The Client
The right location for your warehouse is crucial for distributors and retailers. The Midlands' Golden Triangle' has become the hub for many of the UK's most recognised names, Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Disney, Asda and many third-party logistics companies.
The Golden Triangle refers to an area of the East Midlands that has become renowned for its high density of distribution facilities and being home to the biggest names in retail. Spanning the area between the M1, M6 and M42 motorways, from Birmingham and stretching as far north as Nottingham and south to Bedford, this vast area has more warehousing than Greater London, Scotland and Wales combined.
Replacement roofing project for distribution centre
Our client is one of the major employers in the golden triangle with several locations in the area, including 1 million square feet at Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) and Hinckley Distribution Centre.
Starfish Construction has been a key contractor on many projects for this particular client, managing stores and warehousing facilities. After Hinckley Distribution Centre had been experiencing significant water ingress, we were asked to carry out a technical survey of the roof.
Technical survey and analysis of roof
Our technical surveying team found several significant issues with the existing roofing system, including:
- Cut edge corrosion to roof sheets
- Corrosion to the main body of roof sheets
- severely corroded fixings
- Leaking valley gutters
- Internal damage to the warehouse.
All these failings in the roof system not only impacted on the structural integrity of the building fabric but was becoming a health and safety issue with internal leaking to the warehouse floor and stock areas.
- BBA Agreement Certification
- Zero major reportable H&S incidents or accidents
- Delivered on time and with budget
- Warehouse to remain operational
- Weather exposed site kept wind and watertight.
£1 Million
Value
11 Weeks
Duration
26,527 m2
Area of roof installation
Challenges and Solutions
When it comes to most retail projects, whether shops or distribution centres, there is very seldom any downtime. Hinckley runs 24 hours, 365 days a year. Our team had to erect access scaffolding and install roof edge protection while the centre was fully operational.
We were able to section off an area to allow us to operate a large mobile crane for the safe removal of the failed roof and to allow us to install the new roofing system.
Due to the timescale allocated and the large surface area Starfish Construction worked around the clock with floodlights on the crane to allow through the night working. The roof area was sectioned off and replaced one segment at a time to allow the warehouse to remain operational.
We removed 197 tonnes of roof sheets which were recycled and installed 201 tonnes of new roofing system, together with 30077 lineal metres of flashing. We replaced all fixings with durable stainless steel and installed a new gutter lining system.
The whole project was carried out and completed while the warehouse remained fully open without any impact on the day-to-day operations. Starfish Construction has an exemplary safety record which reassures our customers that their property and personnel are safe at all times.