Gaco Asbestos Roof Waterproofing in Armagh — Encapsulation Without Removal

Armagh is a compact cathedral city of 16,438 people at the 2021 census, set among the low drumlin hills of central County Armagh and administered by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. Its hinterland takes in villages such as Keady, Markethill, Tandragee, Richhill and Middletown. Beyond the streets the land is worked in small holdings: DAERA’s June 2025 census gives Co. Armagh 3,553 farms averaging just 27 hectares, the smallest average of Northern Ireland’s six counties. The countryside around the city therefore holds a large number of modest yards, each with its own stores, byres and machinery sheds.

Fruit is part of the local identity. The same census records 1,488 hectares of horticultural crops in the county, in keeping with Armagh’s long-standing name as the Orchard County. Where apples are graded, packed or kept in an older building, the roof over them matters more than it would over a hay shed, because a steady drip through a weathered asbestos cement sheet wets bins and packaging. Livestock bring the same concern. The county held 269,937 pigs and 234,403 cattle in June 2025, and the houses those animals live in need a sound roof in every month of the year.

Armagh is one of the drier places in Northern Ireland. The Met Office station in the city averaged 823.9 mm of rain a year over 1991 to 2020, on about 151 wet days, while Lisnaskea Creamery in County Fermanagh averaged about 1,064 mm. Less rain slows the weathering of asbestos cement without stopping it. Over the decades the cement surface still softens, lichen and moss still take hold, and fixings and laps still loosen. The practical gain from the drier record is that an approved installer is likely to find more dry spells in which to prepare and coat a roof.

Encapsulation leaves the sheets where they are and seals them under Gaco urethane coatings, a U91 base coat followed by a U92 top coat, with a GacoFlex silicone finish where full waterproofing is specified. Nothing is stripped, so there is no pile of old sheets to dispose of and the orchard store or pig house keeps its roof throughout. The installer begins with a condition survey, replaces sheets that are broken or too far gone, and cleans the surface by a method that does not abrade the cement. Because asbestos cement is fragile, the roof is worked from staging and crawling boards and is never walked on. Duratite supplies the coatings, and the survey, preparation and application are carried out by an approved installer covering Armagh.

Work with asbestos in Armagh falls under the Control of Asbestos Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012, enforced by HSENI, and the installer prepares a risk assessment and plan of work before anyone goes onto the roof. If the job also adds insulation, the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 and Technical Booklet F2 come into play, and the borough council’s Building Control service is the contact. The island-of-Ireland reference for this type of work is asbestos cement roof encapsulation at SAICA Warrenpoint, Co. Down. When you enquire, say what each building is used for and whether fruit, feed or animals will be inside while the work goes on.