A Winning Combination
Unfortunately Doug and Gill Price’s Halswell property was one of the many that had been seriously effected by the September 2010 and February 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, and they had to call upon their Insurance Company to remedy the damage.
The list of rectification work included replacement of their heavy weight concrete roof, which was leaking in a number of areas, and which had ripples and undulations across many of the roof faces, which are prominent feature of Doug and Gill’s home.
Having been given the “OK” to replace their roof, by their Insurance company, the Price’s began looking for a low profile, light weight roofing product that would compliment the existing look and feel of their home. Following a comprehensive internet search of local and offshore roofing products Doug Price contacted Metrotile Roofing Systems for further information on its Shingle profile.
In the end three key factors influenced their decision to use the Metrotile Shingle profile. The first being, that the replacement product had to compliment the original style of the house, and the low profile of the existing concrete roof tile. The Metrotile Shingle profile is unique in the New Zealand market, and it is the lowest profile pressed metal tile available. The Metrotile Shingle tile was originally developed by Metrotile in the United States to target Asphalt Shingle re-roof opportunities and utilizes a unique “clip lock” installation system. As a result there are no exposed fastenings and the nose of the Metrotile Shingle tile is only 10mm’s high, which results in a very flat profile. The flat profile of the Metrotile Shingle tile is complimented by its Low Profile Ridge Trim and was in keeping with the original design of the house.
The second key factor was that the replacement product had to be robust enough to perform well if Christchurch was to experience any further earthquakes. The Metrotile Shingle tile “fit the bill”, as the Shingle roof tiles are individually fixed to the roof, and provide for a strong interlocking roof system, that is less likely to fall through the ceiling during an earthquake and supports the sub-structure of the house.
The final key factor was that the replacement product had to be installed by a competent and experienced roofing company and during their evaluation process Doug and Gill Price were introduced to two of Metrotile’s Christchurch Distributor customers by Harry Boxall, from Metrotile Roofing Systems.
The decision to specify the Metrotile Shingle tile and contract Town & Country to undertake the work was supported by the fact that the tile is manufactured in New Zealand by an established family owned business, is low maintenance, performs well in high UV environments, has an excellent warranty and has been tested in extreme weather conditions.
Though Chris Meldrum and TeMana Paenga, the principals of Town & Country, had worked alongside each other for many years there business had only been operating since January 2011. As a result Doug took the time to ensure that Chris and TeMana were fully conversant with the re-roof and renovation process and the size and magnitude of the project that they were undertaking. With this in mind Chris and TeMana undertook a number of site visits to ensure that nothing was missed and that their measurements and drawings were accurate.
Though Town & Country are a new business, they have already clearly identified their value proposition, and set themselves the goal of “getting it right first time, no excuses” regardless of the physical or technical challenges presented by a given project. This “can do” attitude, coupled with their ability to deliver, has seen Town & Country Roofing grow into one of the largest installers of metal tiles in the Christchurch market over the last two years and they are now servicing an increasing number of Volume Builders and General Builders in addition to their re-roof customers.
The re-roof of the Price house was a relatively complex job that involved liaison with “torch on” and builder sub-trades, in addition to the installation of custom flashings on the multiple sky lights, which are a feature of the Price’s high end life style home. In addition the reroof had to take place alongside the general renovation of the Price’s earthquake damaged property. As a result the Insurance company appointed Hawkins Construction to manage the entire project.
The Hawkins Construction team was well led by their Project Manager Nick O’Neil, and Doug is pleased to report that the project ran smoothly. He also noted that all of the Trades were professional, knowledgeable and accommodating and everyone was able to enjoy a Friday afternoon beer.
Town & Country used Bramwell Scaffolding to set up a 4 boards wide working platform at gutter height to handle the removal of the heavy weight concrete tiles. Town & Country’s “plan of attack” involved starting with the 2nd storey bedrooms on the main house, and stripping and covering with tarpaulins as they worked their way down the roof. The Builders would then lift the tarpaulins and undertake any remedial work that was required before Town & Country Roofing would return to the work area and paper, batten and shingle the open roof, before moving on to the next area. All this was being undertaken in the middle of winter whilst the Price’s were still living on site.
The Dinning room had a separate lounge next to it, which had a 15 degree pitch veranda around its exterior walls. The Metrotile Shingle could not be installed directly on to this area of the roof, as it has a minimum pitch of 20 degrees. As a result Town & Country Roofing developed a Butynol “ponding board” over the entire veranda area. They then used a cavity batten system to install the Metrotile Shingles on this area of the roof.
Another frustrating challenge was the different gable heights on each of the roof faces caused by a combination of both the earthquake and the settling of the heavy weight concrete roof over time. In order to create a common roof plane the driveway gable was raised by 85mm at one end and 102mm at the other end on one of the faces.
The challenge, caused by the raising of the roof to create a uniform roof plane, was that each gable required custom made 2m flashings, which posed a challenge from both a manufacturing and installation perspective. However Town & Country are pleased to report that the custom flashings achieved the desired effect of hiding the difference in the raised roof height from the fascia level.
By the end of the project Town & Country pulled off 47 tonne of concrete tiles from Doug and Jill’s home and filled 15 rubble skips with the broken land fill tiles. This represents a huge 40 tonne reduction in weight on the roof as the new Metrotile Shingle roof weighs approximately 7 metric tonnes.
Town & Country are also happy to report that not only are the Price’s are very happy with their re-roof the project has won the Roofing Association of New Zealand Metal Tile 2013 Award program, which is a nationwide award that recognizes professionalism in the installation of metal tiles.