Bauder has just completed a huge refurbishment project on a 640,000 sq ft distribution centre in Thrapston for clothing retailer, Primark.

Working with the contractor Asphaltic Ltd, together they took full responsibility for every element of this extensive roofing project, from design and wind-lift calculations to the supply of all the components and installation by Asphaltic Ltd based in east London.

Peter Stonebridge, Product Development Manager (Single Ply) for Bauder said: "The most challenging aspect of the project was the size of the roof. The building, previously used by IKEA, is an enormous warehouse with an equally enormous roof. Although it was not extraordinary from a design point of view, the size brought challenges of its own.

"Another significant characteristic of the building was its exposed location. The previous roof suffered from extensive wind damage so we designed this roof to cope with the extreme conditions."

He added: "The larger the roof, the greater the issue of drainage, so we brought in the expertise of a drainage specialist to ensure that design of the roof would disperse water effectively."

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The roof comprises five huge ridges of over 300metres each, amounting to 56,000 sq metres in all. The Asphaltic team laid up to 1,000m a day, which was ambitious, and despite the adverse weather delivered the project ahead of programme.

The distribution centre remained operational throughout the works, which added to the logistical challenge. All deliveries had to be timed to ensure they did not affect vehicles moving in and out of the warehouse and these restrictions also affected the Asphaltic team accessing the building. The Asphaltic team consisted of 10 men on the roof at any one time using automatic trolley welding machines for the field area of the roof and hand-held welding guns for all the detailing; all the supplies and equipment had to be lifted on to the roof without interfering with the vehicle movements in and out of the warehouse.

"The team working on the roof really appreciated the scale of this job," said Peter, "they were walking roughly 12 miles a day across the span of the roof loading out the material, so they really understood the sheer scale of this unique project."

This project was another successful partnership between Bauder and Asphaltic Contracts Ltd. The relationship between the two companies has built up over 20 years following the successful completion of various other major contracts

Larry O'Connor, Senior Partner of Asphaltic Contracts Ltd said:"We have a strong working relationship with all our clients and carry out conditional roof surveys fro Primark all over the UK. We are trusted to advise on the best solution to their problems and are delighted to partner with Bauder, a market leader in waterproofing, to assist with these solutions."

The Primark project was the largest refurbishment of a single-ply roof undertaken in Britain this year and clearly demonstrated Bauder’s status as one of the largest and most respected organisations in the roofing industry. As well as supply and fitting this contract they were supplying material for a similar sized refurbishment project for Land Rover in Coventry.