Layher covers Winchester roof repair

Modus Access UK has just completed a refurbishment project on the New Hall of Winchester College, after calling in temporary roofing specialists Layher to help protect a 17th century ceiling.

The project saw a unique use of scaffold and weather protection as work was carried out to replace the existing copper roof.

A flat roof area that was unable to support the loads associated with traditional scaffolding surrounded a large proportion of the building. Instead, Layher used a lightweight alternative to provide support around the building and fixed a temporary roofing system in a rolling, apex configuration, allowing for 60% of the refurbishment work to be carried out under a single rain-protected area. The temporary roof, which was mounted on nylon wheels on a scaffold track, was then rolled to the opposite end of the building for the project to be completed.

The three-month project saw the copper roof removed, timber repairs made, and insulation and a new zinc roof installed.

The Layher rolling roof installation in Winchester also benefited from the design of the company's Keder roofing system.

"The installation required no more than a lightweight scaffold framework, through which translucent Keder sheeting is pulled on a bay-by-bay basis during installation," explained Layher UK managing director Sean Pike.

"This results in a complete temporary roof area that can be moved as a single structure along the rail when the second phase needed to be covered - and which also allowed the advantages of natural light to be enjoyed. Because the design requires a significantly smaller number of standards than conventional scaffolding, loading transfer onto the flat roof area was minimised, while the number of tie-ins - important in a building of this heritage - was also reduced."