This co-branded service available to customers is a simple but effective idea to make things easier for roofing contractors on site.
The instructions provide a straightforward guide to ensure underlays are installed correctly and in accordance with the manufacturer recommendations, alongside any specific guidance from the roofing contractor. This includes the requirement detailed within BS 5534 to lay the membrane with a maximum 15mm drape, the instruction to install with a batten restrained headlap, as well as specific requirements for clout nails or stainless steel fixings required for installation.
This guidance helps reduce the risk of a ‘performance and skills gap,’ allowing roofing contractors to incorporate in their training programmes to their workforce, ensuring the roofing underlays provide the maximum benefits when installed. Printing instructions directly onto the underlays also provides greater transparency for Building Control, helping meet the requirements of warranty providers where proof is required that products have been installed correctly and as per the manufacturer’s instructions, typically with photographic evidence to back this up. It also acts as a handy reminder of installation best practice for roofing contractors.
We’re confident that this simple step can help reduce the number of on-site installation issues and will help inform contractors as to the key pointers when fitting the underlay, reducing the performance gap so that our products always deliver as expected. We can also offer co-branded membranes with printed QR codes that direct contractors to the full and most up-to-date fixing instructions on our website, again making installation easier and more efficient.
TRIALLED AND TESTED ON SITE
This initiative was a result of the collaboration between Brandon McDonnell at McDonnell Price Roofing Contractors in Gloucester, and Glidevale Protect, and has been trialled for the first time on a roofing refurbishment for a mixed-use residential development project in Charlton Hayes, Bristol. This is a large four- and five-storey building that incorporates an arcade of shops and businesses at ground level, with residential dwellings on the upper storeys, and is designed in a dogleg shape with the roof at three different levels.
Fixing instructions were printed by Glidevale Protect onto all rolls of our Protect VP300 pitched roofing underlay and supplied to McDonnell Price for installation on site. Following the success of this trial, the co-branded membrane with fixing instructions will be rolled out by the contractor on all projects with Glidevale Protect going forward.
Brandon McDonnell, Director at McDonnell Price, said: “We felt it would be extremely useful to print the fixing instructions on the membrane to prompt the operatives when on site. Providing an open and honest reflection of how the product should be fitted is helping to drive the quality of installation. I’m delighted with the end result and the work undertaken with Glidevale Protect on this important initiative. It is certainly helping to make our team’s lives a lot easier.”
Glidevale Protect’s technical team is always on hand to offer advice and, as a company, we’re ready to respond to evolving customer needs and increasingly stringent industry demands – whether that’s the latest NHBC Standards or the Future Homes Standard. This includes roof specification guidance, highlighting the combination of underlay and ventilation products that are required to accommodate a roof featuring in-roof solar PV for example.
Our focus continues to be on developing products that combine verified technical performance with simplified installation, and this latest customer collaboration is the perfect example of that in action. www.glidevaleprotect.com