Gaco Asbestos Roof Waterproofing in County Monaghan — Encapsulation Without Removal

Monaghan is a border county in the north-east, sitting on the M1 Economic Corridor between Dublin and Belfast, with Monaghan town less than 100 minutes’ drive from both cities. Census 2022 counted 65,288 people across the county, living in and around Monaghan town, Carrickmacross, Castleblayney and Clones. Farming shapes the landscape. Teagasc’s county soil fertility survey names dairy as Monaghan’s leading farm enterprise, with drystock also significant and tillage only a minor activity. That points to a particular building stock: milking parlours, dairies, cubicle houses and calf sheds, plus beef and sheep housing on drystock holdings.

Food is also the backbone of the county’s industry. The council’s Enterprising Monaghan report describes an economy built around food and manufacturing exporters, naming forklift maker Combilift, Monaghan Mushrooms, Lakeland Dairies and Silver Hill Duck, and it identifies Lough Egish Food Park as Ireland’s largest integrated food industry park. Between the farms and the processors there is a long chain of ancillary buildings, from feed and packaging stores to workshops and vehicle sheds. Where any of these date from the decades when corrugated asbestos cement was a standard roof sheet, the roof is likely to show its age through eroded surfaces, lichen and leaking laps.

A leaking roof over a dairy or a food store is a hygiene problem as well as a maintenance one. Encapsulation tackles the roof without the dust and disruption of removal: Gaco urethane coatings, U91 and U92 being the grades for asbestos cement, are applied over the existing sheets to seal them under a continuous waterproof film. An approved installer surveys the building, replaces broken sheets, and chooses a cleaning method that will not abrade the cement or send debris where it should not go. Work below can often continue, subject to the risk assessment, and application is timed for dry weather within Gaco’s limits. Duratite supplies the coating materials, and the approved installer carries out the work.

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Exposure to Asbestos) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 386 of 2006, as amended) apply to any Monaghan job that could disturb asbestos cement, and the Health and Safety Authority enforces them. Sheets are fragile, so the method relies on staging and crawling boards. Monaghan County Council is the building control authority, and if the job changes the roof insulation, TGD L 2022 applies. For a nearby example on the island of Ireland, the reference project for asbestos cement roof encapsulation is SAICA Warrenpoint, Co. Down.

For a Monaghan enquiry, say whether the building is a farm, food or manufacturing premises, what sits directly under the roof, and any hygiene or audit requirements that apply to the space. That lets the approved installer plan protection and timing before visiting.