A Royal connection for the Lead Contractors Association Murdoch Awards 2022

2022 has seen many changes, the World recovering from a pandemic, the Queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee then sadly passed away, having served as the longest reigning Monarch.

The LCA celebrated 26 years of its coveted Murdoch Awards, awarded only to those who demonstrate the very highest standards of craftmanship in lead roofing.

Chairman Allan Anderson opened proceedings and welcomed a record turnout of members who were in attendance not only to witness an awards event but to also undertake further professional development and listen to experts from the industry sharing their knowledge.

The Murdoch Award Winner: P Webb Roofing & Building Services Ltd with The Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle

P Webb Roofing & Building Services Ltd undertook the replacement of the Circa 100 year old lead roof to the Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle. The lead roof replacement included the roof and vertical sides of the historic glazed roof lantern, which runs centrally the full length of the Waterloo Chamber, and the two lower roofs to either side.

In addition, replacement of lead cladding to the six early 19th century iron roof trusses, which span the width of the Waterloo Chamber, supporting the lantern roof, and off which the lower roofs are hung. The iron trusses bear off stone buttresses to either side of the chamber, the caps of which were also lead clad to reduce water ingress and mitigate the risk of corrosion to the truss ends.

The roof was re-designed to rework rainwater catchment areas to remove high volume areas and exceed 100 year storm water run-off resilience. As the building is historic and of great importance, a lot of the detailing was bespoke, displaying immense craftsmanship and in addition the contractor went to great lengths to ensure the design complied with LCA Guide to Best Practice and provided maximum ventilation. Further, the design changes by the project architect, accepted by Historic England, specified a flush lantern window façade with the rectangle rainwater pipes ‘hidden’ which resulted in an important detail integrated into the design whilst maintaining an aesthetically pleasing appearance. This change importantly cast no shadow over the historic glazing panels that could be read from inside of the building looking up. A change to the historic design which is practical but benefits the aesthetics with a nod to the Victorian ‘functional but beautiful’ - they so often hid rainwater pipes in columns! The lead was supplied by CEL and ALM.

Murdoch Finalist: M & I Lead with The Heritage Council of Ireland Building

The building had originally been fitted with a copper roof that failed. M & I Lead supplied and installed a new lead vented ridge profile to lead crown roof requiring a complete and complex re-design of roof and box gutters using Code 8 lead on the roof and box gutters to replace failed copper. The new lead was laid on close boarding substrate and building paper. Code 6 was used on the roof and cladding to lift shaft. The lead was supplied by Metal Processors.

Murdoch Finalist: Richardson Roofing Co Ltd with Claridge’s London

The works to this prestigious and prominent London Hotel comprised of lead sheet to crown roof, lead flashings, lead linings to gutter, lead cornices. Code 3 lead soakers and Code 4 Lead flashings. Code 5 lead chimney back gutter. Parapet capping in Code 6 lead sheet, covering to cornices in Code 6 lead. Coverings to Crown roof in Code 8 lead including wood roll joints, Code 8 lead to dormer roofs and dormer cheeks. Code 8 lead lining to parapet gutters including catch pits/outlets. The lead was supplied by ALM.

Murdoch Sponsors Award Winner: Northwest Lead Ltd with Manchester Royal Infirmary

The split level cornice used code 6 lead and was installed in a staggered welt pattern with copper clips to the leading edge and to the welts. The higher level of the cornice was to have the heavy section cast iron guttering laid upon it which they identified as being a potential cause of thermal restriction so they came up with a solution that involved welding cast lead blocks to the cornice which were cut to height to accommodate the gutter levels and were only positioned within the central third of each panel so that the gutter weight wasn’t imposing on the parts of the cornice lead which needed to expand/contract. The welts were positioned in such a way that the cast lead support blocks could sit at the correct locations to sufficiently support the cast iron gutters whilst maintaining correct sizing and fixing of the cornice panels.

The Cupola cladding used Code 6 for all the works, the original decorative timber scrolls were badly eroded so it was decided that the new scrolls would have a lead covering to protect the skyward faces and were fixed at the head within a rebate and covered with a decorative timber panel to protect the top edge and fixings.

A new timber finial post and ball was constructed and covered with lead separately so as to be fed over a stainless rod for stability which in turn required intermediate sleeves to be welded to the joint areas around the rod to maintain the weathering between the different components.

Murdoch Sponsors Award Finalist: Sussex Leadcraft Ltd with Coleridge Boarding House

Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a Royal Charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552. Coleridge Boarding House was named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Extensive leadwork at an exceptionally high standard in Code 5/6 milled lead to 8.no to the dormer top flat roofs. The lead was supplied by ECOBAT.

Murdoch Sponsors Award Finalist: Lead It Be Ltd with Madrid Road

Previous lead works had been undertaken by others in 2005 which had not included ventilation and extensive underside corrosion had taken place. The storms early this year managed to remove half of the dormer top. The contractor viewed the damage and redesigned the roof to LCA guide standards using wood rolls and the essential ventilation, then undertook the works to 3 dormer windows sectioned into central lead valley/ gutter. Dormer roofs consist of 4x lead bays at 600 centres. Stainless steel 45° profile used to form drip edge and prevent repeated wind lift in extreme conditions. The lead was supplied by ALM.

Murdoch Ornamental Award Winner: Architectural Lead & Metalwork Ltd with The Windsor Collar Casting

Sandcast collars manufactured for Windsor Castle. The project demonstrated the sandcasting technique from pattern to finished product of rainwater pipe collars that are used on the restoration work at Windsor castle. The pattern for this component comprised of a two part section for the body of the collar and a core box for moulding a sand core, used to create the internal void which houses the rainwater pipe.

Murdoch Ornamental Award Finalist: Turners Ornamental with 3m Tree Planter

The specially designed and constructed 3m tree planter for a private residence in Norfolk, took just over a year to produce weighing some 1600kg a special jig had to be produced to hold and support the planter in place. The base section weighed over 300kg and measured 9.3m in circumference taking up a considerable part of the workshop floor.

Murdoch Ornamental Award Finalist: Conservation Leadwork Ltd with Bibury Court

Rainwater Heads at Bibury Court, the Grade I listed 17th Century Manor House was undergoing a complete restoration and over the past four and a half years they had been tasked with the replacement of the leadwork to the entire property. This included the removal or restoration of 30 runs of lead rainwater heads and pipes.

The present owner is a world renowned industrial designer and wanted two feature rainwater heads at low level close to entrance areas.

He had seen a similar rainwater head at a property owned by a family friend and used this as the basis for his final design which included a motif above the face which he has used on other projects. One of the heads is bossed from Code 8 sandcast lead and the other from Code 7 sandcast lead.

This gives a subtle but noticeable difference in the sharpness of the features. Each head weighs approximately 40kgs and is 750mm high. The castellation at the top of the rainwater head is cast at 10mm thick to strengthen the top edge. The client asked for the castellation and ceed motifs to be left as rough castings to emphasise the bespoke nature of the heads. The leadwork is left untreated to patinate naturally over time.

The Murdoch Awards sponsors, Paul Walters and Alan Barker from ALM, together with Adrian Farley from ECOBAT, provided the prestigious awards for all winners and finalists. As market leaders of high quality lead sheet, they endorsed the high standards achieved by the award winners.

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners of this year’s Murdoch Awards. As the independent guardian of the lead industry standards, the LCA represents the Mark of Quality, supplying technical information and services to support the industry and drive up standards.

Visit www.leadcontractors.co.uk to see videos of the LCA Murdoch 2022 Awards presentation.