SMARTROOF’S offsite manufactured modular roof system is showing its versatility having been chosen for a series of homes as well as two apartment blocks at a stunning new housing development in Folkestone.

Formerly the MOD Shorncliffe Garrison Barracks, Officers’ Mess at Shorncliffe Heights has been designed by FCS Limited for developer Taylor Wimpey. It comprises 44 new homes including one and two-bedroom apartments, and three, four and five-bed homes.

Smartroof’s panelised ‘room in roof’ system has been specified for four standard home plots within the development and is being used for the first time across two apartment blocks.

For the four homes, Smartroof provided an eaves to ridge and gable to gable system with timber dormers and enhanced U-values to both the roof cassettes and gable spandrel panels. The specification for the three and half storey apartment blocks provided Smartroof with the perfect opportunity to showcase its revolutionary ‘room in roof’ system on a much larger scale.  It is typically used for the creation of roofs on detached, semi-detached and terraced homes. For the largest two storey homes, Smartroof would normally supply 10 panels. However, when presented with the challenge of delivering an offsite produced ‘room in roof’ system for these two much larger apartment blocks, the company rose to the challenge. The team engineered the system to make it compatible with this larger scale application, demonstrating the versatility of off-site manufacture. The roofs required 46 panels across three separate roof sections.

Designed with hipped gable ends, it was critical for the team at Smartroof to maintain adequate fire resistance and separation within the roofing voids. The Smartroof system lends itself well to effective firestopping at party walls. The factory manufactured pre-insulated spandrel panels meet fire rating requirements, and will act as a fire break and maintain fire compartmentation within the apartment buildings roof space.

A complete roof solution, Smartroof has been designed to offer housebuilders and developers a solution to maximising sellable space by creating rooms in roofs. Comprising a series of factory produced panels incorporating insulated roof panels, spandrel wall panels, dormers, roof windows, GRP chimneys, soffit and fascia, it is delivered to site and craned into place. Once in place, the roofs simply require roof felt and tiling. The system has many benefits – less waste, better control of quality, safer to install – and meets the industry’s demand for solutions that allow us to build better quality homes, more efficiently.

The controlled environment of the Smartroof offsite fabrication facility meant the technical team could achieve the architect’s design with millimetre precision both in terms of the compound cuts and fabrication particularly when it came to the two hip ends. Designed and manufactured at the Smartroof factory in Derbyshire, the prefabricated roofs were then delivered to the Folkestone site, craned into place and installed by the Smartroof team.

Commenting Lewis Catt, Buying Manager from Taylor Wimpey said: “Smartroof’s offsite manufactured roof system provided enormous advantages for both the homes and apartment blocks. By moving roof construction offsite into a controlled factory setting, Smartroof enabled significant safety improvements and accelerated project timelines. Overall, the Smartroof modular system is an exceptional roofing solution that delivered the reliability, quality and quick turnaround the project needed.”

Commenting on the modular roofing system at Officers Mess, Kevin Sherlock, Managing Director at Smartroof said: “We were delighted to be able to meet the challenge of these much larger roofs on the Officers’ Mess apartment buildings. This project demonstrates the versatility of our Smartroof system whilst the controlled environment of the Smartroof offsite fabrication facility reduced the hours working at height dramatically.”

At a time when the housebuilding industry needs to build back better and smarter, the offsite fabrication of the roofs at the Officers’ Mess provided Taylor Wimpey with huge benefits in terms of health and safety, speed of construction and quality control.

To find out more download the Smartroof brochure or contact info@smartroof.co.uk