New Retail Centre Takes Off With Innovative Roofing Solution

Location:	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Country:	Australia
Builder:	Construction Control
Fixer:	Hawker Roofing
Products Used:	LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK 700 HI-STRENGTH®

The use of the latest mobile roll forming technology from BlueScope Lysaght has helped overcome a unique construction challenge at Canberra Airport.

Canberra International Airport is developing a 15,000 square metre retail outlet centre on land adjacent to the airport runway. The Brand Depot facility will initially have 70 stores selling up to 200 top name brands when it opens in August, and up to 120 stores with the completion of Stage 2 and 3.

The developer has lofty expectations for the centre, but local firms Construction Control and Hawker Roofing initially faced a height challenge caused by the Brand Depot building's proximity to the runway.

"There was an absolute limit on the height at which a crane could operate without becoming a hazard to aviation," Damian O'Halloran of Hawker Roofing said.

"The original design for the building had two steps in the roof but with restrictions caused by the adjoining airport and its radar there was no way that we could use a crane to lift the roofing sheets into position."

Hawker Roofing then spoke to BlueScope Lysaght and learnt about the company's mobile roll former which has the ability to output sheets directly onto the roof for some building types.

With an eaves height of just 5.5 metres, the Brand Depot building was an ideal candidate for the advanced technique, especially when the developer commissioned a new roof design based on a single run of 82.7 metres from peak to eave.

The roofing profile chosen for the Brand Depot building was LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK® 700 HI-STRENGTH in the COLORBOND® steel colour Shale Grey®.

Hawker Roofing has been in operation for 31 years since Pat O'Halloran founded it, but son Damian, who has been with the company for 20 years, says this was the first time it had been involved with mobile roll forming.

"It has worked extremely well," he said. "The BlueScope Lysaght guys were fantastic. Everyone was pitching in to help. There was a good team spirit and the builder, Construction Control, has been very accommodating."

Damian O'Halloran and the crew from Hawker Roofing found no difficulty in handling the long sheets. "There wasn't a problem," he said. "To receive the sheets on the roof from the roll former we used a crew of eight, then to lay out and fix the sheets we used 14, including a couple to roll out the acoustic blanket and a couple fitting the concealed clips for the profile."

"The mobile roll former really is mobile. BlueScope Lysaght were rolling enough sheets to cover a couple of bays and then setting up again further along the building for the next lot. At most we had to walk the sheets out eight to ten metres."

"The roll out of the sheets onto the roof is really impressive. The BlueScope Lysaght crew have a skid which goes onto the end of the sheet and nobody really has to touch the sheet until it gets to the top."

"We laid out and fixed the roof more quickly than we would have been able to if there had been steps. A couple of my guys were involved with BlueScope Lysaght on the development of the clips for the LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK® 700 HI-STRENGTH profile, so they are completely familiar with it."

"LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK® 700 HI-STRENGTH has a lot of benefits on a job like this because the concealed fix clips allow it to move and you don't have to make any special arrangements for expansion and contraction. In a full day we were fixing 3,000 square metres of roof cladding."

In fact the Hawker Roofing crew had to work around another challenge which arose on the job. Because not all of the Brand Depot framing structure had been erected, they were forced to start fixing the ultra long roof sheets from the middle of the building.

"Originally the sheets were to be laid from left to right, but circumstances forced us to lay them from right to left," Damian O'Halloran explained. "With long sheets you just have to make certain you are square to begin with and then ensure you don't have a big snake in the centre, but that's really nothing different than the care you should take with a 10 metre sheet."

The flexibility of the mobile roll former and its ability to roll sheets directly onto the roof frame were also put to maximum effect on the Brand Depot project.

The roll former was repositioned several times to enable the output of sheets to the roof where needed, with no disruption to the building process.

Having seen the BlueScope Lysaght mobile roll former in action, Damian O'Halloran can clearly see its advantages.

"If you've got a step in the roof and you get over the 40 metre length, perhaps needing two lengths of 25 metres, then you would definitely base your planning around a mobile roll former," he said.

"You've got the advantage of the flexibility with the roll former being able to output the material to the ground and then crane it up, or in a case like this where it is only five metres to the gutter line, you can output it direct to the roof."

"In either case the cladding is produced and accessible very quickly and you can get on with your job."

The unique configuration of BlueScope Lysaght's mobile roll former allows it to tilt up to 25 degrees, delivering long length sheets directly to the roof framework of buildings with eave heights up to 12 metres.

This eliminates transportation challenges, step joints, minimises the possibility of leaks and gives long clean lines while reducing the number of purlins required to support the cladding.

LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK® 700 HI-STRENGTH wide cover, concealed fixed cladding is well suited for long length applications. Its fixing clips allow long sheets to expand and contract without compromising the roof's watertightness.

The clip design provides a secure fixing to the purlin beneath, but still allows longitudinal movement to cope with thermal stresses.

Installation speed is also optimised because of the lack of need for elaborate flashing and because roof fixers do not have to turn sheets up and down at expansion joints.

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