How one enterprising roofing company used the miserable British weather
and Rubberised Plygene Gutterline to win a huge contract.

Rain is a mixed blessing for any roofing company. On the one hand it certainly draws attention to leaking roofs and gutters, but on the other hand it can play havoc with repair schedules and very often it can result in excessive and un-budgeted for labour costs.

Those thoughts were very much at the forefront of Paul Roddy’s mind when he was invited to tender for a large repair and refurbishment project by Kerry Logistics. One of their huge warehouses, which stands alongside Manchester United’s famous Old Trafford stadium, had over one and half kilometres of leaking cast iron gutters on its north light roof. For a warehouse, that was bad news, so they needed a solution – and fast!

The building itself was approximately 80-years old and the roof included 16 gutters, each of which was almost 100m long and 650mm wide. The south slopes of the roof also required overfelting, while each gutter emptied into an ornate cast iron hopper that also leaked water.

Unlike the other roofing companies involved in the tender, Paul Roddy, whose Leafield Projects Limited company is based in Accrington, Lancashire, did not go in with the traditional torch on felt option. Instead, he recommended they use H D Sharman’s Rubberised Plygene Gutterline. With such a huge undertaking, the unreliability of the British weather and a tight repair schedule, he reckoned that the chances of enjoying a prolonged fine spell while they cleaned, dried and lined all the gutters were virtually nil. But Gutterline, he knew, could be fitted even if the gutters themselves were damp.
Paul also realised that the made-to-measure Gutterline would be simpler and quicker to fit, while any slight additional cost implications would be easily countered by the greater control he could exercise over time and labour costs. The safety aspects of Gutterline not requiring any naked flames on the roof, the BBA Certified liner, plus a 20-year guarantee, all helped Kerry Logistics elect to go with the Leafield recommendations.

Custom-made liners

H D Sharman’s technical manager, Mick McKechan, went along with Paul Roddy to measure-up the gutters and take accurate dimensions for all the hoppers. Sharmans then custom-made all the liners, designed a bespoke mould and formed all the hopper linings. The fact that every length of liner was supplied as a single-section, joint-free roll, meant that the Leafield boys simply had to draw out the liner along the full-length of the gutter and then position the walls of the liner securely behind the roof cladding and the glazing units. This simple system, that has been tried, tested and trusted since 1985, is so effective that it instantly creates a fully sealed ‘gutter within a gutter’ that will not permit water to
penetrate behind or beneath it. Although Leafield had not fitted much Gutterline previously, they experienced no problems, because even though installation is extremely simple, Paul had previously arranged for his team to take advantage of Sharman’s free training facilities.

Despite the enormous lengths of the gutters, Paul Roddy was able to assure Kerry Logistics regarding the efficiency of the Gutterline liners. They are made exclusively from H D Sharman’s own patented Rubberised Plygene material, which will easily cope with changes in temperature or building movement without any adverse affect.

Deadline beaten by four weeks!

In addition to lining each of the 16 gutters and all the hoppers, the Kerry logistics project also included the overfelting of all the south facing slopes, each of which was some three and a half metres high. This involved approximately 5,500 sq m of felting. Yet despite the huge undertaking, and even though the project had a scheduled ten-week programme, Leafield’s six-man team completed the job in just six weeks.

As Paul Roddy afterwards commented, “It is highly unlikely we could have achieved this level of productivity using other methods. The wet weather would have certainly delayed us, but with Gutterline we were able to just get on with it. When you work out the savings you can make on installation time, plus the longevity of its life-span, then Gutterline is undoubtedly excellent value for money.”

Free DVD

Any roofing contractor who may not be familiar with H D Sharman’s Rubberised Plygene Gutterline system can obtain further information, including a literature pack containing fitting explanations and a sample liner by contacting the company. The information pack also includes a fully descriptive DVD, which clearly explains the concept and includes actual demonstrations of fitting techniques.