The Grange is a Grade II listed building dating from the late 17th Century and required a total re-roof.

 

The works undertaken have been completed to an extremely high standard and is a credit to all employees engaged on this contract.

 

Complexity

The work involved stripping the existing roof coverings and replacing with new Keymer handmade tiles, renewal of all leadwork including lead valley gutters, replacement of existing UPVC  gutters with powder coated aluminum guttering, rebuilding of 1no. large chimney, repointing of others. The works also involved replacement and repairing of the timber carcassing.

 

There is one area of roof where the upper main roof and the slightly lower western extension joined at the bottom of the original gable end there was a short run of bonnet hips, valley tiles, abutment and pipe all within an area of less than 1m² so obviously in this area alone the works involved were extremely complex. 

 

The original plane of the roof was extremely uneven and it was decided to take out some of the extreme undulations with packing timbers with gentle undulations.

 

Due to the nature of these works we also had to take in to consideration the views of the conversation officers and their requirements.

 

Also due to the nature of the work and site restraints considerable thought had to be given to scaffold erection bearing in mind that this property was still to be occupied whilst the works were in progress and the gardens were open to the general public.

 

 

The Workmanship

The work was carried out to BS 5534 using Klober air permeable breather membrane, graded battens and nailing the tiles with aluminum clout nails in every fourth course and the perimeters double nailed.

 

As can be seen from the photographs the pointing of the verge hips and ridges is of a very high standard using lime mortar.

 

The photograph showing the vertical cheek of the dormer shows the raking cutting over the roof tiles has been carried out using pinchers and it is cut very neatly around each course of roof tiles and not in a continuous straight line as carried out by many other roofing contractors . Also, the close up photograph of the leadwork shows where the leadwork has been hand bossed around the timber wooden rolls.

 

Considerable sorting of the new tiles had to occur as they were laid to make sure that each tile laid neatly with the adjacent tile. Also the ridges and bonnets have been lined out to ensure that the adjacent fittings of sat correctly.

 

All aspects of the workmanship undertaken on this project have been completed to an extremely high standard and our client is delighted with the works completed.

 

Due to the nature of these works we were also able to place two of our improvers on this contract to gain valuable skills knowledge working under the guidance of our Heritage approved craftsman.

 

Challenges

One of the biggest challenge that we faced was that the roof had to be stripped before the end of October due to the likelihood of bats hibernating after this date. This meant that we only had 4 weeks from receiving the order to the have scaffold designed, erected, and roof coverings stripped.

 

As can be seen from the photographs the erection of the scaffold was far from straight forward the main problem being a large glass conservatory for the whole length of the rear of the property.

 

Also, to comply with conservation planning we were not able to obtain fixings for the scaffolding by drilling into the stonework and also the client would not allow for the glass to be removed from the newly renovated conservatory.

 

The scaffolders were able to design a scaffold that overhanged the glass, this was erected and dismantle with ourselves working above without any glass getting damaged.

 

The large 3 acre garden is open to the public under the national garden scheme which meant we had to take this into consideration when erecting the scaffolding alongside the movement of roofing material.

 

At the eastern end of the main house there was a large established yew tree which had to have its top thinned to allow the scaffolding to be erected which needed planning consent and was obtained.

 

From day one the job had been designed to have a temporary roof as we were to carry out these complete works during the winter knowing that there would be timber repairs and the central lead run out gutter was to be renewed also whilst these works were in progress the owners were able to live within the house and carry out their normal business routine.

 

Safety

A designed scaffold with temporary roof and sides was erected and this enabled protection from the elements i.e. high winds, rain, snow and protection against UV exposure.

 

As we were also acting as the main contractor on this project a site specific Construction Phase Health & Safety Plan was prepared all to comply with the requirements of the H.S.E.

Regular site visits were undertaken by our Contracts Manager and Site Supervisor, along with unannounced visits by our Health & Safety Consultant / Advisor.

 

 

Project management

The project had to be carried out within certain deadlines the order being received at the beginning of October and by the end of October the very complex scaffolding had to be complete with temporary roof, along with ridge and tiles removed because of bats returning for winter roost and this had to be carried out to comply with the protected species license.

 

Also the complete project including scaffold down had to occur by the end of January.

 

The programme of works had to be carefully thought through with the Contract Administrator and Client taking into consideration all aspects of the works involved, and we are pleased to advise that the works were completed on time, and within budget, so we have a very happy Client and Contract Administrator.

 

To ensure our programme was met this did involve considerable planning on and off site.

 

Our resident site manager ensured all works were undertaken to a very high standard, but also still enabled some of our site operatives (improvers) to gain some very valuable experience of undertaking a project of this type.