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A roof over your head
CLIENT: SHEFFIELD HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE TRUST | TYPE OF WORK: REROOFING | DATE: 2023 | SECTOR: HEALTH
Woodland View is a nursing home in Sheffield, focused on caring for people with complex dementia who require specialist support. Three of their buildings required reroofing, but the work needed to be completed sensitively due to the medical needs of the residents. Having completed many projects for Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust before, I&G were known to them as being considerate constructors, able to tackle projects in live clinical environments, so we were just the people for the job.
The solution
The project involved reroofing 2000 square metres of roofing, both flat and pitched, on three buildings within the facility.
Key milestones of the project included:
- Removal of the existing roofs.
- Replacing and renewing pitched and flat roofs.
- Improving u-values by through an overlay of new insulation. U-values are the rate of transfer of heat through a structure, i.e. heat loss through a roof.
- Retiling of pitched roofs and refelting of flat roofs.
- Replacing rainwater goods, including gutters, spouting and downpipes.
- New fascia boards and edge trimming.
- Installation and fit of three new skylights.
- Clerestory window replacement, to achieve desired u values.
We held fortnightly meetings with the client to discuss any changes to the project arrangements, sharing any learning opportunities and identifying areas of concern.
The challenges
The main challenge with the project involved working around the residents of the buildings.
As well as dementia sufferers, the site also houses a residential unit to help mental health inpatients reintegrate into society, so all works had to consider causing no disruption to residents, as it could be detrimental to their recovery.
To minimise disturbance, we phased the work so that only one area of the roof was worked on at each point, to allow the staff to move patients around to avoid them being disrupted. There was frequent communication with the clinical teams to ensure they were aware of how work was progressing, and which areas we would be working on.
We also made sure scaffolding was protected at all times by 2m fencing, keeping patients and visitors safe.
We engaged with staff and patients, and found there was a need in their community for more green therapeutic spaces. We identified a space within the grounds for a roofed pergola, and did the groundwork to make this wheelchair accessible, electrical wiring and joinery work to assemble the pergola, as well as donating the materials for the project.
The result
Woodland View is now completely reroofed, improving not only the energy performance of the building, but also enhancing the appearance of the facility.
The new wellbeing area gives staff, patients and visitors a dedicated sheltered outdoor space for use for events and activities to promote wellbeing and community engagement.