A North Yorkshire school has built its motto ‘Being the Best We Can Be’ into the fabric of its school campus following a roof refurbishment involving two of its buildings, using Sika Liquid Plastics’ Decothane Ultra 20 year system.
Located 10 miles south of Middlesbrough on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, Stokesley School is the founder member of the Areté Learning Trust, a multi-academy trust (MAT) that aims to drive excellence and engage with locally-based businesses.
The school operates on an existing campus of 1970s construction and both the main teaching block and the art & geography block have been fully refurbished, including an overlay to the existing roof, as part of a phased seven-month programme.
The refurbishment project addresses condition issues to ensure Stokesley School's buildings continue to offer a high quality teaching and learning environment, whilst also improving energy efficiency and future-proofing the site. Staff and pupils were decanted from the main teaching block prior to the start of works on site and the main contractor removed a service hatch and several roof lights prior to the start of the roofing scheme.
Sika Liquid Plastics worked closely with Gateshead-based Northpoint Architects to develop the technical specification for the roofs and carried out a full site audit to assess the condition of the existing roof and recommend the most appropriate solution.
The project is funded by the EFA's Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) with Sika and Northpoint working closely with the school to prepare the technical specification and independent professional advice required for the bid.
Joe Moore from Northpoint Architects, said: “Not only did Sika’s cold-applied liquid system, provide the ideal solution for this fast-track refurbishment scheme but the company’s thorough approach to assessing the condition of the existing roofs and developing a technical specification compatible with the substrate ensured a high quality finish.”
The existing main teaching block had a felt roof covering that had reached the end of its serviceable life, with unprotected bitumen visible in many areas and vapour blisters and delamination along the laps of the felt. The felt roof on the arts and geography block was similarly degraded and required additional insulation in order to bring the building up to current building regulations standards. On both roofs, there was extensive preparation to be done to make good previous patch repairs, delamination, blistering and upstands.
Following preparation of the substrate, roofing contractor, BriggsAmasco, installed a Decothane Ultra system - a two coat liquid applied membrane, incorporating fibre matting. Throughout and upon completion of the project, Sika Liquid Plastics’ dedicated field technicians thoroughly inspected the project to ensure a single point guarantee of 20 years could be issued.
For the art and geography block, the installation began with 60mm Decotherm insulation board to supplement the existing insulation. Sika Liquid Plastics self-adhesive S-VAP 5000 E SA carrier membrane was then installed prior to application of the Decothane Ultra System to the roof in the same base coat, Reemat, top coat process.
The buildings were unoccupied during the refurbishment works but both projects were carried out on a live school campus, making the cold-liquid applied system ideally suited to the scheme, with no hot works or nuisance odours.
Steve Wilkinson, property services manager at Stokesley School, added: “This project marks the first phase of a five-year plan to modernise and improve the Trust's estate, reduce energy consumption and optimise the use of our facilities. The Decothane Ultra solution recommended by Sika not only provided an ideal solution for minimising disruption to staff and students during the works but the BBA-certified, single-point guarantee will provide us with peace of mind for a generation.”
