March 19, 2018

Roofclad Systems Expand into Yorkshire

Roofclad Systems, Birtley-based specialists in the design and installation of roofing and cladding systems, are planning to expand into Yorkshire with the creation of an office and warehouse in Leeds. The new base will allow the company to get firmer foothold in the North of England and Yorkshire areas. Its

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BDC 321 : Oct 2024

March 19, 2018

Roofclad Systems Expand into Yorkshire

Roofclad Systems, Birtley-based specialists in the design and installation of roofing and cladding systems, are planning to expand into Yorkshire with the creation of an office and warehouse in Leeds. The new base will allow the company to get firmer foothold in the North of England and Yorkshire areas. Its turnover is set to exceed £6 million and it has more than 50 full-time staff. Over the last year, Roofclad has continue to pick up a number of major roofing contracts in the Yorkshire area, with the most recent one being a £250,000 roofing contract for Rosti at Stamford Bridge. “We get a lot of enquiries from Yorkshire and beyond which, until now, we have serviced from our base in the North East, so it just makes sense to set up an office further South,” said Alex Tilley, managing director. The new office will offer Roofclad 900 sq ft office space and 2,500 sq ft warehouse space. “The office is in a far better location than our Birtley base in terms of its access to motorways, being located south of Leeds and near the M62/M1 corridors and it is also big enough to give us scope for future expansion,” explained Alex. Speaking of the future, Alex added: “We are committed to creating new jobs – starting with a contracts manager, an office administrator/secretary and some direct operatives, which we hope to appoint in the not so distant future, depending on new projects coming in.” Roofclad has completed several contracts in the area, including one at Matthew Charlton in Hexham for a roof-over cladding contract, new build works at Bridge End Industrial Estate in Hexham that involved a new roof and wall cladding and a felting contract for Newcastle City Council at Hawthorn Primary School.

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Mastic Asphalt Council Hosts Event to Celebrate the Use of Mastic Asphalt in Modern Construction

Mastic asphalt is a “highly relevant” building material for today, industry movers and shakers were advised at a lunch event hosted by the Mastic Asphalt Council (MAC) to celebrate the use of the product in modern construction.   Green architect and TV presenter Charlie Luxton spoke to more than 40 architects and contractors in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral where mastic asphalt was used on the refurbishment of the dome gallery. At the event he told the audience he was using mastic asphalt on the construction of his own home. Specifically on the build of a complex stair detail where the stairs descend through a flower bed. Mastic asphalt was used to form stairs, upstands, sumps and drainage outlets – a “hugely complex 3D object,” according to Charlie.   “This is what mastic asphalt can offer – waterproofing, a durable surface, even a decorative finish,” he said.   “In some ways mastic asphalt might be perceived as an old fashioned building material. But there is a reason it has been around so long. Many of you probably don’t even think about it as relevant to you in modern practice but like many long-lasting, tried and tested materials it is being re-imagined and modified and re-examined as a highly relevant building material for today.”   When introduced by MAC chairman Keith Collins, Charlie admitted: “When asked to do this talk I was relieved because sometimes I’m asked to talk on things I know nothing about, and more importantly have no opinion about. But in this case I am a paid-up member of the mastic asphalt fan club.”   Building his own house has become a journey to embrace re-imagined older materials.   “Increasingly as I detail my buildings I am looking always for the most robust way of achieving beautiful finishes. Mastic asphalt is tough, with a long life span, and repairable. If the integrity of the covering is compromised or if you want alter and make changes to the building over time you can easily repair with it and this makes it eminently suitable for the realities of building,” said Charlie.   At the event, Charlie referred to the environmental credentials of mastic asphalt.   “Mastic asphalt is 100% recyclable and inherently efficient to install. It has been an eye opener on my build recently. The mastic asphalt guys used what they needed and took back what they didn’t, to reheat and reuse. No waste at all. Many alternative materials such as complex multi-layered roof membranes can be incredibly difficult to recycle and this is not likely to change anytime soon. We need to reduce waste first. Waste during build is hard to control but waste before installation is a huge issue too, with 10% of materials coming to building sites leaving in a skip,” he said.   Guests at the MAC lunch were advised by Charlie to try to use more simple, less refined, inert products like wood fibres, lime and timber.   “Because well-installed, you know deep down they will last hundreds of years. For me, mastic asphalt sits right up with that group of materials. It is very inert and through the work that MAC and the industry has done, carbon neutral. All of which is a huge achievement.”   Passionate about sustainable architecture since he was a fresh-faced student in the early 90s, Charlie said urban areas, suburbia and gardens are all oases of bio-diversity and to support this green roofs played a huge role.   “I used to be sniffy about green roofs in the countryside but increasingly we are looking at their role to provide habitat. In towns they reduce the heat island effect, reduce particulates and provide much-needed wildlife refuges as well as reduce solar gain and control temperature fluctuation through the thermal mass they can provide.   “The big issue with green roofs is longevity and robust construction. Mastic asphalt with its longevity and robust nature is a great material for these green roofs. Buried under a few hundred millimeters of soil the life span of mastic should be impressive.”   Guests at the MAC lunch were also treated to Charlie’s personal take on skills shortages. “The big issue is getting people who know how to install systems and materials well, whether it be MVHR, EDPM or tape and fill plasterboard. In principle they are all good but installed wrong they become a huge problem.   “I am increasingly aware of just how much time site issues can cost a practice. You can be very disciplined and smart through the design stage, planning, detailing and 95% of construction just to lose your hard-won profit when an installation goes wrong and you get into the quagmire of the blame game.   “Specifying robust materials that have a guaranteed level of craft from the people fitting them, especially when it comes to roofs, can be invaluable. Watching the team install the mastic asphalt on my own build was fascinating. Seeing 15-20 mm of the black stuff going down and being sculpted into a stair and upstand was incredible.”   And on value-engineering.   “It’s about accepting that buildings have to last a long time. We need to be thinking about finishes that last 100 years, not 20. To need minimum maintenance over the long term. Clearly this has a cost implication but to fully understand this we need to think in terms of life cycle cost not just installation cost. And the life cycle cost of mastic asphalt is much lower than its competitors.”   As well as its robustness and longevity, Charlie said he also specified mastic asphalt for his own home for its versatility.   “It’s a material that can be a roof finish, a floor finish, deal with the complexities of stairs, is robust enough to be the stair finish itself, even in my case if just while construction is in process, and can then take a screw being dropped on it and trampled into the surface again, again

