Catnic Litetile transforms building

Catnic Litetile transforms Grade II Listed Building into shoppers' paradise.

Stockton Borough Council has recently completed the re-roofing of one of the town's feature buildings.

Situated in the heart of the widest high street in England, The Shambles was built in 1825 and is a Grade II listed building.

Having undergone a number of transformations in its life, the building's most recent incarnation is as one of Stockton's main shopping centres.

The re-roofing project presented a number of problems, not least the sensitivity of the building's listed status.

The roof design was slightly unusual - being an 'inverted w' surrounded by a parapet wall - and, when selecting the new roofing materials, the council had a number of key requirements, as Ian Davison, Building Surveyor at Stockton Borough Council explains: "We were keen to use a product that was sympathetic to the traditional materials found in the area and that would be effective on both an initial and whole-life cost basis.

Catnic's Tuffslate provided the perfect solution".

Part of the Catnic Litetile range, Tuffslate tiles are manufactured from galvanised steel, and finished in an agate colour - designed to emulate a traditional, natural slate finish.

Stockton Borough Council selected the product both to provide a sympathetic restoration of the building itself and to complement its environment.

As with all Catnic Litetile products, the Tuffslate roofing system is light in weight and dry-fixed, making it both simple to install and cost effective - ideal for refurbishment projects.

Other key benefits of Catnic Litetile are that it is extremely flexible, and can easily accommodate design features such as the shopping centre's dormer windows.

Tuffslate comes complete with an extremely durable finish which requires minimal maintenance - ensuring that the cost of ownership of the product is kept extremely low.

Specialist contractor Barclays Roofing was appointed to undertake the roofing project, which was carried out in March and April this year.

Barclay's Phil Derbyshire said: "The existing roofing material was asbestos sheet, so we took great care in its removal and in preparing the structure for the installation of Tuffslate.

Once through this stage we were really impressed with the speed and ease with which we were able to complete the installation.

For the 400 square metre roof, we only needed 710 Litetile sheets - which were delivered to site in just two pallets.

"We were also able to incorporate traditional materials alongside Tuffslate; for example, lead was used for the flashing detail and all internal guttering - ensuring that the finished project was totally sympathetic to its environment and the building's heritage".

The council is clearly delighted with the result: "The appearance of this fantastic building has been completely transformed by the new roof," said Ian Davison.

"The roof is now completely in keeping with its surroundings".

Catnic's Litetile roofing system has been used in a wide range of projects, both commercial and residential, for over thirty years.

Each Tuffslate tile gives a cover length of 1.625 metres and a cover width of 350mm from batten to batten.

This large format, along with the product's light weight, means that fewer trusses are needed to support the roof, resulting in the whole system being much faster and easier to install than traditional roofing materials.

Litetile benefits from full BBA certification and comes with a full 30 year product guarantee.

As a Catnic product, it is also fully supported by the company's dedicated technical, design and sales support team.

For more than thirty years, Catnic has enjoyed a reputation for superior quality products and technical expertise, backed by excellent customer service.

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