Team progress January 2023
We’ve had another great week at Carma UK Roofing serving our clients in the Oxfordshire area with their roof repair and reroofing needs.
Paramount, before we set foot on every site is to explain the works in detail with the client and ensure the works can be carried out safely for our team. We hold a get home safe philosophy close to our hearts and do not take on works where our clients do not hold this in a similar regard. Sometimes this means the work is more expensive, but the entire industry should be pricing the work accordingly. It’s a shame some companies continue to let themselves, their staff and their clients down.
As a minimum all our sites require safe access, high visibility clothing, gloves for any abrasive or sharp work and hard soled and steel toed boots. Often we also utilise fall prevention devices to further protect our team.
The team carried out two local projects this week. Both went to plan, followed our risk and method statements ensuring the work was carried out correctly and safely.
The projects were all carried out under contract, with a project manager appointed for our clients to raise any issues or concerns with and to ensure the projects progress smoothly.
These particular projects were carried out taking a small deposit to confirm our booking with the final payment invoiced on satisfactory completion of the works.
Project one:
Project one, consists of a complete new roof covering of a charming Edwardian property in East Oxford. The roofing team has worked extremely hard to get this completed in just over a week to try to minimise the risk of any water ingress from the extremely variable weather at present. As always the work was scheduled with high regard to the available weather forecasts to further minimise the risk from water damage. Clients always have the option of a full scaffold wrap and hard hat (essentially a scaffold tent) but unfortunately this often is not taken up due to the significant cost of installing. This is in part why we choose to utilise the Roofshield breathable membrane. This membrane once applied provides a very high level of temporary waterproofing until the tiles are re-laid. It acts as a temporary tarp covering the roof along with its long term role of allowing the buildings moisture to escape and any condensation to safely fall away to the eaves. Roofshield membranes also come with an 25 year guarantee which provides significant piece of mind for us and our clients when carrying out what we hope to be long lasting and infrequent roofing work.
The job started with stripping the existing delaminated tiles and disposing of them in a skip provided by Oxford skip hire LTD. The next steps were to supply and fit new Proctor Roofshield breathable membrane, fix new treated 25mm x 50mm timber battens at a gauge of 100mm. To complete the roof covering we sourced some Marley Acme clay mixed brindle tiles which complimented the finish of the roof. All of the lead chimney flashings where completed in 300mm code 4 lead and all verge details where laid on new fibre cement undercloak with Remix Tile Bedding Mortar between tiles and undercloak.
Project two. (We were recommend by previous client)
Always nice to get a warm referral from previously happy clients which was the case here. Project two started with stripping a 22 year old felt roof from a single story rear extension. When planning flat roofing work, similar to all roof works, we keep a close eye on the weather forecasts picking a dry spell before stripping the existing roof. We also have tarps on hand in case there is surprise rainfall to ensure we can quickly cover the roof space until any weather spell passes.
The roof was stripped, leaving the existing timber deck in situ. This was carried out by the team using hand tools only. Anything heavy we utilise team lifting to minimise any potential injuries and dispose of the waste safely in a skip which is then disposed of and recycled by our trusted and licenced waste management companies.
On this job, we relayed the new system on the existing timber deck structure as on inspection the timber was as new saving the client significant costs in both material and labour. We supplied and laid a new three layer felt system using Soprema film underlay and Soprema 4.5kg cap sheet which is applied using a hot gas torch. We utilise this membrane because it a very durable and robust product to use and comes with a significant guarantee of 20 years. Protective gloves, footwear and full length clothing must be worn for this process to minimise risk of burn injury. We also require hot permits to be drafted and submitted to the office before any hot works are carried out, and we require a stay and watch post install to ensure no post works fires begin. Of course we have fire extinguishers to hand to deal with any unplanned fires quickly and professionally. All edges are formed by nailing felt strips to all edging areas with a 3 inch hardboard strip, then torched back over into place. All abutments are carried out using code 4 lead. There were no roof penetrations for pipes or vents which meant no challenging flashing details to be fabricated on site. Client was over the moon with results.