Lightweight Metal Roofing System in action - from Metrotile

-   Glanrhyd Hospital Bridgend, South Wales

Many people have now heard of lightweight metal roofing systems, but many have not seen one in action. Because they look so much like a traditional roof, its easy to miss. A recent example of an award winning roof from Metrotile is the replacement roof for a hospital in South Wales.

When Metrotile was asked to provide options for re-roofing part of Glanrhyd Hospital in South Wales, the company’s Barry Jordan suggested Metrotile Woodshake for a number of reasons and John Rhys-Williams, the Project Officer for Capital Planning agreed.

There were concerns about gaining access to various parts of the roof and it was thought that the tiles were so light in weight that they could be easily transported on their pallet through the building and stacked for use in internal open areas within the building itself. As it happened once the roof replacement was in process, this was not necessary as again because of the lightweight nature and robustness of the tiles several hundred tiles could be loaded onto the scaffolding ready for the re-roofing to go ahead.

The second reason Woodshake was specified was for aesthetic reasons, as they look quite similar to the concrete tiles they were replacing and it was comforting to know for the authorities in South Wales that the whole roof – 3,814 square metres in all – consisting of over 8,200 tiles and accessories –  weighed only 1/7th of the weight of the concrete tiles being replaced.

The third reason these tiles were specified was the difficulty currently of obtaining concrete tiles in quantity – with these metal Metrotile tiles available immediately – so no hold ups on the job.

The fourth reason for selecting Metrotile products was the Metrotile approved contractor who won the job was extremely cooperative, working hard in adverse weather conditions, competitively and with an eye to detail that hugely benefitted the job.

Finally the Project Officer was highly impressed by the 40 year weatherproof guarantee that all Metrotile tile roof systems carry if fitted by an approved contractor – which Wales Roofing is – who performed admirably on this project.

He was also impressed by the way that Metrotile was willing to meet him on site to discuss the works involved, measured the roof for him and provided a detailed material take off, budget prices, specification and approved contractors list for the area who would be willing to tender for the contract.

The first job was to strip the old tiles from the roof for disposal before preparing the roof for the new Metrotile lightweight roofing system to be installed. James Parry at Wales Roofing was in charge of the project for the contractor: “Our men have used various Metrotile profiles on other jobs in the past and like to use them a lot as they are quick and easy to fix and there are only two and a bit tiles to lay per square metre of roof space. On a large area such as this roof, we could use nail guns to fix the tiles which speeded up work considerably and the system is not weather dependent for fitting – which is lucky in South Wales where rain is a constant companion for roofers!

“Metrotile provided us with the usual excellent support – with technical support where needed, regular site visits during the job and fast delivery to site – they didn’t let us down once on the job and it was comforting for us to know that if we needed anything urgently we could get our requirements delivered the very next day. That’s quite rare in these times.”

The project has been shortlisted for the best metal profile roof category of the 2022 Pitched Roofing Awards.

For more information and to see the wide range of options available from Metrotile head for www.metrotile.co.uk