Our commercial roof had suffered from repeated leaks and years of temporary patch repairs. The initial survey was thorough and highlighted the areas requiring repair, corrosion treatment and protective coating. Communication remained excellent throughout the project, the site was kept organised and we received progress photographs at every stage. Since the work was completed, we have experienced no further water ingress.
Helen J.Facilities Director, West MidlandsCommercial case study
Roof Coating School Sports Hall near Reading, Berkshire
Chalked fine-rib PE block roof near Reading treated for cut edge corrosion and recoated anthracite, with the sports hall kept open for lessons throughout.
Documented in six stagesSurvey-led from day oneReal project record
Accredited, insured and audited
IPAFPOWERED ACCESS TRAINED£10mPUBLIC LIABILITYIPAFPOWERED ACCESS TRAINED£10mPUBLIC LIABILITYUp to 20-year manufacturer-backed guarantees£10m public liability insuranceFully licensed and qualified drone operatorsTrained, experienced coating teams
LocationReading, Berkshire
BuildingSchool sports hall
ServiceRoof coating
SectorCommercial
Client feedback
What clients say about our work
We instructed the company to respray several occupied industrial units across our estate. Access and working areas were organised carefully, tenants received plenty of notice and there was minimal disruption to daily operations. The colour and finish are consistent across every unit.
David K.Industrial Estate Owner, CoventryThe grain-store roof had corrosion developing around the sheet edges and fixings. We received a clear explanation of the problem, photographs of the affected areas and a sensible quotation. The work was completed neatly and on time.
Thomas E.Grain Farm Owner, CambridgeshireWe had several areas of cracked render and faded exterior walls. Everything was repaired properly before the coating was applied, and the finished building looks clean, modern and professionally maintained.
Rebecca S.Commercial Property Manager, BristolThe factory remained operational throughout the project, which was essential for us. The team followed our site procedures and completed the roof coating safely and efficiently.
Michael B.Factory Manager, ManchesterWe thought the machinery shed would need completely recladding, but they recommended a more affordable coating solution. It now looks years younger.
Peter C.Agricultural Contractor, ShropshireThe team kept us informed throughout and carefully planned the work around customers, tenants and delivery vehicles.
Claire M.Retail Park Manager, NottinghamOur warehouse cladding was badly faded. The new coating has completely transformed the appearance of the building.
Andrew T.Warehouse Owner, BirminghamThey worked around the livestock and daily farm routine without causing us any problems. Proper job.
James R.Dairy Farmer, SomersetThe work was completed on schedule and caused very little disruption to the estate.
Susan W.Estate Manager, YorkshireReliable team, tidy workmanship and a very professional finish.
Mark H.Commercial Landlord, OxfordExcellent work. The barn looks brand new.
Daniel P.Farm Owner, Lincolnshire
Stage 01 · Before
The building and the brief: roof coating school sports hall near Reading
Roof Coating School Sports Hall near Reading is what this project delivered: a chalked PE block roof brought back with a survey-led anthracite system while the hall kept teaching. A sports hall cannot simply close for a fortnight (PE lessons, clubs, exams and community hire all share the same block), so when a facilities manager watched the fine-rib metal roof chalk back to a pale, powdery white with rust bleeding at the laps, the brief was simple: can the roof be saved, and can the hall stay in use while the work is done. This roof coating school sports hall job answered yes to both.
Yes to both. The photographs that follow trace this roof coating school sports hall job from first survey to the finished anthracite roof. It is a textbook example of the work our commercial roof coating service does on education and public buildings across Berkshire — the same crews who work as commercial painters and industrial painting contractors on workshops and estates nationwide.
The building is a local-authority style sports hall of a type found on secondary and primary campuses across the Reading corridor: a high single-storey PE block in pale grey profiled steel cladding, PE store access on the end elevation, blank fascia above the long wall, and a shallow pitch roof in fine-rib trapezoidal metal sheeting running the full depth of the hall.
That roof was the problem. The original factory finish had reached the end of its life. The coating had chalked almost white, colour varied from sheet to sheet, rust was tracking from fixings along the sheet laps, and the eaves gutter run was stained and dirty. From the playground the hall already looked tired, and from the roof it was clear the protective film had failed years earlier.
