New roof, walls and doors

July 2010

Jennings Roofing did much more than repair the roof when it refurbished a storage building at a Leeds builders merchant. It replaced the roof, walls and doors and completed the work without interrupting the business.

The building had reached the end of its useful lifespan. The asbestos cladding had started to break off causing water ingress to the building and damage to stock.

The work included isolating the electricity supply and removing the asbestos sheeting to the walls and roof. This was done by a licensed contractor and disposed of in an approved manner. Jennings Roofing also removed five roller shutter doors and replaced them with two. To make this work, additional steelwork had to be added where the doors were removed to accommodate the vertical cladding.

The steel work internally was also painted. Once complete, safety netting was installed and an external scaffold erected to commence cladding of the roof.

Once cladding had been completed and scaffolding removed, new rainwater goods were installed. The new roller shutter doors were wired up to the electrics and commissioned upon our completion.

Contracts co-ordinator Craig Hebberd said “We completed all the works within the tight timescale required by the client, without affecting the day to day trading inside the builders merchants.”

Range of skills used on Cloisters roof

Jennings Roofing has recently completed a project to re-roof the Warden's Flat at the Cloisters, Beverley, East Yorkshire.

The pitched roof had been recovered in Welsh slates. The existing slates had to be stripped off and set aside for re-use along with the introduction of new timber battens and breathable felt. In keeping, with the surrounding area, new lead roll was laid to the all hips of the pitched roof.

The perimeter box gutter had been previously laid incorrectly using lead. This had allowed water to penetrate the building into the flats below. It was decided by the client to recover the box gutter using a single ply roofing membrane with new powder coated edge cappings.

This project clearly shows the diversity of work that Jennings Roofing can carry out, incorporating slating, leadwork and single ply.

Social housing contract ahead of schedule

Jennings Roofing is confident of completing a major £2 million contract for reroofing social housing in Salford ahead of schedule.

The contract to strip and retile 677 houses and fit new facias, soffits and rainwater goods was announced in September, and by the end of November Jennings Roofing had finished half the houses.  The work is due to be completed by the end of March 2010.

Jennings Roofing is working directly for City West Housing Trust, the new not-for-profit housing association that took over the management of 14,800 homes from Salford City Council in October 2008.

Martin Briggs, Managing Director of Jennings Roofing (Leeds), said: “The work for this important new client is progressing very well.  The homes are currently occupied and we go to great lengths to ensure that the tenants suffer the minimum of disruption while we complete our work as quickly as possible.”

Traditional stone slating for enterprise centre

Batley Enterprise Centre in West Yorkshire has a new roof of traditional stone slates - completed without interruption to work – thanks to Jennings Roofing, Leeds.  The re-roofing project for Kirklees Council involved stripping the old stone slates and setting aside for re-use and providing new roofing felt and battens. New lead flashings and ornamental lead work were also required in order to maintain the traditional look of the building.

An additional roof area of Burlington slate was again stripped off to receive new felt and battens and then re-slated.

“We undertook this work while the building below was still occupied,” said Craig Hebberd, Contracts Coordinator. “This involved a great deal of co-ordination between Jennings, Kirklees Council and the building owners to ensure that roof and corridors were sectioned off whilst our men worked overhead.”

No interruption to schooling during reroofing

Jennings Roofing recently completed a project to re-roof the flat and pitched roofs at a primary school in Dudley, West Midlands.

All work was carried out in a very short time period while the children were present in the buildings below.

The pitched roofs had originally contained a felt roofing system, which had reached the end of its lifespan and was covered in mineral chippings. The majority of the chippings were removed and the roof was overlaid with timber battens and a light weight metal tiling system.

The flat roofs were also covered in a felt system, which in some areas had been overlaid up to four times. Rather than remove the original roof, it was decided to overlay it using a liquid applied polyurethane system.

The main advantage of using the liquid system was that it could be applied whilst the children were still in the school building.

All existing roof lights were removed and replaced. All timber upstands were renewed to comply with current regulations.

The air conditioning units positioned on the flat roofs were temporarily placed on timber supports while the waterproofing system was applied.

All aluminium rainwater goods, fascias and soffits were also replaced or renewed.

The works also coincided with SATS exams and meant that the Jennings operatives had to ‘down tools’ during the exams.

New roofing completed (above)
and as it was before work started (below)

Another MOD order

Jennings Roofing has been awarded another order from the MOD's Modern Housing Solutions, this time to reroof and upgrade insulation of army housing in Stafford.

Martin Briggs, Head of operations at Jennings Roofing, said "We won this as a competetive tender, but I'm sure the good work we did at Caterick Garrison and the experience we gained of working for the MOD helped.

New roofs for UK's largest army garrison

Jennings Roofing is one of three Northern Bear companies that is currently undertaking work on behalf of the Ministry of Defense at the UK's largest army base at Catterick, North Yorkshire.