Secondary containment areas are bunded areas designed to contain any spillages of oils, chemicals or pollutants from their primary containment tanks or vessels. This is in order to protect the soil and the groundwater from pollution, which is an increasing demand following the legislation of governments and other authorities to protect the environment.
There are two main requirements for protective coating systems in these secondary containment areas: Firstly to waterproof the structures to protect the soil and groundwater. Secondly, as many of these chemical materials are also aggressive to the concrete and reinforcement steel that the
structures are built from, the secondary containment structures themselves must also be protected, in order to prevent any damage or even loss of structural integrity.
Based on our extensive experience of handling many different kinds of chemicals, i.e. acids, alkalis, oils and solvents, Sika has led the development of many specialist epoxy and other resin based coating systems to waterproof and protect secondary containment structures, so that they can fulfil their function. As required and in accordance with some national and International standards, many of these Sika systems also have defined crack-bridging properties and their chemical resistance has been fully tested against the various different chemicals that they are to be used to resist and keep contained.
