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Crowning
Achievement--HORIZONTAL COLORSEAL Serves and Protects a Precious
Dome |
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Clinton
County, Ohio: Seven years ago,
the stunning plaster interior of the dome of the Clinton County
Courthouse was under attack--from water. Previous attempts to seal the
dome using traditional caulk and backer-rod materials and methods had
failed to provide a lasting solution. |
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The dome is clad in natural stone. Each slab abuts the next at a
joint. The joints vary in width all over the dome. The joint
sizes range from as small as 1/4" (6mm) to as large as 1 1/4" (30mm).
This variation has made sealing the dome a challenge for traditional
caulk and backer-rod. Installation methods for this technology
rely on the tooling in the field of a difficult "hour-glass" geometry
in order to ensure the proper functioning of the material.
Caulk or "liquid sealant" materials then rely on adhesion to the
substrate for proper performance. This adhesion, when placed under
even small amounts of tension is seldom reliable in the long-term. |
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Even in small sizes,
EMSEAL's HORIZONTAL COLORSEAL features the best characteristics of
liquid sealants while eliminating all of their shortcomings.
The material exposed to
the weather is a factory-controlled and cured bellows of low-modulus
silicone. It is backed by an acrylic-impregnated foam that
provides non-invasive anchoring to the stone substrate through adhesion
and through compression in
the foam matrix. A small corner-bead of silicone between the
silicone bellows and stone further ensures watertightness. The
corner-bead, because of the backpressure of the foam, is never in
tension and therefore suffers no adhesion loss as in the caulk and
backer-rod option. |
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The operations crew are
delighted with the results. The dome hasn't leaked in 7-plus
years. This means that leak-chasing mops and buckets have been
replaced by rakes and garden tools in pursuit of keeping the grounds
looking neat and tidy. Case closed. |
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