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Why Permicoat chose RubberBond EDPM for Grade II listed project
The first phase of the restoration of the roof of Leigh Spinners Mill, a Grade II listed building in Greater Manchester, was to install new flat roof areas between the pitched bays. Permicoat’s Commercial Director James Mattison explains why the company specified Flex-R’s RubberBond® FleeceBack™ for the six-month-long project.
Spinners Mill is one of the finest examples of a working mill in the UK. It was first opened in 1915 and although the ground floor is still in use, Leigh Building Preservation Trust plans to open up a large amount of floor space on the upper floors of the complex for a variety of new uses – which is why the roof needs to undergo much-needed renovation work.
English Heritage is often very keen for renovation projects to reclaim and reuse as much of the original material as possible – but on this one, our recommendation was to use Flex-R’s RubberBond® singleply system for two key reasons.
The first was that the valley areas needed to be widened slightly to improve drainage – over time, the roof had started to leak because the existing structure couldn’t cope with the volumes of water. Therefore, the new covering not only needed to be completely impervious to water but also had to have a track record of durability over many years.
The second was that RubberBond® has Factory Applied Seams and thus is 30% quicker to install than traditional bitumen systems. The polyester fleece backed membrane was installed with no hot works and has two thirds fewer seams than alternate systems giving a faster install – which when working alongside other trades on the roof area who were assisting in installing the new timber deck – proved essential that we had a waterproofing system that ticked all the boxes.
We’ve developed a close working relationship with Flex-R and have used RubberBond® on a number of other similar projects around the UK, so we have first- hand experience of the product and its capabilities. That is why we were confident in making the recommendation to English Heritage, who took our professional advice and included EPDM in the specification for the project.
The project itself was very straightforward. It started last year, when our team worked in sections to strip back the slates to a reasonable height so that the cast-iron gutters could be cleaned. We also removed the old sarking felt and boards. It was like going back in time to see the material that was made from horsehair! Joiners then took over and built the timber framework, which were 120 cm wide (they were originally 60 cm wide). There was a 35cm pitched verge create on each side as well.
The structure was boarded out ahead of the adhesives being applied for the RubberBond® to be laid. The Flex-R team had already been to site, measured each of the nine areas and pre-cut each one – and they were called off one at a time because work had to be done in sections.
All of this is backed up by a 20-year guarantee and comes with lots of readily available technical support from Flex-R, who were very hands on, with members of the Flex-R’s Technical Support team visiting the site on a very regular basis to check on progress and being available to offer on-the-spot support.
