Picking up the award for the ‘Best Slate Roof in the UK 2011’ at the NRFC Roofing Awards, Greenough & Sons has once again underlined its reputation for aesthetics, precision and craftsmanship.
Winning the prestigious award for the second successive year, the Anglesey based company provided a level of experience, expertise and service on the job that combined for superb results, with the re-roofing of a former windmill built in the 1700s being part of a large-scale renovation and extension project.
The 300-year old building, on Anglesey in North Wales, now used as a private residence, required more than 2000 Welsh slates; proven to be the toughest natural slate product known to man, and has the longest lifecycle of any slate.
Greenough & Sons used a variety of slate sizes for the project: 16″x12, 16″x10, 14″ randoms and 12″ randoms. “Relatively small local slates were required in order to form the intricate detailing to the main cone and sweeping curve of the extension,” director Jon Greenough explained, “The main cone was technically relatively straightforward, compared to the problem of blending a low-pitched convex roof slope, through a concave sweep into a higher pitch roof. We were able to achieve this in a weather-tight and visually pleasing way by using the larger slates on the lower-pitched section and then sweeping these gradually into smaller slates into the higher-pitched section. This, while at all times maintaining critical side-laps and head-laps.”
Carl Downward, Welsh Slate’s sales/technical manager for Wales, said: “This was an extremely ambitious and technically challenging project. By taking the same attitude and employing the same levels of skill as the master craftsmen of the past, Greenough & Sons has produced a finished result which belies the major technical difficulties in getting it right”
Heritage Registered with the National Federation of Roofing Contractors, with Jonathon Greenough having gained the prestigious ‘Heritage Master’ certificate, and Daniel Greenough registered as a ‘Heritage Craft Roofer’, Greenough & Sons has successfully completed a number of historically and culturally important projects. These include Caerphilly Castle (Caerphilly), Chester Town Hall, Tintern Abbey (Monmouthshire), St George’s Hall (Liverpool), Llanerch Hall (St. Asaph) and St Cybi’s Church (Holyhead).
Furthermore, complementing the company’s celebrated work on listed buildings, it carries out a considerable number of contracts for more ‘contemporary’ community help projects. This year the company is undertaking its second successive roofing project for the BBC One programme DIY SOS, both projects non-profit and important to show the commitment to the local community in North Wales. Meanwhile, planned maintenance and local authority work is Greenough & Sons’ ‘bread and butter’, and in challenging economic times has gone a long way to helping the company to remain stable and secure, looking to the future with real confidence.
To find out more, telephone 01407 741100, or visit the website at www.greenoughroofing.co.uk.