Re-sheeting was the expensive wrong answer. Stripping a school sports hall roof means scaffold, open weather, weeks of disruption and a capital cost no maintenance budget wants to face if the sheets are still sound. What the building needed was a proper roof coating school sports hall: survey-led preparation, cut-edge and lap treatment where corrosion had started, and a high-build protective system over a structure that still had life left in it.
What the survey found
That survey is the backbone of every roof coating school sports hall programme we run: no specification is written until the sheets, laps, fixings and gutters have been walked and photographed.
We walked every slope of the roof before anything was written down. The sheets themselves were structurally sound, with no holes and no failed purlins, but the surface told the usual end-of-life story. Heavy chalking across the whole roof field. Oxidation around screw heads. Early cut edge corrosion along the sheet laps and at the eaves, where the cut ends of the fine-rib profile had begun to rust back from the edge.
Cut edge corrosion is the detail that decides these jobs. Caught at this stage, it is treated, primed and sealed as part of the coating programme. Left alone, it keeps eating along the lap until the sheet ends fail, and then the conversation is about replacement rather than coating. This roof was caught in time, which is exactly where a coating system earns its keep for a school facilities team.
The survey also fixed the constraints of a live campus: PE lessons continuing below, after-school clubs, delivery access to the PE store, and a playground apron that had to stay usable. The programme was planned around the school day, not the other way round.
Photographed at every stageSurvey before any priceManufacturer coating systemsUK-wide coverage
On site
The work, stage by stage
Each stage below is part of the same roof coating school sports hall sequence we use on PE blocks and school halls across Berkshire and the wider UK.
The sequence below follows the roof from the state we found it in to the finished anthracite grey.
Stage 02 · Washing down
Washing down
The washed upper slope shows the contrast with the chalked sheets still waiting below it.
Preparation began with a full pressure wash of the fine-rib field, stripping chalked residue, dirt and loose coating back to a sound surface. Wash water was managed at the gutters so the playground and wall heads stayed clean. The gutter run itself was cleared and cleaned, because a roof coating job that pours dirty water down a PE block wall has failed before the first coat goes on.
Stage 03 · Preparation
Preparation
Gutter line and wall head masked off, with rust inhibiting primer over the treated fixings and lap edges.
Then the stage that decides how long the finished roof lasts. Rusted fixing heads were treated and primed. Corroded lap edges were taken back to sound metal and sealed. The cut edges at the eaves, the worst of the corrosion, received the same rust-inhibiting treatment along their full length. None of this work shouts from the finished photographs. All of it matters more than the colour that covers it.
Stage 04 · Spraying
Spraying
The first band of anthracite going on with a straight wet edge, worked away from the prepared sheets.
With repairs primed, the roof was masked for spraying. Gutter lines and wall heads were protected along the eaves, and the playground below the working edge was managed in clear zones so the hall kept operating. The coating system went on in spray-applied coats: a high-build protective topcoat in anthracite grey, chosen to sit cleanly against the light grey cladding from our coating colours range. The film seals treated laps and fixings, bridges the small thermal movement a metal roof makes every day, and puts a waterproof, UV-stable surface back over sheets that had none of those properties left.
Stage 05 · After
After
The whole roof finished in even anthracite from the original viewpoint, walls and playground untouched.
Stage 06 · Detail
Detail
The coating turns the fine-rib ends and the verge in one even film above the cleaned gutter.
Commercial & industrial coating systems we specify
Rust-OleumJotunSherwin-WilliamsPPGSika
Always specified to the substrate and exposure after a free site survey
The finished roof coating school sports hall
From the same viewpoint as the first photograph, the change is obvious. The chalked, streaked roof that was dragging the PE block down now reads as one clean, even sweep of anthracite from ridge to gutter. The walls and doors below were untouched throughout. The gutter sits clean under a crisp coated edge. The building looks maintained, not deferred.
For a facilities manager comparing quotes, this roof coating school sports hall record is the proof that the hall can stay open, the sheets can be saved, and the finished anthracite roof will read as cared-for from the playground.
The sports hall never closed for the coating programme. Lessons and hire slots ran as booked. That is what a well planned coating job on a working education building should look like from the facilities side: survey, schedule, progress, finish — without rewriting the school calendar.
Commercial roof coating, roof coating school sports hall and industrial painters across Berkshire and the UK
Reading and the M4 corridor carry hundreds of roofs exactly like this one: fine-rib metal put up decades ago, factory finishes past their best, and organisations underneath that cannot afford a re-sheet. We provide commercial roof coating in Reading and across Berkshire, with the same crews working as industrial painters and commercial painters on schools, warehouses, workshops and estates.
