BBC Landscaped Roof Garden – Liquid Roofing

Broadcasting House, Belfast is the headquarters building from which BBC Northern Ireland operates many of its broadcasting services. The building is located on Ormeau Avenue in Belfast city centre, at the junction with Bedford Street.

The six-storey building was designed in 1936 by James Millar from Glasgow in neo-Georgian style, steel framed with reinforced concrete floors and roof and a facing of sand-faced bricks. Work started in 1938 and continued despite World War II to opening in May 1941. It featured a concert hall and several radio studios (television took until 1953 to reach Northern Ireland). In 1975 an eight-storey extension was built on Ormeau Avenue and in 1984 a three-storey extension, for the expanding news and current affairs service, was added in Linen Hall Street West.

The roof terrace had reached a point where the old bitumen (built up system) was beginning to fail. Thermal expansion had begun to shrink the bitumen, forming cracks and subsequent water ingress to the studios below.

We were approached and tasked to formulate a specification to waterproof the roof and provide a durable long lasting waterproof membrane.

Issues surrounding the project such as ensuring the building could remain in use and that the roof had several air conditioning units meant we had to provide a product which was moisture cured and without solvent fumes.

We specified Tor Elastaseal Z (Zero Solvent Odour) which has been developed specifically for use in hospitals, schools etc and areas where traditional solvent based liquid roofing membranes with hazardous odours were unsuitable.