Coating agricultural buildings around Lichfield
The farmland around Lichfield is quiet mixed country: dairy and beef on the pasture, arable on the better ground, and the low ground near the Trent and its tributaries holding water after heavy rain. Farmsteads here typically combine older brick barns with steel portal-frame sheds and clad grain and machinery stores. Most are sound buildings that simply need the roof and cladding protected before weathering turns into water getting in. National Coating Specialists surveys and coats these buildings across the Lichfield area, working from a South-East base on an England-wide basis.
What Staffordshire damp does to farm roofs
Low-lying ground near the river keeps roofs damp longer than the rainfall alone would suggest, and that damp does the slow work. North-facing slopes carry heavy moss, fibre-cement sheets stay saturated through winter, and freeze-thaw opens hairline cracks a fraction wider each year. On steel-clad sheds the factory finish fails first: chalking and fading plastisol, cut-edge corrosion, and fixings weeping rust down the cladding. Dairy and livestock buildings add condensation from below, corroding steel from the underside. A coating programme protects the outer surface, and our survey flags the internal condensation issues that no external coating will fix on its own, so you see the whole picture.
The survey, and what it covers
Two sheds of the same age can be in completely different condition, so every job around Lichfield starts with an inspection on the ground. A typical survey covers:
- Substrate identification: asbestos-cement, fibre-cement, plastisol-coated steel or mixed roofs
- Defect mapping: cracks, holed or slipped sheets, failed laps and corroding fixings
- Rooflights, ridges and flashings, checked separately because they fail differently
- Rainwater goods, including the valley gutters behind a large share of farm leaks
- Access and operational constraints: stock, stored crop and machinery movements
The result is a written report and a recommended order of work, taken as one programme or phased across seasons as budgets allow. The report also separates the roof from the rainwater goods, because around Lichfield a blocked or split valley gutter is behind a surprising share of the leaks owners assume are roof failures. Fixing that first sometimes buys a building several more useful years before any coating is even needed.
Working with the farming calendar
The calendar here pulls between harvest on the arable ground and the autumn housing of dairy and beef stock. We plan to it. Grain and machinery stores get their window once the floor empties. Livestock housing is coated while animals are out at grass, with curing time allowed before they come back inside. On a working dairy, parlours, troughs and feed areas are protected and vehicle movements agreed with you at the start of each day. Coatings need dry substrates and reasonable temperatures, so programmes carry weather contingency rather than promising the British climate will keep, and we agree daily vehicle movements with you so the work fits around the running of the yard.
Coat, repair or replace: the honest version
We will not coat a roof to disguise its problems. Asbestos-cement that is porous, mossy and weathered but otherwise sound is often a strong candidate for encapsulation, and coating it avoids the substantial cost of removal and disposal. Sheets that are cracked through, spalling or structurally tired are not, and pretending otherwise simply postpones the bill. The same applies to steel: cut-edge corrosion and faded plastisol respond well to treatment and recoating, but sheets rusted through need replacing before any coating goes on. Our reports separate the three honestly: what can be coated, what needs repair first, and what is past the point of being good value, so you can plan with accurate information rather than a sales pitch.
