What black cotton soil does to a building
The dark soils that make the Guntur region good chilli, cotton and tobacco country are expansive. They shrink and crack open in the dry months and swell when the rain returns. A house or apartment block standing on that ground rises and settles slightly with the seasons, and the movement does not spread evenly. It concentrates at the plinth, at wall corners, at the junction between old and new construction, and where the terrace meets the parapet.
Add Guntur's climate, with summers in the mid-40s and most of the rain between July and October, plus cyclonic bursts in October and November, and you get a building that is both moving and being heated and soaked in turn.
Where Guntur buildings usually leak
- Cracks along the parapet-to-terrace joint, which open and close with the seasons and let water into the top-floor walls.
- Diagonal cracks at window and door corners and at wall junctions, which let driven rain into the wall.
- Cracks at the plinth and ground-floor walls, which can let ground moisture rise.
- Large godown and cold storage roofs serving the chilli trade, where the sheet joints and the parapet junction fail before the middle of the roof does.
- Shaded walls built close to the neighbour's, which stay damp because they never get sun.
Why a coating alone does not last here
A rigid coating laid over a terrace with moving cracks will crack again along the same lines, often within a season or two. In Guntur, terrace waterproofing and crack treatment have to be done together. Cracks are cut open into a V-groove, cleaned, filled, and sealed with a flexible sealant that can take the movement; cracks that run through the slab are pressure grouted to their full depth. Only then do the coats go on. That is the order we follow everywhere, set out in our six-step method, but in Guntur the crack work is often the bigger part of the job.
Treating cracked walls
On walls, a crack filled with cement putty and painted over usually reappears. Structural cracks need to be assessed first; surface and plaster cracks that carry rain into the wall are opened, filled with a flexible filler and finished so they can move without splitting the paint. See wall crack repair. Where the wall has already taken in water, it has to dry before it is re-plastered and painted, covered on wall dampness treatment.
Best time for the work in Guntur
January to May. Crack treatment works best when the cracks are open and dry, which in Guntur means the hot months, and the coats then have dry weather to cure before July. If your building is already leaking in the rains, book the inspection now; grouting and urgent repairs can be done, and the full coating can follow in the dry season.
Getting a site visit in Guntur
Guntur is about an hour from our base in Poranki, across the Krishna via Tadepalli and Mangalagiri, and within our 60 km free visit area. We regularly work in Brodipet, Arundelpet, Lakshmipuram, Kothapet and Nallapadu. On the visit we check the terrace, trace the cracks inside and out, and give you a written scope. More on our Guntur page and the dedicated terrace waterproofing in Guntur page.