• Project: St Peters Church
• Location: 46-50 Hyndland Street, Glasgow
• Architect: Page\Park Architects
• Specialist Roofing Contractor: John Fulton Plumbing & Roofing
• Supplier: AccuRoof, part of SIG Roofing
• Roofing Products supplied: SIGA 150 Slate in Vermont Green
• Type of property: Church replacement slate roof
• Roof Area: 1,500m2
• Date roof completed: February 2026
St Peter’s Church, built in 1903 and the largest designed by Peter Paul Pugin, is a substantial Gothic basilicanplan church made of rockfaced red sandstone with ashlar dressings. Its Aberfoyle green slate roof and Dumfriesshire red sandstone define its character. The building features grey slate roofs, including a large steep-pitched roof, hood mouldings above the Gothic windows, cornices, and castiron rainwater goods.
By 2024 the main roof was at the end of its life with slate fatigue, slip fixings, and water ingress. John Fulton Plumbing and Roofing was appointed to replace the roof covering on the nave, side aisles, sacristy, and presbytery. The products they specified included:
• SIGA 150 Vermont Green Slate Reclaimed Aberfoyle green slate Copper nails and stainlesssteel fixings
• Lead flashings, valleys and abutments
• Clay ridge tiles rebedded and pointed
• Refurbished castiron gutters and downpipes
• Treated timber repairs to rafters
• Breathable underlay.
As a Grade IIlisted building, all the materials had to preserve the building’s character and meet conservation requirements while offering a long-life roofing system. The original roof was covered in Aberfoyle Scottish slate. As the quarries no longer produce the slate, a matching alternative slate was required. The contractors worked with Accuroof, part of SIG Roofing, to source an alternative solution. SIGA 150 Vermont Green was selected because it provided the closest match to Aberfoyle slate in colour and texture and, as a new slate, could hang and stay put on the steep pitch. Its availability in random diminishing courses also allowed the team to replicate the original roof design.
The product was supplied by SIG Roofing’s Linwood branch and covered by its One Warranty scheme, providing peace of mind to the property owner and saving the contractor from managing multiple product warranties. Leadwork was renewed using LSAcompliant detailing, since the roof plan specified the renewal of hip flashings and leadwork around buttresses and chimneys. Clay ridge tiles were rebedded and pointed over copper rod.
The roofing contractors started work on the principal nave roof by removing the existing slate. They then prepared the area by rolling out a breathable underlay across the rafters. The slates were fixed back to the existing sarking and substrate with the largest installed at the eaves fixing a double course. A diminishing course for the slates was then installed with each slate fixed with two copper nails.
Eaves and top courses were doublelapped, and perimeter slates were cut and dressed by hand. At the end of the nave, the altar section is split into four slate sections with a double rolled lead between each section. Verges, hips and valleys were formed using leadwork. Refurbished castiron gutters were reinstalled with minor adjustments to improve capacity. The original Aberfoil slates from the nave roof were hammer tested and graded to see which could be reused on the presbytery roof. Once these had been sorted and re-holed the roofing contractors installed the roof to match the original diminishing course. All the lead work was renewed, the cast gutters were also taken off, refurbished and put back on again. There was a lead damp proof course (DPC) installed underneath the gutters and then all the leadwork to the hips.
The project also included refurbishment of the castiron rainwater goods, extensive stone repairs, and the restoration of the leaded lights. All the works were carried out while the church remained fully operational, requiring JR Scaffold to dismantle and re-erect internal towers every weekend.
One of the biggest challenges working on the principal nave roof was that it was landlocked by the south and north aisle roofs, with only one entry and exit point. The nave roof also had a steep pitch, with the ridgetogutter length at about 12½ metres, which made the installation process much more difficult. The scaffold was also based on the wall and then transferred down onto the church, which meant that no materials could be stored during the works. As the team were uninstalling and reinstalling the roof, they had to hoist everything up and then immediately lay the slate. www.sigroofing.co.uk