Commercial · Atrium

Commercial Atrium Roof

Project Overview

Daylight Back Over The Arcade

The steel-and-glass atrium over this Wollongong CBD shopping arcade had spent years quietly failing — perished glazing seals, lifted perimeter flashings and box gutters that ponded in heavy rain. Shoppers noticed the buckets before the retailers did. We renewed every glazing seal, re-flashed the full perimeter, rebuilt the drainage falls and re-coated the steelwork, all staged so the arcade never lost a single trading day.

Location: Wollongong CBD, NSW
Scope: Glazing seals, flashings and drainage renewal
Materials: Structural glazing seals, folded flashings, high-build coating
Duration: Six nights of after-hours work

Steel and glass atrium roof over a commercial arcade

Commercial building facade beneath the renewed atrium roof

Challenge & Approach

Leaks Above Shops That Could Never Close

The hard part was never the roofing — it was the roster. Every panel sat directly above trading tenancies, so all overhead work ran overnight with full edge protection, debris netting and a dawn clean that left the arcade spotless by opening time. Our approach: map every leak path with hose testing first, then reseal, re-flash and re-fall in zones so each night's work was independently watertight by sunrise.

We documented each zone with photos for the centre management, re-tested the full atrium under hose before handover, and left a maintenance schedule the cleaners can follow without calling us.

Outcome

Dry Tenancies, Brighter Arcade

The first major downpour after handover sent water exactly where it belongs — into the gutters — and the cleaned glazing lifted daylight across the whole floor.