Gaco Asbestos Roof Waterproofing in Drogheda — Encapsulation Without Removal

Drogheda is the biggest town in County Louth, home to 44,135 people at Census 2022, and it straddles the Louth and Meath border at the mouth of the River Boyne. The historic centre and the Borough District of Drogheda sit on the Louth bank. Drogheda Port Company’s registered address, Harbourville on Mornington Road, places its harbour facilities on the Meath side of the estuary. For anyone planning roof work that split is worth knowing early, because two buildings facing each other across the river can come under different councils.

The port is a working cargo business. Drogheda Port Company publishes a ten-year record of the tonnage imported and exported through its Boyne-side facilities, and that trade relies on covered storage beside the quays. Around the town, retail, health and manufacturing employment adds workshops, warehouses and commercial units. Buildings of the age when asbestos cement was a standard industrial sheet often still wear it. Weather has been working on those roofs for decades. The nearest long-term Met Éireann station, Dublin Airport, averaged 772.5 mm of rain a year over 1991 to 2020 with around 137 wet days, and waterside roofs are more exposed to wind-driven rain than sheltered inland sheds.

Taking an asbestos roof off a busy unit means scaffolding, sealed waste, days with the building open to the sky and, often, stock and staff moved out. Encapsulation avoids most of that. The sheets stay put and Gaco urethane coatings, U91 and U92 being the grades used on asbestos cement, are applied over the existing roof to form a seamless waterproof layer. The approved installer surveys the roof, flags sheets that need replacing, protects rooflights and plant, and prepares the surface without abrading it. Subject to the installer’s risk assessment, work inside a warehouse can often carry on underneath. Duratite supplies the coating system and an approved installer carries out the job.

Across the Republic, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Exposure to Asbestos) Regulations 2006, S.I. No. 386 of 2006 as amended, govern work that may disturb asbestos, and the Health and Safety Authority is the enforcing body. Asbestos cement will not carry a person, so access to a large warehouse roof is engineered before anyone climbs. If insulation is being changed, TGD L 2022 applies. The building control authority is the local council: Louth County Council for the town centre side, and Meath County Council for buildings on the Meath bank. SAICA Warrenpoint, Co. Down is the island-of-Ireland reference project for this kind of encapsulation.

When you get in touch about a Drogheda building, say which bank of the Boyne it stands on, what goes on underneath the roof, and whether the unit can be accessed outside trading or shipping hours. Photos of the roof from the ground, and of any leaks from inside, help the installer decide what the survey needs to cover.