No clear winner in curling slates row

Construction News 10/05/2007

BY GRANT PRIOR

BOTH sides are claiming victory in a three-year legal battle between a roofing contractor and a slate tile manufacturer.

Essex specialist Apex Roofing Services and Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit), part of the manufacturer Dansk Eternit group in Denmark, have been at war since roof tiles lifted and curled on housing estates in east London and Kent.

Apex claimed the 'Zeeland' slates were defective, while Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit) put the blame on incorrect installation.

A High Court judge has now ruled the tiles that lifted were not of sufficient quality. But he also ruled it had not been proved that the slates which had curled but not lifted were defective.

Mr Justice Kitchin also ruled in favour of Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit) over a copyright technicality.

The split decision has left both sides claiming a triumph and a further hearing is pencilled in to decide the level of compensation due to Apex over the defective slates.

Apex senior partner Roy Leader said: "We have already replaced the roofs on 59 properties with Marley Eternit slates and we are asking the court to order Cembrit to reimburse us for the full costs of this."

A Cembrit Blunn (now known as Cembrit) spokesman said:"If you want to use a football analogy, the result was 2:1 to us. Since 2003 we have done all we could to try to resolve the disagreement but that has not been possible and a resolution remains to be found."

The court heard that the main problem concerned the thickness of weatherproof coating on some of the slates.

Mr Justice Kitchin said: "I am satisfied the Zeeland slates which have lifted were not of satisfactory quality. The lifting was caused by an inherent characteristic of the slates and cannot be attributed to faulty or defective workmanship.

"Zeeland slates which have merely curled but have shown no sign of lifting were of satisfactory quality.

"The fact that some slates were of satisfactory quality and others were not is not surprising. It is simply a ref lection of the variability of the back coating on the tiles."