Project Case Study: Ringwood Hill

Renewal of Roofing and provision of EWI Ringwood Hill, Newport

Client – Newport City Homes

Contract – value £1.6M

Date – 2019

Nr of properties included in project – 23

On an estate adjacent to those in the current tender, Ringwood Hill comprises a number of Council Built Hawksley type non-traditionally constructed 2 storey houses.

Westdale were awarded the contract to refurbish the 23 properties that were still owned by Newport City Homes, the remainder having been bought under the Right-to-Buy legislation, in times past.

Many of the private houses had since been repaired to a PRC approved scheme, and the aesthetic of the estate remained one of brick finish. NCH wished to retain the appearance and thus engaged Westdale to externally refurbish them, comprising new roofs, roofline plastics and to externally insulate the houses with a brick effect render finish.

One of the key challenges came about because of the unexpected discovery of significant quantities of notifiable asbestos, lining the gable apex walls. This not only needed to be removed by specialist operators, but it then became necessary to rebuild the gable apex in timber frame lined with ply.

Another challenge which will likely be the case with the proposed tender, whichever Lot is awarded, will be the logistics of working in and around occupied properties, many now privately owned, in streets that are narrow and with very limited space for unloading deliveries, positioning skips for removal of existing materials and for parking.

Otherwise, the works were fairly straightforward for Westdale, who now have a roofing Division and an EWI division and have replicated a similar scope of works, many times.

The  photograph shows a completed property adjoining a property that hasn’t had the re-roofing and had EWI installed by Westdale, as they were not on the Ringwood Scheme (privately owned). Therefore the photographs do give a “Before & After” effect. They show how effective the ArtBrick can be at replicating the brick of the properties and retain the aesthetics of the local area.