What parts of a bakery need waterproofing in Ghana?

The wash-down floor, floor drains and channels, the wall base where trays and equipment are cleaned, the roof over the oven area, and any water storage tank. These are the areas where water, heat and flour residue combine.

Can you waterproof a bakery floor that gets washed every day?

Yes, but the membrane must be protected by a wearing surface such as tiles or a suitable floor topping. A bare coating on a working bakery floor will wear through under trolleys and daily scrubbing.

Does oven heat damage roof waterproofing?

Oven areas push the roof slab hotter than the rest of the building from below, while the sun heats it to around 75°C from above. Polyurethane handles this better than bitumen, which softens above 55°C. Flue penetrations need dedicated detailing.

How long does bakery waterproofing last?

The polyurethane membrane has a 20-year design life. Fest Ghana gives a 3-year workmanship warranty and the manufacturer a 3-year material warranty. Floors under heavy traffic depend on their protective topping.

Bakery Waterproofing in Ghana 2026: Floors, Drains & Roofs

October 26, 2026

A bakery in Ghana needs waterproofing at the wash-down floor and drains, the wall base, the roof over the ovens and the water tank. Daily washing, oven heat and flour residue that turns to paste in water make bakeries harder on buildings than most shops. Use polyurethane under a protective tiled or topped floor, fleece-reinforced detailing at drains and flues, and keep bitumen away from hot roofs.

Why bakeries are hard on buildings

Daily wash-down. Floors are wet every day, often with hot water and detergent. Any gap at the floor drain or wall base is used every day.
Flour plus water. Flour washed into a drain becomes a paste that blocks channels. A blocked channel overflows against the wall base, which is where most bakery damp starts.
Heat from below and above. The roof over the oven room gets heat from inside while the sun takes the surface to around 75°C. The slab moves more than in a normal room, which opens cracks.
Hygiene inspection. Damp walls, flaking paint and mould near production areas are exactly what food hygiene inspectors and customers notice.

Area-by-area specification

Area	Problem	Recommended approach
Production floor	Daily wash-down, trolleys	PU membrane under tiles or a hard floor topping, turned up the walls at least 150 mm
Floor drains and channels	Blockage, overflow, joint movement	Fleece-reinforced collar and channel lining; add a flour trap
Roof over ovens	Thermal movement, flue penetrations	2-coat PU on the field (GHS 80-130/m²); fleece at flues and upstands
Concrete water tank	Leaks, hygiene risk	Cementitious crystalline system with a PU top-coat where appropriate — see the honest note below
Store room walls	Damp spoils flour and sugar stock	Find the source first — rising damp, roof leak or plumbing

An honest note on water tanks

We will waterproof a concrete water tank and we have done many, but we do not hold — and will not claim — drinking-water certification for the products we supply. If your process water touches the product you sell, ask your supplier for written food-contact or drinking-water approval for whatever is going inside that tank, from anyone bidding for the work including us. A contractor who waves that question away is the one to worry about.

The cheapest fix comes first

Before you pay for any floor waterproofing, fit or clean a flour trap at each floor drain and make cleaning the trap part of the closing routine. A large share of bakery "floor leaks" are overflowing drains. That costs very little and we would rather you tried it first.

Plan around production

Most bakeries can't close for a week. We phase the work: roof first (no production disruption), then the floor in sections over planned closures or Sundays. Polyurethane needs curing time between coats and before tiles go down, so each floor section needs a short shutdown. The roof should be done in the dry season.

Fleece where it earns its cost

Fleece-reinforced PU (GHS 180-280/m²) bridges cracks up to about 3 mm instead of about 0.3 mm. It is worth specifying around drains, flues and wall junctions, where movement is concentrated. It is not worth specifying across a sound roof field — it shares the same 20-year design life as standard 2-coat PU and roughly doubles the cost.

Material and warranty

Plan on 1 kg of coating per square metre across two coats. The 5kg Polyurethane Coating (GHS 500) covers 10 m² on one coat, so 5 m² finished with two coats; the 10kg (GHS 1,000) finishes 10 m². One coat is not waterproofing. For active water at a wall base, Plugging King (GHS 100) stops it so the wall can be treated.

Installed by Fest Ghana: 3-year workmanship warranty, 3-year manufacturer material warranty, 20-year design life. The warranty is when we come back at our cost; the design life is how long the membrane is engineered to perform.

Book a bakery survey

We'll survey outside production hours. Book online or call 0555 548 001.

Related Resources

Fest Ghana Limited is the trading name of FGL Waterproofing Solution Limited Company, a company registered in Ghana — Registration No. CS218171026. Company information.

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