners asking me about the roof. I referred them to y'all and the blog. I am quite busy at the moment with other stuff, but I will get some free time later in the week to compile information transfer. Last week when I first met with Doug from Hydex, I showed him the problems with the flashing work he did; and I suggested that he do some flood tests in some other areas. However, I did not go through all the problems with the earlier Hydex roof work as I wanted to preserve his goodwill intent. A couple days later, he called me to join him to set up some flood tests. I suggested the potential areas and left him with Geoff. I understand that some minimal efforts have been proposed by Hydex for the hot water heater penetrations and the roof access door jam. The problem is that quick patches may appear to work, but the same weather conditions that led to the leaks may not reappear for years while the pathways for water ingress remain unresolved. The leak associated with the flood test around the hot water heaters may only be associated with the flood test itself, and not the original storm cause. It is good to have those penetrations sealed, but it may not be the only problem. There is flashing in that area and there is a fractured hob that may also be candidates for water ingress. A carefully executed flood test would have used water in all suspect areas with different colouring for each suspected area. The roof access door jam may be a pathway for water ingress into the cavity, but properly installed flashing should have the ends boxed in and sealant applied all around. There are most likely problems with the flashing in a number of areas [note: the original Hydex scope was to replace 14 metres of flashing]. My biggest concern is that Hydex completes a couple quick patches and is not held accountable for the poor work across the entire roof conducted a couple years ago. In addition to the current leaks, I suspect that other areas of the roof may have problems in the coming years due to the work done by Hydex. I strongly encourage that SP34151 hold Hydex fully accountable for the deficient work and damage due to that work. A while back, I had a remedial builder (RFRB), a sealant manufacturer (Sika), and a synthetic membrane specialist (Omar) join me for a roof inspection. Sika wrote a report on some observations. The report was attached to the 'Roof Leak' blog post [42vp.blog] before the AGM. The report is focused on the roof sealant and application and potential solution considerations. The blog post I wrote summarises the discussion with the remedial builder, sealant manufacturer, and synthetic membrane specialist. Of course, they have their interests in the exercise, but so does Hydex. The flashing which is not mentioned in the report was very poorly done by Hydex, and discussions with Doug from Hydex gave the impression that flashing is outside Hydex competency. SC - Please contact me to arrange a time for us to meet on the roof so I may show you particular issues from the report and the blog post. Regards Ed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 19 May 2021 Update As noted above:
A concrete scarifier is a very aggressive tool when preparing a concrete surface and should only be used when the surface will have a thick surface coating such as screed before a thin coat sealant. It does not appear that any thick surface coating had been applied. The images below is a concrete scarifier and the existing condition of our roof due to the probable use of a concrete scarifier.
I am currently involved with another roof where surface preparation is underway. This other roof is having the concrete surface prepared with concrete grinders which are much less aggressive than a concrete scarifier. The images below are of the concrete grinder and of the concrete surface after preparation. Note the concrete surface at the other roof does not have the deep grooves and gouges that we have on our roof.
The concrete surface after using a concrete grinder is much more suitable for thin coat sealant. The video below shows a concrete scarifier in use with the presenter advising against using a concrete scarifier when a thin coat surface is used.
It appears that large areas of our roof has a thin coat sealant over a coarse surface created by a concrete scarifier resulting in highly variable sealant thicknesses across our roof.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 July 2021 Update Water has leaked again into the main bedroom of Unit 4. The owner of Unit 4 has tried some water ingress tests including testing the flashing (along lower bricks of external wall) which was repaired a couple years ago. With that test, no water ingress was observed. Later, I observed that the flashing above the entryway to the building had some suspect flashing. See the photos below which indicate that the flashing has some problems:
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10/4/2025 18:12:32
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