Chris Corbett, design manager, on U-Roof’s framing system
What was the problem?
This self-build family home features a mansard roof, characterised by a four-sided double-sloping hip roof, to create an additional floor of eight dormer rooms. The structure would have taken weeks to install using traditional timber construction, exposing the structure to the wet weather and adding costs through the need for extra cranage.
So what was your approach?
We provided a U-Roof light gauge steel framing system. It’s manufactured offsite and is fast to install without the need for specialist skills or tools. The system doesn’t rot, warp or degenerate and has an expected 200-250-year lifespan. However, it does require a considerable amount of upfront planning and 3D modelling to check that all the parts of the “jigsaw” will fit together on site.
What effects did swapping from timber to steel have?
A number of issues had to be factored in. The original design for a hollow core top floor slab was changed to beam and block and U-Roof had to be adapted to enable us to fix through it.
The dormers took a little playing around with to get the size of window the client needed to let sufficient light into the rooms. So the dormer windows are sat further forward and down the rafter pitch to allow this.
Other than that it was relatively straightforward to design and provides an extremely rigid structure that didn’t pose any areas of concern once the full roof was assessed by our engineer Avie Consulting.
Any other benefits?
U-Roof fits together simply and on this job all panels were lifted using a single telehandler. We were also able to deliver everything to site in a single delivery.
The hips add to the strength considerably and the simple installation means the speed of installation was head and shoulders above a traditional ridge and hip steel roof with cut timbers.
