Flat roofs and underground structures often hide the waterproofing membrane under gravel, vegetation, insulation, rooftop equipment or structural layers, so water ingress can remain unnoticed for months. Leaks are typically discovered only after damage to insulation, finishes or structural elements has occurred, making repairs costly, invasive and disruptive.

Current leak-detection options are mostly add-on layers, probes, mats, cabling or wireless devices. They add installation complexity, extra interfaces, power or maintenance needs, and specialist interpretation, while offering limited scalability for standard membrane production and installation. They also rarely provide an auditable link between factory quality, installed location and commissioning evidence needed for warranties, certification or insurer acceptance.

A scalable solution must work within existing high-throughput roll-to-roll membrane manufacturing and standard heat-welding contractor workflows. It must also distinguish real leaks from normal condensation and weather-driven moisture cycles, otherwise false alarms will undermine trust and adoption.

LeakGuard will turn standard bituminous waterproofing membranes into monitored infrastructure assets by embedding a distributed sensing grid directly during roll-to-roll production. Unlike add-on detection systems, the sensor function is integrated into the membrane itself, with no separate sensor layer, batteries or complex installation steps.

The technical approach combines industrial functional printing of conductive grids, 100% in-line electrical quality control and unique roll IDs that link factory data, electrical verification and installed zones. This creates a traceable evidence chain from production to commissioning, enabling signed handover packs for warranty, certification and insurer acceptance.

A grid-powered readout unit will perform once-daily humidity and temperature measurements without batteries. Data will be sent to a secure monitoring platform where analytics and AI distinguish condensation patterns from true water ingress and provide actionable leak localisation, targeting a resolution of 2 × 2 metres with low false-alert rates.

The consortium will develop and industrialise an on-the-fly roll-to-roll printing process for conductive humidity and temperature sensing grids integrated into bituminous waterproofing membranes. The work will target industrial line speeds, repeatable pilot production, high electrical continuity yield and compatibility with curing, winding, heat-welding and normal installation procedures.

The project will implement 100% in-line electrical quality control, defect localisation on the roll, roll-release criteria and unique roll identifiers. Manufacturing parameters, electrical verification data and installation zone mapping will be connected into a traceable evidence chain supporting commissioning reports and warranty handover.

Technical work will also cover seam and roll-joint continuity, waterproof integrity, a grid-powered readout unit for once-daily battery-free measurements, and a secure monitoring platform with analytics and AI models to separate condensation from true water ingress. The system will be validated through pilot manufacturing, field installations on representative roofs and underground structures, and independent durability testing under thermal cycling, standing water and freeze–thaw conditions.

• DIMING d.o.o. — Project coordinator (project coordinator)