HOSPITALS IN A MARINE ENVIRONMENT
degree angle we have on, for example, the roof of the Royal Cornwall Hospital is the exact minimum angle for the roof tiles fitted. That might work alright in some parts of the country, but when there is a south-westerly gale blowing, and there’s nothing between you and the US if you draw a straight line, the wind tends to have a fair amount of ‘horizontalness’ about it.” As a result, he explained, the rain actually penetrated under the tiles, and the only defence between the water and the patient was then the roofing felt. The speaker added: “With the felt having been on the roof for about the past 15 years, it then starts to leak. The leak gets into the hospital space, and a severe leak can easily mean us having to close a particular area. The other consequence can be Aspergillus and mould, which is quite a concern, especially for our Infection Control colleagues.”
Fire risk apparent
There had also, he explained, been some concern about the fire risk on a particular roof, which covers an area of some 10,000 m2
. James Tinsdeall said that in the original build there had been no concrete slabs put on top of the ward below, but there were fire curtains in situ. He said: “The wind penetrating through that roof and moving the fire curtains over a period of years had rendered them pretty worthless. We thus ended up replacing the entire fire curtain across that block, at a cost of about £500,000. This was a not inconsiderable sum, but with the condition that the fire curtain was in, any fire would have simply raced around the roof until the whole building was alight.” James Tinsdeall next explained some of the measures that he and his Estates and Facilities team were taking to address the various weather-related issues with the roof of the Royal Cornwall Hospital. He said: “Because the building is occupied and there is no concrete slab, we needed to do something remedial on the roof. We spent considerable time trying different methods, but in the end did a lot of work with a particular manufacturer with a liquid and glass fibre roofing material. “We have firstly blasted all the moss and growth off the roof, and then covered it with a liquid membrane containing glass fibre. The best solution, really, would have been to re-roof the whole block, but re- roofing a live hospital with nothing but a ceiling tile and bit of felt between the patient and the elements would – as you can imagine – have been pretty tricky.”
A systematic approach The speaker explained that he and his team had already applied the roofing membrane to a number of areas of the roof, and would now be systemically moving around the hospital to complete the job. He said: “On the first liquid
44 Health Estate Journal January 2019
James Tinsdeall explained: “The 20 degree angle we have on, for example, the roof of the Royal Cornwall Hospital, is the exact minimum angle for the roof tiles fitted.” Top right: A diagrammatic of the shallow pitch roof design.
Adjacent sections of roof pre- and post- the new membrane being applied.
coating we discovered that the solvent smell was too great, received several complaints, and had to stop work temporarily. We now – happily – have a solution which is fairly odour-free, on which we also have a 15-year warranty.” Looking in more general terms at the type of roofing ‘solutions’ suitable for hospitals in marine settings, James Tinsdeall said one of the key priorities should be to design in ‘well pitched’ roofs. He said: “There was an interesting element to this, because at about the same
juncture that this main hospital block was being built with what has proven to be quite a poor roof, Public Health England was building a laboratory building close by on the Royal Cornwall Hospital site, which is the latest problematic building we have here. It has a metal roof. “
Properties of the roof tiles Another requirement is that that the roof tiles used need to be smooth, because the concrete allows moss to grow, and seagulls to nest. James Tinsdeall said: “The moss then gets into the gutters, causing water to overflow, which in turn causes more problems with leaks, mould, and Aspergillus. He continued: “Slates definitely need clips, and, in terms of retrospective solutions the only one we have found has been to overlay the roof with liquid fibre, since we can’t empty huge chunks of hospital over three storeys high.”
A small access door on a section of ventilation trunking running over a roof serving an X-ray department. The door is galvanised steel, the cladding above it aluminium, and the little latch also galvanised steel. The rivet in the middle, however, is made of Monel.
The speaker’s next focus was ‘problems with seagulls’. He said: “Seagulls are, in fact, quite an issue for us down in Cornwall; they are a protected species, and will attack people for food. When I took up my role here six years ago, very little was being done to control them, and we do get complaints from patients and visitors about them. They also very vigorously protect their young.” On a related topic, James Tinsdeall said that when it was discovered that two of the four operating theatres at the St Michael’s Hospital site in Hayle, which have roof-mounted cooling units, were not being efficiently cooled, the Estates team called out a specialist refrigeration
James Tinsdeall
James Tinsdeall
James Tinsdeall
James Tinsdeall
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
