In the winter of 2015, Larry Mitkus of Righter Group was contacted by Steve Wessling of Wessling Architects for recommendations for One Hampshire Street located in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge MA. The existing precast concrete panels had developed hairline cracks, over the years of freeze thaw exposure in the New England weather. Due to these hairline cracks, wind driven rain was leaking through the façade into the building. Wessling Architects was challenged by the owner to find a material that would be able to bridge these cracks and stop the infiltration of water, while looking great for years to come. Wessling Architects has been working with and specifying Righter Group’s high-performance coatings products for years and knew they were the people to contact for a solution to this problem.

For this project, RD Coatings USA – RD-Elastoflex was recommended as the solution to stop the water from penetrating the building. RD-Elastoflex was selected because it is a breathable, elastomeric, waterbase acrylic, coating system. RD-Elastoflex can be applied by spray, brush or roller. It is very low VOC and very low odor, which was important because the offices would be occupied during the work and the owner could not risk odors getting into the building. RD-Elastoflex has outstanding adhesion to clean sound substrates, remain flexible, prevent penetration of wind driven rain and not fade or chalk noticeably in most colors. RD-Elastoflex will also bridge hairline cracks of 12-20 mils, which was of most importance on this project. The other key factor in selecting the RD-Elastoflex was its perm ratings which is high enough to allow the substrate to breathe, while keep driving rain out of the building.

In the summer of 2015, PJ Spillane Company, Inc. of Everett, MA, a specialty applicator of waterproof coatings, was selected to perform the work. Mike Woessner of Righter Group worked closely with PJ Spillane to provide field mock-ups for adhesion testing and owner approval prior to job start-up. The project lasted approximately 3 months and overall 60,000 square feet of concrete surfaces were coated with RD-Elastoflex. It was a challenging project which made the selection of the right material so important. Today, One Hampshire Street still looks as good as the day it was finished and will provide the owner with many more years of service.