Jul 17 2007
"When designing any religious building, the roofing materials need to last a lot longer than traditional roofs. With Nu-lok we can achieve a lot more with a minimum 50 year, maintenance free roofing system."
When Sheraz Valli of Valli Architectural Services was asked to design the new Masjid-E-Tauheedul-Islam mosque in Blackburn, two things were obvious - this building would be expected to last for centuries. It would also be extremely intricately designed.
Sheraz explains: "I came across Nu-lok by accident whilst looking through an old Kingspan catalogue. As soon as I read the article on the Nu-Lok roofing system with its unique installation system and 50 year guarantee, I knew I had found what I was looking for.
"What impressed me was that Nu-lok has a unique method of installation, using no nails or timber materials, but instead uses galvanized steel battens and stainless steel clips. The visible innovative clip system means that we could immediately see if anything was missing and therefore will avoid any future tile slippage or other defects, unlike the nail fixing and timber battens of traditional roofing.
"Nu-lok roofing also allowed me to continue with my intricate designs without having to hold back on the detailing.
"The design of the mosque pitch roof is not equal on all sides. Therefore, the bespoke aluminum eaves guttering can run horizontally, but also slope down following the eaves line of the pitch roof. We were able to maintain a continuous gutter line. Because Nu-lok isn't an ordinary roofing system it has worked well in forming the roof hips and has provided a neat, sharp mitred hip line, better than we could have hoped for."
We asked Tony Killeen, managing director of Killeen Roofing, to keep a diary of the Nu-lok Roofing installation, which was completed within a month. His comments highlight how straightforward Nu-lok roofing is, even on an intricate project such as a mosque.
Week one
Tony and his team have been on site for one week now. They have most of the roof battened and three of the elevations are tiled. They have already got to the tricky and intricate parts of the roof design. For example, tiling near to the windows was complicated and was made more complicated by the fact that the windows turned up to site and didn't fit.
The rooflight area had to be redesigned and the Kingspan roof underneath had to be cut accordingly.
However, Tony and his team were able to get on with fitting Nu-lok roofing on the larger areas while they were waiting for the rooflights to be sorted out.
After just one week on site, they are 30% of the way through fitting the Nu-lok roofing. At this stage they have fitted approximately 250 m of Nu-lok roofing on the mosque.
Tony reports that they have encountered no problems with Nu-lok roofing on the mosque. After receiving a day's Nu-lok onsite training on a previous project, Tony and his team say they will not require any extra training from Nu-lok.
Week two
After two weeks on site the roof is all battened now. All three elevations are tiled. The Nulok roofing around the rooflights is complete and all eight rooflights are fitted.
Tony and his team have done 70% of the mitered cuts now and are 60% of the way through the tile fitting.
They are well over half way through the whole roofing project and still haven't encountered any problems. Bank holiday weekend has slowed them down slightly, but it has all been "plain sailing".
Tony and his team were the only contractors on site this week other than the rooflights fitters.
Week three
After a warm spell during April, the bad weather has slowed the roofing project down slightly. But as planned, the Nu-lok roofing project is completed within one month, with no stumbling blocks to report.
Architect Sheraz Valli continues: "We're very happy with the Nu-lok product and wouldn't hesitate to specify it again or recommend it to other architects or builders."
The rest of the mosque is due for completion in the next 12-18 months and the brickwork will begin soon.
"Low maintenance" have become buzzwords on the project and even the 4.5 metre's high dome will be finished in Tecu Gold (a copper and aluminum metal alloy), rather than the glass reinforced plastic (GRP) finish.
Sheraz concludes: "This mosque is built to last. It is not easy returning to a leaking roof or dome to maintain it, especially if it's 20 metres high, so we have selected products that mean we won't have to."