Located close to the town of Ashington in Northumberland, Hatchmeadow apartments and bungalows is an age-exclusive development operated by the housing association, Bernicia.
The T-shaped apartment building features a 2500 m2 pitched roof, including several gables and valleys. Unfortunately, problems with the existing roof specification were causing some residents to experience leaks during periods of poor weather. To address the issues once and for all, Bernicia tasked Wensley Roofing—part of the Northern Bear family of companies— with stripping back the existing roof and installing a new system.
The roof included an area of solar PV panels, so the new roofing system had to be capable of providing weathertightness and condensation control in several different circumstances across the single building— all while residents remained in occupancy during the work.
James Roy, Senior Quantity Surveyor at Wensley Roofing, describes the replacement roof system as a “belt and braces” approach.
He explained:
“The specification used PROCTOR AIR over the rafters, followed by counter battens, tile battens, and a new pantile finish. We even used butyl tape over the nail holes to provide a complete seal against rainwater.”
At the time of writing, Wensley Roofing is about halfway through the reroofing work. James continued:
“Some of the residents were having to use buckets to catch leaking water. Since installing this new system the leaks have now stopped, and there has been some bad weather.”