Gaco Asbestos Roof Waterproofing in Ennis — Encapsulation Without Removal

Ennis is the county town of Clare and the headquarters of Clare County Council, which covers the town through its Ennis Municipal District, alongside the Shannon, Killaloe and West Clare districts. At Census 2022, Ennis had 27,923 people. As the administrative and service centre for the county, the town draws in people and businesses from a wide rural hinterland, and its roofs range from town-centre commercial premises and older workshops to the farm buildings that ring its edges.

That hinterland is shaped by the farming Teagasc describes for its Galway and Clare advisory region: suckler, sheep and mixed drystock farming predominate, with dairying more concentrated on the lowlands, and the region as a whole counts around 20,000 farmers. Around a town like Ennis that means cattle sheds, sheep housing, haybarns, dairies and machinery stores, plus the stores and workshops of the businesses that serve farmers. Corrugated asbestos cement was a standard sheet for exactly those kinds of building for decades, and many of those roofs are still in place.

Met Éireann’s Shannon Airport station, a short distance south of Ennis, is the reference for local weather. Over 1991 to 2020 it averaged 1,019.7 mm of rain a year, with 1 mm or more on about 168 days. Wet weather on that many days slowly erodes the cement surface, lets moss and lichen build up and works at the fixings and laps. Encapsulation seals an asbestos cement roof where it is. Gaco urethane coatings, U91 and U92 being the grades used on asbestos cement, are applied over the existing sheets, so nothing is stripped and the building stays in use. An approved installer surveys, replaces sheets that are broken, cleans without abrading the cement and applies the coating in dry spells within Gaco’s limits. Duratite supplies the materials, and the approved installer carries out the work.

Whether the roof is on a town-centre workshop or a farm outside Ennis, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Exposure to Asbestos) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 386 of 2006, as amended) apply, and the Health and Safety Authority enforces them. The installer’s risk assessment deals with notification and with safe access, since asbestos cement will not bear a person’s weight. Clare 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.

When enquiring about a building in or around Ennis, say whether it is a town premises or a farm building, what happens inside, and when it is busiest. Photos of the roof from the ground and of any leaks inside are a good starting point for the installer.