Foamglas replacement for failed pool roof

When Oxford Asphalt turned to Pittsburgh Corning and Permanite Asphalt to develop a roof specification to withstand high humidity, Foamglas cellular glass insulation was the key.

Pittsburgh Corning's Foamglas cellular glass insulation has provided a high performance replacement when the lead roof over a swimming pool extension failed prematurely.

The roof, which covered a swimming pool extension at an Oxfordshire rectory, had originally been designed to last for 70 years, but a combination of incorrect specification and high humidity meant that it failed after just ten.

Oxford Asphalt was called in to provide a replacement that would give the proven durability required.

Foamglas cellular glass insulation is ideally suited for this type of application - as well as providing a high degree of insulation it is also inert and completely impermeable to moisture.

It is strong enough to withstand maintenance traffic on the roof and can be used in construction to completely eliminate cold bridging.

The 200 square metre roof was a complex job, comprising a flat roof area, a central half glazed, half slate-tile pitched roof and tile-clad gables, each of which required a slightly different construction.

The solution devised for the flat roof areas - providing zero cold bridging - comprised a double layer of 50mm and 100mm Foamglas T4 insulation laid in bitumen covered with a Permanite polymer-modified asphalt.

On the large central gabled roof, which is part glazed and part tiled, the slate-tiled areas used a multi-layer construction that completely eliminates cold bridging.

As with the flat roof, a double layer of 50mm and 110mm Foamglas T4 was used bedded in 115 grade bitumen.

Standing seam plates were then inserted into the Foamglas and a bitumen bonded membrane applied to the upper surface.

Vertical battens were fixed to the plates and horizontal counter-battens attached to them.

The slates were then fixed to the vertical counter-battens with no cold bridging to the structure.

On the gables themselves the construction was almost identical except that in this case, to support the weight of the slate tiles, facade plates were fixed through the Foamglas into the fabric of the building.

Mark Sulik of Oxford Asphalt comments, "I have used Foamglas numerous times before - especially on critical jobs where the previous roof has failed - and know that it was the right product for this project".

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