A Dutch manufacturer of fireproof flat roof coatings is recommending IPP Limited’s Magply boards as the ideal substrate on which to install its liquid applied treatments: based not only on their fire rating and stability, but also because of the material’s flatness.
A major installation is currently underway in Basildon, Essex, on an industrial building known as ‘The Gloucester’s, where a long-established local building company Davis Bros is overlaying the old ‘northlight’ roof over its own premises and that of its neighbours with a Prokol specification that includes 6mm Magply.
Prokol UK offers training, project management and other support to clients across the construction industry with systems certified for flooring, tanking, sealing chemical bunds and even encapsulating asbestos sheeting, as well as for flat roofing – where it can provide guarantee periods of 30 or even 50 years.
Richard Moore, a senior executive for Prokol UK, commented: “We used to include OSB3 in our specifications, but because of needing to remove fire risks, we are only recommending Magply A1 non-combustible substrates now.
“In the training courses we run at our Product & Knowledge Centre in Essex, we are now ‘championing’ Magply to clients and contractors being trained to be approved installers because of its characteristics, its fire performance and also its flatness. Once bonded down over the insulation, it offers a far flatter substrate than OSB, or plywood which means the coverage you achieve is much more predictable, and at the same time, eliminates the fire risk. We would also encourage the use of 20mm Magply as the decking material for fire safety – effectively creating a non-combustible sandwich above and below the insulation.”
Ricky Davis, third generation of the Davis Bros family business that started back in 1948, added: “What originally began as a coach building business has expanded over the years to do building, then shop-fitting and public sector projects. We have also fitted out hundreds of pubs in recent years, adding a number of different skillsets as we go.
“We’ve now become accredited installers of the Prokol systems, so we can carry out this work to our buildings on behalf of the management committee and will almost certainly undertake more roofing work in the future, so we have control of what is often a crucial part of the construction process. Sanding and priming Magply in our workshop, learning what is the right amount of sand to apply and with the two-part primer taking around an hour to cure. We purchased a thousand of the 6mm Magply sheets from M&J Roofing Services and the work is progressing well.”
The roof structure is formed from concrete planks over steel trusses and has an existing felt waterproofing system nearing the end of its life. This is being overlaid with Soudal Foam and 100mm of Xtratherm foil-faced insulation, onto which the 6mm Magply boards are bonded using a polyurethane adhesive. The joints are sealed with Prokol’s special high elongation tape before the MonoSeal top layer is applied. This hydrophobic pure polymer waterproofing has the potential to accommodate 1500% elongation.
Magply MOS boards present a fire-safe and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional plywood or OSB products. The different thicknesses of Magply panels are also widely used for flooring and pitched roof installations; as well as being approved by many different manufacturers of render finishes.
