Overcladding FAQ

The expert roofing team at Bowford Group Ltd understand that operational downtime is a major concern for industrial facilities. The short answer is yes—your industrial unit can remain fully operational, productive, and safe throughout the entire overcladding process.Unlike a full roof strip-and-replacement, which exposes your internal operations to the elements and hazardous debris, overcladding is an entirely external refurbishment method. We install a lightweight, modern steel or composite skin directly over your building’s existing envelope using a specialized grid spacer system. Because the original roof and walls remain completely intact during construction, your internal stock, sensitive machinery, and staff are fully protected from weather ingress.Our team coordinates closely with your facilities managers to design a phased installation programme. We map out designated safety exclusion zones, site access points, and material handling areas to ensure our external plant machinery and scaffolding never block your loading bays or logistics routes. By scheduling high-disruption tasks around your specific shift patterns and operational peaks, we ensure your business maintains seamless commercial continuity while we transform your property’s thermal efficiency and structural integrity.

A full strip-and-re-sheet project is highly regulated. Removing weathered asbestos panels usually constitutes Notifiable Non-Licensed Work (NNLW) or, if sheets are severely damaged, fully Licensed Work. This triggers a legal requirement to formally notify the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prior to starting. It also demands intensive site monitoring, specialised hazardous waste wrapping, and expensive disposal at licensed facilities, which drives up capital expenditure and extends project timelines. In contrast, overcladding is an HSE-compliant encapsulation strategy. Because the existing asbestos sheets remain completely undisturbed, the project generally falls under lower-risk Non-Licensed Work. By fixing a grid spacer system and a new steel skin directly over the old envelope, we securely seal the asbestos in place. This entirely bypasses the need for HSE notification and hazardous waste disposal costs. It drastically minimises your regulatory liability while keeping your facility fully operational below.At Bowford Group Ltd, we guide clients through the strict complexities of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) when addressing aged chrysotile (asbestos cement) industrial roofs. The regulatory pathway and cost profiles differ significantly between these two methods.

Industrial buildings constructed with portal steel frames and cold-rolled purlins were originally engineered with a structural safety margin. Modern overcladding systems are specifically designed to exploit this, utilising ultra-lightweight, high-tensile steel or aluminium profiles. The combined weight of the new grid spacer bars, insulation quilt, and outer metal skin typically adds less than 15kg/m2 to the dead load of the roof structure.However, we never rely on guesswork. Before specifying any overcladding system, Bowford Group undertakes a comprehensive structural assessment. We calculate the existing dead load, evaluate the condition of your structural purlins, and factor in localized environmental variables such as wind loading and potential snow accumulation.If our structural engineers detect historic deflection or weakened purlin spans, we can often deploy localized strengthening sleeves or additional bridging channels rather than reinforcing the primary portal frame. This ensures the entire overclad assembly is fully certified and completely compliant with UK Building Regulations, without incurring the high costs of structural steel modifications.At Bowford Group Ltd, we find that the vast majority of existing industrial steel structures do not require any structural reinforcement to support a modern overclad system.

Overcladding allows us to introduce a high-performance insulation quilt or composite core between the old and new skins. We typically target a significant drop in U-values to meet or exceed current UK Building Regulations Part L requirements for non-domestic buildings. This drastically slashes your facility's HVAC heating and cooling costs while instantly improving your property's EPC rating, a critical factor for commercial asset valuation and tenant acquisition.

At Bowford Group Ltd, we never simply cover up existing structural issues. Treating cut-edge corrosion on profile metal sheets is a critical prerequisite before any overclad spacers are anchored down. Left unaddressed, capillary action can draw moisture between the sheets, causing the underlying substrate to fail and compromising the new system's anchor points.Our specialist teams first mechanically clean the affected laps, removing all loose plastisol coatings, rust, and debris back to a bright metal finish. We then apply a high-performance, liquid-applied anti-corrosive primer to stabilize the bare steel. Finally, the edges are sealed with an industrial-grade, UV-stable elastomeric membrane.This technical remediation completely halts the advancement of top-sheet peel and edge rot. By restoring the structural integrity of the original metal sheets first, we guarantee a secure, rock-solid foundation for the new overcladding grid system.