New Website for Schools with Leaking Roofs

SIG Design & Technology has launched a new website specifically for schools, called FixMySchoolRoof.com. The website provides advice and information about school roofs, and explains how schools can obtain grant funding for repairs and replacement.

Leaking roofs have become an increasing problem for schools. Some suffer from lack of continuing maintenance or have simply reached their end of life, but sometimes school personnel don’t have sufficient information about how to look after their school’s building fabric. This can apply in particular to independent academies as they become self-supporting away from local authority control and support.

The website contains information about the specific risks for schools with leaking roofs, help with maintenance and common issues, and advice on how to apply for funding.

SIG’s National Specification Manage for Bituminous Membranes, Ian Dryden, has worked on many school roofing projects. “The government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency has a Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) to which academies and sixth form colleges can apply,” he explains, “but there is a shortage of funds and to make sure they get properly considered, schools need to take expert advice.”

SIG Design and Technology has been providing free advice on design and construction of flat roofs for many years, as part of their ‘8 Steps to a Perfect Roof’ philosophy. It was a natural step to offer this advice to schools as well, says Dryden. “At SIG D&T we can provide free advice on CIF funding applications, from assessing whether a school has a need through a full condition survey and assistance with the bidding process itself to helping MAT’s program and budget works across their campus’. We’ve had considerable success in the 2017/18 funding round and these projects are now going ahead on site. We are now working with schools who wish to apply for roof repairs and replacements for 2018.”

The website has a blog where the team are publishing articles about funding, repairs, health and safety and maintenance of school roofs, along with regularly reports on current school repair projects and case studies of successfully completed projects. Interested school personnel, whether they be school business managers, head teachers, governors, teachers or maintenance staff, can subscribe to a free newsletter here.

Visit the fixmyschoolroof.com website