Dryseal on BBC Breakfast

It was interesting to see the item on BBC’s Breakfast programme yesterday (23rd May 2012) regarding metal theft and St John’s Church at Bromsgrove.   The presenter referred to the material used to replace the stolen lead as being “fibreglass”.

We are the manufacturers of the roofing system , Dryseal, which was chosen as an alternative to replacing the stolen lead.   Whilst it is technically correct to describe the replacement material as “fibreglass”, our product is a modern component based system manufactured using polyester resins and glass fibres (GRP) and is a very different product.

The main differences are:

• It is manufactured in a factory environment at our production centre in Inverness. The production process is very sophisticated, capable of forming complex profiles. The resins, reinforcements and other chemicals are very precisely controlled.
• Dryseal is believed to be the only component based GRP roofing system available within the UK. It is suitable for flat roofing and pitched roofing and also as a waterproof membrane.
• It is supplied to site as a kit of parts for installation by our approved contractors
• It is highly adaptable and can replicate the appearance of many traditional metals, lead being one.
• As was illustrated with the use at St John’s, it is designed to complement lead and we do not argue that there is no role for lead in heritage buildings.  That material is important to the buildings heritage, however when funds are “tight”, Dryseal offers a very cost effective way of protecting a building (circa 40% the cost of lead) and perhaps most importantly the interior artefacts.

In addition to those points, perhaps the most important additional one is that the system is mechanically fixed to the roof substrate,  which means that it is totally possible to restore the roof to its original state at some point in the future – the traditional “fibreglass” system will be laid as a “wet lay” surface, which means that it is not so easy to deal with that type of roof restoration work in the future.

So yes its fibreglass but not as you know it!