PROJECTS
Spruce was the chosen timber for this project.
Preserving
Stellenbosch’s heritage
Rooftek was involved in a project to repair damage done to the
Lanzerac Hotel following a devastating fire.
By Rooftek Trusses
O
n 28 May 2017, there was a devastating fire gutted
at the Lanzerac Hotel in Stellenbosch, one of
Cape Town’s upmarket towns. The fire damaged
the hotel’s reception, governor’s hall, craven lounge, bar
and offices.
The area is considered a heritage site, which made the
project somewhat complicated, especially making the hotel
to look like it did before the fire.
PROJECT CHALLENGES
Rooftek Trusses, as specialist roof truss designer and
supplier, was approached by various contractors who were
requested by the insurance company to work on the
building. A lack of detail was among the initial challenges
encountered during the project.
The building is close to 100 years old, which created
additional challenges as replicating a building that was close
to a century old was nothing short of impossible. In addition,
the building had to adhere to building regulations that were
not around almost 100 years ago.
The timeframe in which the roof had to be done was very
tight putting a lot of pressure on the team involved.
20 APRIL / MAY 2019 //
The original building was built in phases over the years and
included yellowwood, Douglas fir (Oregon) and pine for the
roof construction.
On some sections of the building, the walls had been
constructed using raw clay. Heritage Western Cape
prohibited the team to doing any reinforcement to the walls
or plastering. Aligning 100-year-old building with current
regulations and todays regulations together created an
opportunity for innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.
GETTING TO WORK
It was decided that the timber of choice would be spruce; it
is part of pine / conifer species and used as a building wood
in Europe. Spruce has a fine grain and is easy to work with
and comes in lengths up to 11.95m.
In total, about 70m 3 of spruce was needed for the
construction and roughly 20m 3 of spruce ceiling was also
needed. Materials used for the non-visual roof construction
were SAP trusses with gang nails from Mitek.
The spruce timber used for the project was sourced from
across South Africa in 200mm x 300mm sizes. The timber
See more on page 22
www.timberiq.co.za