Birchcastle Homes has specified Marley's Duo Edgemere slates for a select development of luxury homes in Wantage.
The tiles were used to give a natural slate look to the roofs of the seven town houses at Jubilee Gardens, while reducing cost and labour time.
The bespoke housebuilder chose Smooth Grey and Old English Dark Red Duo Edgemere slates to give character to both steep and low pitch roofs on the properties, as well as for porches and car ports.
John Castle, design and development director at Birchcastle Homes, comments: “Duo Edgemere slates offered me a quality solution at an affordable price, while achieving the desired look of the overall building. They simulate a natural slate product much better than conventional interlocking roof tiles. It was a win all round on cost of product, reduction in labour and a quality look fitting to the type of houses we wanted to construct.”
Marley's Edgemere slates are large format concrete interlocking tiles with a thin leading edge for a slate like appearance at a more attractive price. The Duo Edgemere gives the appearance of a smaller format slate with a mock bond down the centre of the tile combined with a broken bond laying technique. Therefore it gives the same visual impact as a small format slate with the ease of installation and performance provided by standard interlocking tiles.
Gavin White, product manager at Marley, adds: “While we are seeing high demand for all of our Edgemere slates, the Duo product is proving particularly popular on select developments like this one, as it helps to replicate a luxury specification on the exterior at a lower cost than natural slate. It also gives a small format slate finish, blending well with smaller roof tiles on surrounding properties but is quicker to install, helping to save time and cost on roofing programmes.
“The fact it can be used on lower pitches gives Edgemere more flexibility, which is particularly suited to sites like the one at Jubilee Gardens, which has both steep and low pitch angles.”
The environmental credentials of the whole Edgemere range are another reason that the slates continue to be a popular choice for housing projects, with independent carbon certification, the ability to achieve an A+ rating in the BRE’s Green Guide to Specification and certification to the BES 6001 standard for Responsible Sourcing. All of these benefits contribute towards maximum material credits under the Code for Sustainable Homes and BREEAM.
With only 9.7 tiles per square metre, Edgemere is a single lap solution, that is quicker and easier to install than natural slate and 40% thinner than standard concrete interlocking tiles. With the ability to perform at pitches as low as 17.5°, Edgemere has the versatility to be used on a wide range of roof types and is now available in three variants, standard, riven and duo.