Serious Protection for Water Reservoir Mural

The Point Cartwright Water Reservoir stands proudly on the headland in the Beacon Lighthouse Reserve in Buddina, Queensland. It has the scale and visual impact to be an iconic art piece, so in 2016, Unitywater, the region’s water and wastewater services provider, had it painted. The artists, The Brightsiders, spent 20 days and 400 litres of paint creating a stunning mural that was seen by passing ships and admired by locals and tourists. Then in 2022, the mural was in need of a refresh.

Site inspection, specification and ongoing support

Dulux® Protective Coatings Trade Specialist, James Booth attended the site to discuss options with lead contractor, Scott McLady.

“We explored how best to approach the repairs and repaint,” James explains. “The scope was a full removal of the coating system back to concrete, then repaint with a coating system that would offer adhesion, opacity and graffiti protection. A specification was drawn up and we provided ongoing technical and product support until the project was completed.”

Delivering adhesion, opacity and graffiti protection

A multi-product solution enabled the mural to be renewed and protected for the long term.

Step 1: Firstly, the concrete was stripped back and thoroughly cleaned out. Cracks, gouges and other imperfections were filled with Dulux® Luxepoxy® Filler was used to fill cracks and defects in concrete, preparing the structure for upcoming sealers and coatings.

Step 2: Dulux® Luxepoxy® Sealer was applied at a thickness of 40-microns (µm) to penetrate the concrete and effectively seal it to allow greater adhesion of subsequent coatings.

Step 3: Dulux® Acratex® Acrashield® Advance was applied at 75-microns (µm) to create a finishing barrier coat with a paint-like appearance.

Step 4: The repair strategy created the ideal surface for the artists to return to site and repaint the mural ‘Subsurface’ – an underwater scene of a whale, turtle and fish in vivid colours.

Step 5: To protect the artwork, two 45-micron (µm) coats of Dulux® SurfaceShield® FP Satin were applied. This clear coating is a two-component, non- sacrificial, water borne fluoropolymer that can withstand repeated use of graffiti removal agents.

“DuluxGroup® offered a one stop shop for the applicator,” James says. “From stripping using Dumond® and concrete repair with Fosroc® options, all the way through to a full Dulux® Protective Coatings system, we were able to provide a complete high quality solution.”