Speciality Chemicals for Smart Construction

Changing climatic conditions, emerging regulatory standards, increasing awareness and demand for quality construction has led to adoption of newer technologies in the construction chemicals and waterproofing space. Prajakta Karnik explores the readiness of the industry to meet the environment related challenges as well as the advancements achieved so far.

Any construction requires strength, which can be achieved by using effective building materials and speciality chemicals. Construction chemicals have always played a pivotal role in increasing the strength and durability along with giving longevity to the structures. These products are used for wide applications including concrete modification, waterproofing, as well as for rehabilitation and repair of structures.

Construction chemicals are used with cement, concrete or other materials during the time of construction. Different types of construction chemicals are used for coating, surface application, and repair materials, which include concrete admixtures, concrete curing compound, polymer bonding agents, protective and decorative agents, water repellents, adhesives, sealants and caulks and epoxy grouts, among others.

In India, major construction chemical business comes through projects and infrastructure development with an estimated contribution of Rs 5500 crore and the balance Rs 3500 crore from retail consumer segment, observed Nirmalaya Kumar, General Manager (Construction Chemicals), Berger Paints India.

"Major growth opportunities lies in mega and semi infrastructure projects in government and private sectors. CPWD, PWD, MES, NHAI, hydel power and tunnel projects are likely to contribute the most. In case of private sector, after implementation of RERA norms, demand for construction chemicals is increasing rapidly to take care of warranted quality and life of construction. Green building norms add to this incremental demand with its usage in heat reflecting and insulating systems," he said.

Fundamentals

Used by the construction and civil repair industry, these speciality chemicals help enhance concrete strength, quality, workability and durability, provide water-tightness and protect concrete structures from atmospheric degradation.

Increasing demand for public, commercial and residential buildings combined with government spends on constructing roads, bridges, tunnels and dams are driving the construction chemicals market.

According to Kuldip Grover, Project Director, Turner Project Management India, the user interfacing of value accomplishment of any civil construction is proportional to the sense of protection against the elements.

"The water tightness of the structures built through human endeavor, be it a simple dwelling unit or complex infrastructural constructions, has been a key factor for historic evolvement of the building technologies. The correct choice of an appropriate waterproofing solution for each specific location suiting the performance expectation is extremely critical. Specific technologies for checking water-ingression based on creation of physical barriers, both rigid and flexible, have successively evolved, and more complex chemical waterproofing systems are available to the engineers today," he noted.

Explaining further, Grover said, the right stage, system, correct application methodology and proactive supervision are fundamental ingredients for ensuring a complete waterproofing solution.

"For ensuring the delivery of performing parameters, longevity of the construction and customer satisfaction, especially when modern construction techniques based on RCC and structural steel have their vulnerability for exposure to moisture, the choice of correct water proofing solution is the most vital decision for any Civil Engineer. This makes a critical difference between categorization of a project in the list of successful and not so successful deliveries," he added.

Sumit Dhawan, Founder & Principal Architect, Cityspace'82 Architects observed that modern-day chemical waterproofing systems have almost become a mandate that is replacing traditional construction and waterproofing techniques.

"Traditional waterproofing techniques create hindrances with respect to maintenance and durability. Even with the new technologies, one has to select the right type of compound. This allows a lot of flexibility in the construction of the building. Unusable spaces like the basement (or any other room with problems of water seepage) can be converted into semi-habitable spaces with the help of waterproofing techniques," he added.

Santhosh M Prakash, VP (Product Management), Mapei India, also noted that construction of a smart city calls for the latest technologies in building keeping in mind the variables like sustainability, livability, social inclusiveness, and efficiency.

"Use of construction chemicals will not only give life to the structures but also avoid future problems and give longevity to the structure. Construction materials with easy and faster application with required durability has become the need of the hour now. Mapei with its innovative approach and strong technical back up offers a wide range of value added products," he added.

Solutions & Technologies

The waterproofing market is dominated by pre-formed waterproofing membranes, liquid applied waterproofing membranes, integral waterproofing and penetrative technology. Liquid applied waterproofing polyurethane and polyurea and pre-formed membranes like HDPE/SBS/TPO/PVC are high-end technologies and are driven by specifications.

