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Case Study

A full roof replacement of an English Heritage site, a Grade I listed Greek Revival mansion.

Belsay Hall, Northumberland

A grand scale full re-roofing project of a historic building, with a low pitch roof of 12°, something which could only be delivered by using the award winning Easy Slate.

Over the years, the 900m2 low pitch roof of 12° , had suffered from severe water ingress, caused by its exposed location and driving rain. The full project took two years to complete and due to the large nature of this renovation, English Heritage needed not only a reliable solution to a roof that had deteriorated and failed over past years, but one that ensured that the aesthetics remained the same as the original roof from the early 1800’s.

View products used in project

Location

Belsay, Morpeth

Requirements

The installation of a large scale, low pitch roof, whilst maintaining the original aesthetic looks, and also allowing Belsay Hall to remain open to the public throughout the whole of the refurbishment.

Why Permavent was chosen:

Significant challenges were faced on how to provide advance detailing and more importantly improve structural integrity, whilst retaining the character of the roof on a nationally important Grade I Listed Building.

The specification was to restore the low pitch roof and where possible, recycle the undamaged historical Westmorland slate and replace the damaged slates with Burlington Blue slate, without impacting the character of the building.  Using the unique Permavent Easy Slate system could provide this, along with it being a waterproofing solution for keeping the batten dry and protecting the roof from the wind driven rain. It also remained invisible externally and ultimately ensuring the aesthetics of the original roof features remained the same as in 1817 when the building was originally completed.

Permavent were also on hand to provide specialist roofing advice to other material suppliers.

How Permavent products were installed:

Due to the size of the roof and importance of the building, a full free standing scaffold roof was used allowing a weatherproof seal to be created. and the stripping of the roof could begin to ensure the building remained watertight throughout.

The Main Hall was re-roofed first, followed by the Kitchen Wing and then the link areas. For each part of the building the roof elevations were stripped section by section to allow timber repairs, masonry repairs to upper walls and chimneys and for re-slating to occur in a sequenced way.

Slates removed from the roofs were sorted with the Westmorland slates of suitable size retained for re-use. Smaller slates deemed too small for reuse on the project, were set aside for English Heritage to reuse on other buildings on site. The main Contractors joinery team carried out any required repairs to the roof timbers, identified by the Conservation Architect and Structural Engineer as each roof elevation was stripped. Roof voids were cleared of debris and sarking boards fitted before all remaining roofing works were carried out by a skilled team with experience of Westmorland slate roofs and leadwork.

Architect: Bryony Roff

Products Used

Permavent Easy Slate

Low pitch system for slates

  • Unique breathability and condensation control
  • Extends the life of the roof by keeping battens dry
  • Creates new areas for slate application
  • Pitch as low as 10° with fibre cement slates
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