Preserving History

Anyone visiting Devonport will be aware of the location of this highly visible landmark; The historic ST Francis De Sales Church building which was originally designed by Edward Mahoney and built in 1918, replacing the earlier church on the site. In 2008-2009 Phillip Hartley from Salmond Reed Architects Ltd, Devonport, was contracted to design and project manage the repairs and maintenance which involved re-roofing, brick re-pointing and stone repairs.

The project presented some interesting issues in the repair methods and materials to combine old technology with new.

Metro Roofing Ltd, Auckland was contracted to make the repairs and replace the existing metal roof. This posed some compatibility problems as the existing cold rolled galvanised cladding covered all of the existing lead edge, galvanised, pre-painted flashings. To simply replace the cladding with newer technology was likely to cause problems in the future, To remove and replace the existing flashings would have added significantly to the costs. Fortunately the existing flashing materials remained in very good condition and so it was a case of finding a suitable roofing product which would be compatible with the existing materials.

Roofing Industries solved the problem by manufacturing and supplying Corrugated manufactured as 0.55BMT Double Sided “Pioneer Red”. The pre paint system selected utilised a Colorcote® 8000 series paint system over a galvanised substrate alleviating any dissimilar metal concerns.

A custom, colour matched, wide ridging with lead edge was manufactured and supplied by Roofing Industries (Central Ltd) in Palmerston North in order to complete the waterproofing and material compatibility.

Metro Roofing have done an excellent job this iconic church. The re-roofing presented some interesting installation challenges as the roof pitch is 55 degrees and 6 meters from the ground to the fascia. Every length of roofing had to be loaded into position by hand as there was no machinery access.