"These technologies are primarily being used in infrastructure projects, institutional projects and high end commercial/real estate projects and so the use is more limited to metro-cities and big cities. Technologies like integral waterproofing, polymer-based waterproofing, APP membranes, etc. takes away the major share of waterproofing market due to their cost economics, easy application, low application cost and easy availability. Construction chemical manufacturers should focus on R&D to provide sustainable construction solutions in terms of life expectancy, easy application and low cost. The users expect a high-performance waterproofing at low cost and the trick is to select the correct waterproofing technology considering the site conditions, structure & usage," Himanshu Agrawal, President, Tiki Tar Danosa India said.

According to Prakash, construction materials with easy and faster application with required durability has become the need of the hour now.

"Mapei with its innovative approach and strong technical back up offers a wide range of value added products. We have introduced a range of products like Dynamon SX, compacting concrete that ensures water reduction along with high mechanical strength; and Mapeplast CNI, a corrosion inhibiting admixture that enables significant improvement in concrete durability, extends lifetimes and decreases cost of maintenance and repairs. Apart from this, we also have products like Aquaflex Roof HR , a heat resistant coating that helps lower the working temperature of roofs and guarantees good energy performance; Mapelastic Aquadefense that creates fasttrack liquid waterproofing membrane and Ultralite S2, a high performance light weight adhesive," he said.

Explaining the importance of using the right solutions, Nitin Salunkhe, Co-Founder & Director, Sugee Group said, "It is crucial to adopt advanced solutions, especially in the weather conditions that Mumbai has. While our old solutions were adapted to construct low-rise buildings, adopting new solutions has decreased the duration of the waterproofing operations from 21/25 days to almost 7 days, thus allowing us to increase the construction speed."

He further stated that since the management at Sugee is very cognizant of the quality that is delivered, to maintain that, we have a quality control department lead a team of experts and have our own SOP's for each building that we construct which includes waterproofing operations.

"All the waterproofing contractors have to follow the activity method statement prepared by the quality control (QC) team. The implementation of the same is ensured through a detailed checklist by the engineering / QC team. We have also gone through independent laboratory tests for various waterproofing materials/chemicals best suited for construction and have finalised a set of an approved material list which is now used by our waterproofing contractors for the best results," Salunkhe added.

However, some industry experts noted that India has always been risk averse to the introduction and adaption of technology when it comes to the traditional construction industry.

"Global construction sites have already introduced a large number of IoT based construction solutions that is the need of the hour for the Indian market to increase efficiency, transparency and to reduce man-power at site given the pandemic. CICO continues to invest in bringing such technologies to the India market and pushing for its adaption in the market. The construction chemical industry is unique in its way of having several stakeholders in the decision making chain, with different expectations from the each stakeholder group. Managing and delivering on each of these different needs remains the key differentiator in an extremely fragmented market with a large number of players," Abhiroop Gupta, Managing Director, CICO Technologies said.

From design and durability aspect, Dhawan observed that new construction chemicals are playing an important role when talking about cladding or flooring.

"Grouting of stones and tiles also leads to fluctuations in the scope of the project. If we still use wet mortar and cement grouts for the waterproofing, it can lead to major issues for the building. Modern-day chemicals increase the lifespan of the stone without leaving any marks, and there is no absorption from the backside of the stone. So at the end of the day, I think that modern waterproofing techniques result in a much better and improvised aesthetic value for a building, especially for cladding or flooring. Epoxies, draughts, and other new systems are replacing PET mortar or cement grouts, and they are much easier to use," he noted.

 According to Kumar, in terms of products, concrete related chemicals and waterproofing products are more in demand. For high grade concreting, basement waterproofing and roof waterproofing construction chemical demands are increasing, while polyurethane system, polyurea system are popular among the project customers, whereas cementitious coating system is still popular among retail consumers.

"In terms of application, more mechanized ways  are being tried out to reduce man power involvement and save on project cost and time. With the advancement of technology. Even robotics are being used and are slated to play an important role in product application in future. Consumer's demand is moving towards scientific waterproofing along with warranty. Diagnosis of actual problem using moisture meter, thermal imaging, IR technology and then prescription based system application are in demand," Kumar said.

He further said that Berger Home Shield in last few years launched a number of innovative products like waterproof putty, Damp Stop and Damp Shield Elasto to cater to growing demand for innovative high performance products.

