NBA Stadium Lets It Rain with New Waterproofing

Constructing the new Golden 1 Center

Building the new home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings was complicated. General Contractor Turner Construction was tasked with completing the 17,500- seat, $507 million stadium in less than two years. In addition to the immense scale of the task, the contractor faced the challenge of building an arena that would sit below the water table.

"GCP Applied Technologies works with contractors that perform at a very high level and was able to accept the risk due to the high performing PREPRUFE® Plus product, technical expertise, and global success on similarly critical projects,” said Stuart Hunter, vice president of the Waterproofing division of F.D. Thomas, the regional waterproofing contractor. “We took the lead in making sure the general contractor, concrete subcontractor, rebar subcontractor, and plumbing subcontractor all worked together to meet GCP’s requirements and deliver on the aggressive schedule."

Building in the water table

“Unfortunately, heavy rains just weeks into the stadium construction project left the excavated jobsite under three or four feet of water,” according to Hunter. The stakes were high. The arena was being built below the water table and adjacent to two major river systems, so the stadium owner required a fail-safe below grade waterproofing solution. The Golden 1 Center had to operate dry, period. Once the skies cleared, the pressure was on F.D. Thomas to waterproof 280,000 square feet on time with no delays. F.D. Thomas held pre-job meetings to get all the trades dialed in to support a smooth, efficient installation. 

Leveraging a high performance waterproof membrane

To meet the requirements for operating dry, the contractors used high performance PREPRUFE® Plus waterproofing membrane. The owners especially liked the fact that more than 650 million square feet of PREPRUFE® membrane have been installed worldwide on thousands of high-profile, must-not-fail projects. As Hunter says, “It’s the industry workhorse.”

More than 96 rolls of PREPRUFE® Plus membrane (30,000 square feet) were kicked out in a single day. This allowed F.D. Thomas to shatter all expectations, finishing the stadium construction job on time and on schedule, despite the weather and project challenges.

Turner Construction officials were ecstatic with the waterproofing and the project results.

Today the stadium construction project is open to the public and no below grade leaks have been reported, in spite of historic El Niño rains and a rising water table. To that, Hunter just grins and says, “Let it rain.”

Blue360sm Product Performance Advantage.
Because every project, large or small, deserves the best level of protection.