Mastic asphalt has been successfully used to provide unbeatable protection from water penetration for over 150 years. This incredibly versatile material offers a hand laid, seamless finish other membranes frequently break down from. With a zero-carbon rating it is highly sustainable and totally combustible leaving it top of the fire rating tree in waterproofing.
Mastic asphalt is one of the world’s most traditional construction materials and still continues to develop with the times. Mastic asphalt products comprise of suitably graded limestone and finally course aggregates bound together with refined bitumen and asphaltic cement which produces a dense voidless material, delivered to site in either block form or a hot molten charge transporter.
Recently the material as been re-formulated to include advanced polymers for increased durability combining its traditional strengths with modern technology. Not just simply a roofing material. It is used in various applications including tanking, external and internal carparks and flooring, domestic jobs or hospitals and shops floors and factory floors, highlighting all different grades of asphalt. Until the introduction of NVQs, the mastic asphalt spreader was trained to a 4-5-year city and guides apprenticeship incorporating all the above areas of the trade.
Incredibly, Sir Walter Rayleigh discovered in 1595 while visiting Trinidad and Tobago, the asphalt lake, this black sticky versatile substance he quickly realised this was ideal for caulking cracks that were leaking in his ships.
Mined since 1867, an estimated 100 million tons has been used in that time. Many historic landmarks have mastic asphalt as the waterproofing, for example, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London and even the M25 bridges have mastic asphalt as their waterproofing. No other product on the market gives this amount of variety proving how widely used this invaluable waterproofing is.