Challenges

According to Agarwal there are many challenges that are influencing the market growth of the waterproofing sector and are also denying the end-customer the right of having a watertight quality structure. Some of them are-

• There are no standards (codes) and regulations by government. Lack of such codes and stringent regulations makes it difficult to specify a minimum standard criterion for the performance of waterproofing products. This has led to many substandard products/systems in the market leading to failures of the waterproofing system and the customers losing faith in waterproofing.
• Lack of proper detailed specifications by influencers does not allow easy market penetration for high performance products. The contractors/installers push products with high margins for them though the performance may not be as desired.
• The Indian waterproofing market is flooded with import products due to cost considerations. Manufacturing in India is costlier due to smaller scale of production, high cost or unavailability of local raw materials, etc. Import costs gets affected due to forex fluctuations and these import products do not reach the length and breadth of India's geography making it difficult for the waterproofing market to expand significantly.
• No incentives by government for R&D discourages manufacturers to pump in money for R&D and develop value added products that would use locally available or manufactured raw materials.
• Absence of quality skilled applicators is a primary cause of failure of waterproofing systems. Proper skillset training and certification is required for applicators so that the waterproofing systems are installed with proper detailing and as per good engineering practices.

Echoing similar views, Kumar said, "Low awareness among the consumer segment is a challenge. Even today in most mid/small size projects construction chemicals are not in use. IS standard is also not followed in many cases. In few cases, imported materials are cheaper than domestic products and this creates problem for the industries. Also, there is scarcity of proper trained applicators in the market and because of this application cost is high."

Covid Impact

Construction Industry in India accounts for almost 8% of its GDP. The ongoing second wave of Covid-19 is expected to cause some disruptions in the overall construction activity in the country.

Last year, the waterproofing and construction chemical market was severely impacted during and post lockdown. While construction was one of the earlier industries to open, labour shortages on sites kept demand quite tepid. However from Q3, the pent up demand started to come through, with both Q3 and Q4 showing a year on year growth.

With the second wave of Covid-19 in India – which is much more dreadful than the first – the market sentiments are however dipping again. The raw material prices of all construction chemicals have shot up by 15-35%; the migrant labour force in India are heading back to their native place leading to huge scarcity of construction workforce and the labour cost has risen by 15-25%. 

On the other hand, many of the real estate projects are stalled due to escalating cost or negative sentiments and it has to be seen for how long the governments can keep cashflow to the infrastructure projects where the priority has become healthcare now.

"Animal spirits continued to remain high with a gambit of new infrastructure project announcements and well as certain real estate policies that led to inventory liquidation. While the second wave has put a damper to this, I do not expect to see a massive correction due to the localised nature of the lockdowns. Moreover labour migration has been curtailed this time round as well. Therefore to summarise, what looked like and even felt like a catastrophic economic impact of Covid-19 for the construction chemical industry bounced back much faster than expected and that too at levels that could not have been imagined post the March 2020 lockdown announcement," Gupta said.

Echoing similar views, Agarwal said though situation looks difficult at the moment, but India is a country that has always defied demographic models and trends. There may be some period of uncertainty, but the construction industry will be back on its feet again, sooner than later.

"Last one year had been a year of consolidation of the construction chemical industry in India with several mergers and acquisitions. This is a good sign for the things to come for India and for the construction chemical Industry," he added.

Kumar noted that Covid 19 has influenced the business and it is true for every segment, however, in case of construction jobs, though work is suspended for some time due to the restrictions, pent-up demands come once things are settled down as it is an inevitable activity under any circumstances.

"While speed of the job does get hampered as crisis of labour shoot-up in Covid situation, the poor consumer sentiment, lock-down, liquidity issue definitely create temporary problems for business during such times," he added.

Conclusion

Waterproofing and construction chemical industry as whole currently has a market size of around Rs 7000-8000 crore and is growing at a CAGR of 9-10% in the last 5 years. Over the past 5 years the awareness regarding the importance of use of construction chemicals has significantly increased, this has led to a healthy growth in the segment.

Of this, concrete admixtures leads the market with a 36% share, with waterproofing and flooring the other leading product segments at 12% and 10% respectively. The balance share is taken by protective coatings, adhesives, sealants, repairs, grouts & anchors, cement grinding aids & surface treatment.

"The waterproofing market, currently pegged at around Rs 840 crore, is witnessing a higher growth rate of CAGR 11-12%. It is estimated that the waterproofing sector in year 2025 would be at nearly Rs 1480 crore. The growth in this sector is being propelled by huge demand in real estate and investments in infrastructure. A very large number of ongoing and upcoming airport projects, metro-rail projects, high speed rail and rapid rail transit projects, transport tunnels, institutional and hospital projects, etc. are expected to drive the growth of construction chemicals where waterproofing has a major stake," Agarwal said.

According to Gupta, the current financial year however would show growths of upwards of 12% given the lower base of the previous year due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

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