The Challenge

There were two key challenges for the Rock Roofing team to tackle in the Northlight Mill project.

The first came from the requirements for the roofing membrane itself, which was originally specified as a traditional bitumen felt. Our client was keen for us to use the felt membrane due to it being known for its robust properties, rather than the more commonly-used single ply system that we offered.

However, felt membranes also carry relatively high costs, which we were keen to avoid incurring for our client. Because we wanted to make sure the client was getting the best value for money, we needed to come up with a better solution that would deliver both on cost and the required level of robustness.

The second big challenge was the shape of the roof itself. Northlight Mill is a converted industrial steel mill, with around 15 pitched roof light sections that run along the flat roof.

Each of these pitched roof lights needed slating, which would be carried out by specialist pitched roof installers. We therefore needed to coordinate heavily with these contractors to ensure everything stayed on schedule, and that no damage would be done to the membranes we needed to install.

The Approach

Offering better value plus better quality.

With robustness being of the utmost importance to our client, we value-engineered the ideal solution that would address the quality aspect as well as save significantly on costs. We were able to offer a bitumen-hybrid single ply roofing system that offered the exact same level of robustness as the felt finish, and for a significantly lower cost. This also meant that the project wouldn’t require the use of primers and open flames or the installation of multiple layers, as it would with traditional felt membranes.

Expert coordination for a seamless installation.

To make sure the project stayed on track, we quickly established a strong line of communication with the pitched roofing installers to plan our approach together. It was very much a two-way street – they needed us to install a roofing membrane upstand around the base of each pitched roof light before they could begin slating them, and we needed them to finish installing the slate tiles before we could return to install our main roofing membrane.

This meant regular comms between both teams, coordinating our arrivals on site to ensure there were no schedule clashes, and ultimately ensuring a smooth handover after each phase.

The Results

The savings on costs were a fantastic win for this project, with our value-engineered bitumen roofing system offering up the sturdy, robust properties the client required with the additional bonus of smaller price and a long guarantee.

Our ability to coordinate with other contractors ensured the smooth task hand overs that helped keep this complex project on schedule, while also making sure the interfacing between the pitched roof lights and the roofing membrane were seamlessly installed.

And, perhaps as the greatest testament to the success of this project, the manufacturer of the membrane we used later approached us to ask if they could use this project as a case study. This was a fantastic personal win for the team, and we were more than happy for this to go ahead.

If you’re concerned about the potential high costs of a project and would like help with finding the best-quality solutions, the Rock Roofing team are experts in creating custom, value-engineered approaches. Get in touch via our contact page and tell us what you need; we’ll do the rest.