The same specification serves commercial, industrial and agricultural buildings alike — from PE blocks and workshops to warehouse and farm buildings — and our teams apply it nationwide as agricultural painters and barn painters where the brief is farm stock rather than a school hall. If your own roof has started to chalk, streak or show rust at the laps, the economics are simple: coating a sound roof now costs a fraction of replacing a failed one later, in disruption as much as in capital. Book a free site survey and we will walk the roof, photograph every lap and fixing, and give you an honest written picture of where it stands.
For the same approach on other building types, see our case study of a roof coating on an MOT garage near Swindon and a supermarket roof coating near Exeter.
Project completed this summer.
Parents, governors and site staff notice the roof from the playground first, which is why a finished roof coating school sports hall in anthracite does as much for campus pride as it does for sheet protection.
Standards behind our roof coating work
If you manage a PE block or multi-use hall and want the same roof coating school sports hall approach on your site, start with a free survey rather than a phone quote — the constraints of a live campus always decide the method.
Roof coating on a live school site is planned around the campus day from the survey stage, with access, exclusion zones and weather limits agreed before anyone leaves the ground. See our commercial roof coating service page for how we approach every building. Our teams work to the HSE's work at height guidance, and we hold CHAS accreditation so the health and safety paperwork a site manager asks for is ready before the first van arrives. Call 0121 823 0710.
How we work
How we ran the work on this project
1. BeforeChalked fine-rib sheets with rust staining along the laps and a stained gutter run at the eaves.
2. Washing downThe washed upper slope shows the contrast with the chalked sheets still waiting below it.
3. PreparationGutter line and wall head masked off, with rust inhibiting primer over the treated fixings and lap edges.
4. SprayingThe first band of anthracite going on with a straight wet edge, worked away from the prepared sheets.
5. AfterThe whole roof finished in even anthracite from the original viewpoint, walls and playground untouched.
6. DetailThe coating turns the fine-rib ends and the verge in one even film above the cleaned gutter.
How we work on commercial buildings
Survey before priceOne of our surveyors inspects the elevation in person and writes up what it needs before any number is quoted.
Kept open and tradingAccess and the noisy stages are planned around your customers and staff, so the building keeps working.
Manufacturer coating systemsThe finish is specified to the substrate and the exposure, in your identity colour, not a generic tin of paint.
Right across the UKOffices, retail parks, showrooms and business units, wherever they are in the country.
Thinking about the same on your school sports hall?
We coated this school sports hall near Reading, Berkshire after a survey, not a phone quote. Send us your building type, the surface and what you can see going wrong, and one of our surveyors will take a look and set out the route in writing.
Book your free site surveyWhy choose NCS
Why businesses trust National Coating Specialists
Survey-led, not sales-ledOne of our surveyors inspects the building, photographs the condition and quotes only what it needs - no pressure, no obligation.
£10m liability insuranceFull ten million pounds public liability cover on every project, from single-barn resprays to multi-phase industrial sites.
Accredited & auditedCHAS, SafeContractor Approved, Constructionline Gold and Acclaim accredited; IPAF-trained teams for powered access.
Up to 20-year guaranteesManufacturer-backed guarantees of up to twenty years, with the true term for your building confirmed in writing at survey.
Licensed drone surveysFully licensed and qualified drone operators survey large or fragile roofs safely before anyone quotes a number.
One accountable contractorThe team that surveys and quotes your building is the team accountable for the work - roofs, walls, cladding and interiors together.
Accredited, insured and audited
IPAFPOWERED ACCESS TRAINED£10mPUBLIC LIABILITYIPAFPOWERED ACCESS TRAINED£10mPUBLIC LIABILITYBook a free, no-obligation site survey
We coat and refurbish commercial, industrial and agricultural roofs and walls in place, right across the UK. Tell us about your building and we’ll arrange a survey at a time that suits you.
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Sectors and buildings we coat
Survey-led coating, spraying and exterior refurbishment across commercial, industrial and agricultural property in the UK.
Industrial & warehouse roofsCommercial claddingFactories & production unitsAgricultural buildingsRetail & business unitsManaged estates & facilitiesRender & masonryMetal cladding & cut-edge corrosion
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