Gaco Asbestos Roof Waterproofing in County Sligo — Encapsulation Without Removal

Beyond Sligo town, the county is a landscape of farms and small settlements such as Ballymote, Tobercurry, Enniscrone, Collooney, Strandhill and Grange. Census 2022 recorded 70,198 people in County Sligo. Teagasc, which covers the county through its Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal advisory region, reports sheep farming concentrated on coastal farmland with cattle enterprises widespread right across the county. It also notes the same trend seen through the wider region: holdings are consolidating into fewer, larger farms.

That consolidation has a direct effect on roofs. When one farmer takes over a neighbour’s land, the buildings often come too, and a single enterprise may end up responsible for several yards of sheds put up in different decades. The oldest of those, lambing sheds, cattle houses, haybarns and machinery stores, were commonly roofed with corrugated asbestos cement. Some are still essential; others are used less but still need to keep the weather out. Knowing which roofs are worth sealing and which are beyond saving is the starting point for any plan.

No station in County Sligo has a full published 30-year Met Éireann normal, so the nearest reference is Belmullet in Co. Mayo, which averaged about 1,242 mm of rain a year over 1991 to 2020 and roughly 201 wet days. Coastal farmland, where Teagasc says sheep are concentrated, is also where roofs meet the strongest Atlantic weather. Over the years that erodes the cement face, lets moss take hold and loosens fixings. Encapsulation seals what is there. Gaco urethane coatings, U91 and U92 being the grades used on asbestos cement, are applied over the existing roof, so the sheets stay on and the shed stays in use. An approved installer surveys, replaces broken sheets, prepares the surface without abrading it and applies the coating in a dry spell within Gaco’s limits. Duratite supplies the materials; the installer does the work.

On a Sligo farm, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Exposure to Asbestos) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 386 of 2006, as amended) govern work that could disturb asbestos cement, and the Health and Safety Authority is the enforcing body. Sheets cannot be walked on, so safe access comes first. Sligo County Council is the building control authority, and TGD L 2022 applies if insulation is changed. The island-of-Ireland reference project for asbestos roof encapsulation is SAICA Warrenpoint, Co. Down.

If you are enquiring about several Sligo yards at once, list each building with its use and approximate age, and flag the ones that matter most to the running of the farm. Ground-level photos of each roof are enough to start the conversation.