Ashby Building re-roof

Our Christchurch Projects & Interiors team had just 14 weeks over the summer holidays to complete a large package of roofing works at the Ashby Building, the shared dining room, kitchen, chapel, study centre, recreation facilities and offices that sits at the heart of the Rochester & Rutherford Hall student accommodation at the University of Canterbury.

Our scope included roof replacements, roof upgrades, mechanical upgrades for the kitchen, new windows and fire upgrades over 1,200sqm. We tented and wrapped significant areas of the roof to allow work to continue whatever the weather and protect the building, a wise decision over an unusually wet summer.

The substantial amount of asbestos underlay in the roof of the 80’s-era building was anticipated and we closely monitored the removal. The discovery of mould in the kitchen area was less expected, but we managed to incorporate remediation works into the tight programme alongside other significant changes, including installing a new resin floor in the kitchen.

Working over the Christmas and New Year period, when the construction industry generally shuts down for upwards of a month, required meticulous planning to ensure that subcontractors, suppliers and materials
were available. Our dedicated team successfully completed the work in time for the new academic year, even achieving a good waste diversion result by recycling all the old metal roofing and ducting.