FACILITY: Former Church, Above Adventure

LOCATION: Kilmarnock

SERVICE: Full roof strip and replacement as part of heritage refurbishment on the building.

BRIEF:

Full roof strip and replacement as part of heritage refurbishment on the building. Reclaim dress, size and fit existing slates. New hand-made ridge tiles. Full lead replacement.

As specified by Historic Scotland, the original slates were used, with deficiencies made up with reclaimed Welsh slate and Cupa H3 Spanish slates, dressed and sized to match existing pattern.

It was crucial to the specification that the reclaimed slates were used on the front elevations

OUTCOME:

We worked alongside main contractor; Emtec, Architect; John Gilbert and HES on this renovation. This was a fantastic opportunity for our talented slating division to apply their traditional skills when re-fitting to the original slating pattern. Phase one consisted of stripping the church hall and main church roof, reclaiming the slates to fit on the outer slopes. Deficiencies were made up with new Spanish Cupa H3, prepared to match the existing slate pattern. New hand-made ridge tiles were installed to replicate the original detail

This was a challenging project from the beginning. Our operatives were given the task of carefully reclaiming, dressing, and sizing the existing slates to ensure enough slates were salvaged to cover the prominent elevations as stipulated by HES.

With pitches between 50 and 60 degrees, and approximate 9m spans, incredible skill was required while working on these slopes during, stripping, loading, and fitting. In addition to the logistics of the site, our skilled operatives were required to replicate the original slating pattern of Pico fishtail and square edge slates.

We were tasked with ensuring a consistent course structure was maintained and courses merged perfectly to match the original detail, which was a strict stipulation set out by HES.

Phase 1 of the project was successfully handed over in time considering the long lead in time for the handmade ridge tiles and working alongside other trades including stone mason and rot contractors.