HERITAGE & HISTORIC (INCLUDING ADAPTIVE RE-USE) SUPPLEMENT
Bring on the heritage Code of Practice
Michael Hallé of Welsh Slate discusses the challenges around re-roofing heritage buildings, and why Historic England’s Code of Practice is sorely needed
roofs we come across. But coupled with the challenge and prestige of working on heritage roofs comes the fact there is often no precedent or British Standard regulation to guide the specifier or for them to comply with. This is because in the former case they have not been re-roofed before, and in the latter, because the current British Standard does not cover heritage roofs specifically. BS 5534 gives recommendations primarily intended for the design, performance and installation of new-build pitched roofs, with the heritage get-out clause: “The recommendations contained in this British Standard might not be appropriate for the re-slating or re-tiling of some old roofs, particularly where traditional and/or reclaimed materials are used.”
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It is quite rightly used by the industry as the best practice for quality roofing, but like most industry standards the technical aspects prompt discussion – heritage roofs were constructed based on learned experience of very local conditions whereas British Standards are a generalised standard taking into account national conditions and practices. So it is reassuring to hear that Historic England is making headway on a Code of Practice for heritage roofing. Chris Wood, senior architectural conservator for Historic England’s Building Conservation and Geospatial Survey, said: “Before we can produce the Code of Practice we need to finish the technical guidance needed to support it. We are near to finishing Parts 1 and 2, which we will be sending out for review in the next month or so.
“The proposed Code of Practice will take a few months as there is likely to be quite a lot of consultation and review.”
o most of us in the roofing industry, heritage roofs are an interesting diversion from the run-of-the-mill
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Vernacular roofing consultant Terry Hughes, who will produce the first draft, said: “This advice is needed because the trend to standardisation since the 1940s when CP142 was written, and as exemplified by British Standards, is that roofing has become just that: everything is standard; the same wherever you are, particularly for metamorphic slates. “And what has been lost is the variety of roofscapes which were a response to the local materials. The knowledge of how they were slated has often been lost as well. There is a need for these old roofs to be carefully looked at and understood before they are repaired or re-slated. All too often the roof is stripped without doing this, and then replaced with what is incorrectly thought to be the detailing, or a so-called improvement.”
Historic England’s use of the term ‘Code of Practice’ is telling and rightly so, as it would seem there cannot be a “standard” for heritage roofs as they are rarely, if ever, standard. This myriad of variations, even within local areas, is the main reason
When it does come to replacing a heritage roof, steps should always be taken to carefully record the way it has been set out
ADF APRIL/MAY 2020
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
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