Employing
the Redland SpecMaster service has enabled Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council
(MBC), which manages and maintains 22,000 homes, to benefit from a 15-year
guarantee and avoid costly extras when it re-roofed 40 properties on one of its
estates in Kitt Green.
This
professional specification not only avoided unsightly and expensive detailing,
but also accelerated the roofing programme through introducing the Innofix
Clip, the award-winning tile fixing developed by the company.
Wigan-based
BAAS Construction, who works in partnership with Wigan MBC on a design and
build basis, has a long-standing relationship with Redland; and brought in the
SpecMaster service to help Wigan answer both difficult design issues and
provide the guarantees required for their client and stakeholders.
“The
15-year guarantee is important to us because it means that we shouldn’t have
any unexpected financial burdens put upon us at Wigan within this period and in
the unlikely event that there is a problem with the new roof covering, Redland
will still attend site and rectify the issue free of charge”, Brian Hampson,
Project Manager, explains.
The
15-year guarantee that is provided when the tiles are installed with
recommended fixings under the Redland SpecMaster service covers weather
tightness, durability and design liability. SpecMaster is a free-of-charge roof
specification service for architects and professional specifiers that covers
slates, tiles, fittings, accessories, fixings, ventilation, underlay and
battens – all in NBS-based format to integrate seamlessly into any building
specification. The service also enables clients to work with the specification
manager to achieve the optimum performance.
The
service was also able to tackle the issue of replacing only one half of a roof
so that it matches the other, which arose because the 40 units are on an estate
of mainly semi-detached homes in Kitt Green that is in mixed ownership as some
residents exercised their right to buy. This means one roof could be in private
ownership while the other would be council-owned. Therefore unless the owner
occupier engaged with Baas Construction and re-roofed their property at the
same time, it was impossible to re-roof both as one unit.
The
existing roofs were tiled in Double Romans and Wigan MBC wanted to re-roof
using a Redland 50 Double Roman but was keen to avoid installing a bonding
gutter. “Installing a bonding gutter is expensive, time-consuming and, in my
opinion, doesn’t look attractive”, Brian comments.
The gauging of the existing tiles was crucial as to whether re-roofing
required the bonding gutter and the roof pitch dictated the required tile
headlap but, once Baas Construction was on site, the Redland Specification
Manager checked the roof pitch from the scaffold level and confirmed the pitch
at 22.5o and the existing tiles were correctly gauged out with
headlaps between 75 and 85mm – so bonding gutters weren’t needed.
The scheme
was completed with the 50 Double Roman tile in Tudor Brown and Innofix Clips
used to fix the tiles, an innovation that impressed the roofing contractor,
C&B Roofing, because they are so much quicker to fix and therefore speed up
the contract.
Managing
Director Mark Cain says: “We were concerned at the degree of clipping we had to
do on this re-roof scheme but the new Redland Innofix Clip made the job so much
quicker and easier. The new clip overcomes all the problems we get with the
traditional nail and clip fixing, such as when knots in battens stop nails
being driven home, and the method of holding the clips together means the
tilers don’t get all the clips tangled up. The single item fixing really
reduced our timescales and allowed us to complete the roofs much quicker”.
Completely
tool-free, the Innofix Clip is available for the entire range of Redland’s
concrete interlocking tiles, and was developed to meet the increased fixing
requirements set out in BS 5534 British Standard Code of Practice for Slating
and Tiling.
It is the
only tile clip available that doesn’t need a hammer, making it the fastest and
easiest fixing on the market. In fact, it’s up to 40% quicker than using
traditional nailed clips. They come ready to use in a unique magazine style
holder ensuring they are tangle-free and can be easily removed from the
packaging with one hand. Suitable for use throughout the UK, Innofix is
Redland’s strongest clip yet and meets the stringent requirements of the
British Standard.