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SPRINKLER WEEK STARTS WITH A MAJOR BUILDING FIRE – WHY DON’T WE LEARN?

This week is Sprinkler Week and it is ironic that the week starts with the announcement of a massive fire in Daventry that saw the total destruction of a 400,000 square foot warehouse – a warehouse that was only a matter of months old. Built at a cost of over £15million and designed with sustainability in mind (it achieved the global sustainability standard, BREEAM), it begs the question, why were sprinklers not included? To top it off, the week also ends with yet another fire at a builders merchants in Brighton. The issue with fire is that all too often we think it won’t happen to us and when it does it is too late to do anything about it. We also don’t always appreciate the impact it can have – but inconvenience is something that we are all too quick to react to. It was only a few weeks ago that many of us were struggling with the snow. When schools close due to bad weather for a couple of days it means disruption. Imagine if your child’s school closed due to fire damage. Imagine the disruption a long term closure or relocation will have on your child’s education? But then there is a double standard when you consider local authorities across England and Wales have fined parents more than £24 million for taking their children out of school during term time but don’t appear to mind if schools are disrupted in the event of fire. It has been estimated that fires in UK schools disrupt the education of 90,000 children and students every year. Who is picking up that tab and what are we doing about it? Well not enough. In 2016, only 30% of new schools were built with sprinklers. Sprinkler Week marks the launch of the NFCC’s (National Fire Chiefs Council) longer term plan to push for legislative change. It is also an opportunity to educate building owners and designers by dispelling the many myths surrounding sprinklers and help people understand their many benefits. Sprinklers save lives and reduce injuries. They protect firefighters who attend incidents and reduce the amount of damage to both property and the environment from fire. In fact they are so good at protecting property that many business that experience a fire and have sprinklers fitted, are able to be back up and operational within days if not hours. Clear evidence that sprinklers work. In fact, the NFCC and the National Fire Sprinkler Network (NFSN) have worked together to investigate the effectiveness and reliability of sprinkler systems. Evidence shows that sprinkler systems operate on 94% of occasions demonstrating very high reliability. Furthermore, it is evident that when they do operate they extinguish or contain the fire on 99% of occasions. Fire doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t distinguish one building type to another. Its one constant, is that it wrecks lives. The devastating effect of fire was brought into sharp focus with last year’s Grenfell tragedy. As a result, it looks like regulatory change is on its way but the question I am currently finding myself asking, is this change going to be enough? Since Grenfell the weaknesses in our system of fire regulation has been exposed. This has been reinforced in Dame Judith Hackitt’s Interim Report into the Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety calling it “not fit for purpose”. The concern is that we are now in the position of expecting a massive step forward in terms of regulatory guidance and if the rumours are to be heeded, we may just get cosmetic improvements. This isn’t enough. What we need is a wide and deep review of the current Regulations and Guidance – something which many in the Fire Sector have been highlighting to Government for many years. We need this review to consider how we make our buildings resilient. Yes life safety is important, but we need to consider property protection too. Sprinklers provide property protection and I am in no doubt that if the project design team or consultant had recommended sprinklers or the client had insisted on sprinklers, the fire earlier this week in Daventry would not have had the devastating impact it has had. Not only has this fire had a massive financial impact in terms of an insurance claim, jobs will be at risk, the local economy will be affected and there is the environmental impact that removing a fire damaged building and rebuilding it will have. Sprinklers would have helped to create a resilient building and the owners would not be facing the challenges that now lie ahead for them. Sprinkler Week is important. It’s important that we understand the effect fires have and the benefits that sprinklers have. It is also important that we keep pushing for the regulatory change that is so needed. Sprinklers are an effective part of an overall fire safety solution. They can be used efficiently to improve fire safety in a range of new and existing buildings. They save lives, they save property.   For more information about the Business Sprinkler Alliance visit www.business-sprinkler-alliance.org

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