Gaco Asbestos Roof Waterproofing in Newry — Encapsulation Without Removal

Duratite’s island-of-Ireland reference for asbestos cement roof encapsulation is SAICA’s site at Warrenpoint, a town in the same council district as Newry, so the nearest completed example of this work is close to home. Newry itself, with 28,026 residents in Census 2021, sits at the head of Carlingford Lough on the border with Co. Louth. It is the hub of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, whose settlements include Warrenpoint and Burren, Kilkeel, Bessbrook, Rostrevor and Crossmaglen.

The district is large and varied. The council puts it at about 1,634 km² in the south-east of Northern Ireland, taking in southern Co. Armagh and much of Co. Down, with roughly 150 km of coastline and three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: the Mournes, the Ring of Gullion, and Strangford and Lecale. Much of that land is farmed. DAERA’s June 2025 census recorded 4,098 farms across the council area, covering 128,134 hectares, 98,927 of them grass, with 209,143 cattle and 243,873 sheep.

The Met Office’s Killowen station, the long-term reference for the Newry area in our data, averaged about 1,061 mm of rain a year over 1991 to 2020, on around 155 wet days. That is well above Armagh’s 824 mm. On an ageing asbestos cement roof it means more water through every wet spell, heavier moss and lichen, and faster wear at laps, ridges and fixings. Sheep sheds, cattle houses and stores across the district that still carry those sheets are exposed to all of it.

Encapsulation deals with the whole roof while leaving the sheets on the building. After a condition survey, the approved installer replaces broken sheets, cleans the surface without abrading it and seals it with Gaco urethane coatings. In sensitive landscapes such as the Ring of Gullion or the Mournes, washings from cleaning are collected rather than allowed to run into streams. Access is from crawling boards and staging, and coating waits for a dry roof and conditions within Gaco’s published limits. Duratite supplies the coatings and connects Newry customers with an approved installer.

The Control of Asbestos Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 apply in Newry and across the district, with HSENI as regulator, and the installer prepares a risk assessment and plan of work before starting. Sites just over the border in Co. Louth come under the Republic’s asbestos regulations and the Health and Safety Authority, including the HSA permit now needed for notifiable work. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is the building control contact if insulation is added under the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 and Technical Booklet F2.