Derby Market Hall

Introduction

A historic listed building consisting of a traditional copper standing seam roof that was slowly losing its life, Derby Market Hall presented an interesting challenge for contractor Longworth Building Services. Their objective was to replace part of the existing roof with a product that would best match the existing design of the old roof without compromising its safety.

About the project

Built in 1864 and located in Derby’s Cathedral Quarter, Derby Market Hall is one of the most culturally important buildings in the city today. Playing host to a range of independent traders, with a wide variety of stalls encompassing niche food and drink offerings alongside local fashion retailers.

Given the key role it plays, it was crucial that the building’s lifespan was extended.

Longworth Building Services were contracted by Wates Construction to design, supply, and install new standing seam copper roofing to the central spine of the roof alongside four tapered curved corners.

Simon Walker, Category Manager – Hard Metals at SIG liaised with Longworth Building Services to ensure that the new roofing work matched the existing roof. Speaking on why KME TECU was chosen, Simon had this to say.

“KME TECU was the best fit for the work that needed to be done. As the existing roof was all copper, we wanted to make sure that the material used on the areas being replaced was copper and would match the weathered finish of the existing roof.”

To that end the use of KME TECU copper gave the roof a new lease of life, with the rich copper colour weathering over time to create a completely unique design. Copper’s malleableness made installation on the complex site much easier and its 100+ year life expectancy and maintenance free properties ensured the roof would be set for decades to come.

Installation

With its steep curved slopes and glazed areas, the roof required an extensive complex scaffold to be erected around it. A temporary roof was then placed over the whole building to protect the exposed substrate.

The existing copper was stripped from the four hipped curved corners of the roof and the central spine above the glazed areas. The panels that went to the long elevations beneath the roof lights were left in place as they were deemed to be of good enough condition to remain.

A new 18mm thick exterior grade plywood substrate was placed into the existing timber substrate to ensure that there was adequate fixing pull out for the new copper panels.

The KME TECU Classic hipped curved corners were installed from an extremely complex cantilevered scaffold arrangement. This required close coordination with the scaffold company to ensure that the propping could be removed and re-installed around the copper panels.

Challenges

It was crucial that the copper used on the areas of the roof being replaced closely matched the existing roof design, down to its appearance as well. It could have been a challenge to locate the appropriate copper to use, but thanks to Simon and his team this challenge was avoided.

“We’ve worked with the team at Longworth before, and so, we felt comfortable immediately recommending KME TECU for the roof. That we are a distributor of the product meant we had easy access to the material and could ensure that Longworth had the amount they needed when they needed it. And if there was going to be any supply side issues, we could let them know in advance.”

The shape of the roof was another challenge that Longworth Building Services had to face. Not only did it mean they had to erect a complex stage scaffold around the site to ensure they could safely access the roof slopes, but they also had to ensure that the KME TECU would fit in appropriately.

Steven Jones, Pre-Construction Director at Longworth, was very complimentary about how Simon and the team at SIG assisted in ensuring that the KME TECU slotted into the roof.

“Simon and his team were amazing. The technical support was fantastic, they gave us a few recommendations as to the best way to get the copper installed and they helped guide us through the process as well.”

A Successful Project

The client was incredibly happy when the work was complete, especially as it was completed so quickly without compromising on the quality of the existing roof.

Work commenced in February 2021 and thanks to experience of the contractor Longworth Building Services, was completed on time in October 2021.

The quality of the work at Derby Market Hall was recognised upon completion first by Wates at their Midlands Supply Chain Awards 2021, where it was awarded the Quality and Service Award.

Further awards came in 2022 when it won the Best Use of Hard Metals at the Pitched Roofing Awards, as well as the Best Refurbishment Award at the NFRC Awards.