Persie House

Nestled in 1,500 pristine acres of rolling Perthshire countryside is Persie House, a stunning Edwardian mansion built in the early 20th century for Captain George W Rice who commissioned the mansion house and offices. According to local archives, buildings on the land date back to 1800.

Now used as an exclusive use rental property, multiple repairs and maintenance had been carried out over the years but the original slate roof had largely been left untouched.

In 2023, owners Patrick Dean Ltd decided that the roof was ready for an upgrade. Forster Group was appointed to deliver a full replacement of the slate roof, including the striking turret at the front of the building and renewing the glass roof lantern.

“To maintain such a traditional building requires care and expert skill and we appointed Forster Group for their in depth roofing knowledge and expertise. This was quite a complex project which required a lot of planning. Foster Group managed the whole process with care and precision to ensure our roof was replaced quickly, efficiently and with a focus on protecting the structural integrity of the property and its interior.”

Forster Group completed the full roof replacement over a 14-week period starting spring 2024, installing:

Drum of Garvock, Dunning

Architects Yeoman McAllister created a stunning design for this mansion house near Dunning in Perthshire.  Forster completed the slating works which covered an area of over 1,000m², across 23 roof panels including a spectacular turret.  Cupa Heavy 3 Spanish Slate was selected due to its rough surface and close resemblance to the traditional highland slate Ballachulish.  16 valleys and 5 mitred hips were expertly cut to create a striking roof scape.  Due to the extended rafter lengths (extending to 9.7metres in locations) and steep pitching, special consideration had to be given to ensure safe working practices during the works.

The Sidings, Garmouth

Forster successfully delivered an 11 home solar PV retro-fit programme in Garmouth for Aberdeenshire social housing landlord Osprey Housing.

Eleven, eight panel (2kWp) solar PV systems were fitted, on the most southerly facing roof of each home. Due to the lack of southerly facing roof area on one of the homes a split south east/south west array was installed. SolarEdge power optimisers were connected to each panel to optimise the performance across the panels on both roofs.

Power diverters were also fitted in each home, meaning that any solar-generated-electricity not used by the resident, is diverted to heat their hot water tank, further reducing the amount of electricity they need to buy-in from their energy supplier during the day. “This is what really sold it to us”, explained Osprey Housing Energy Support Officer, Jane McWhirr, “as it means that all tenants will benefit, regardless of whether or not they are at home during the day. It was an ideal solution for these properties, which due to being off the gas grid, tend to have high electricity bills.”

The works were completed within a week as programmed, minimising any disruption to the residents. In order to help the residents maximise the benefit from the free electricity generated by the panels on their roof, Forster provided an eight page guide full of useful tips.

The eight panel systems could save the Garmouth residents as much as £200, depending on how much electricity they use during daylight hours. “One tenant said her weekly spend on electricity has already gone down from £20 to £15.”

“Forster have been a great contractor to work with,” said Jane, “they have been very open, with lots of information freely provided at each stage. Everything ran smoothly, with minimal disruption to tenants. Forster were flexible enough to work around our tenants’ availability and even provided each household with a user guide. It’s brilliant to hear that our tenants are already seeing the benefit of the new PV systems, and the improvement in the energy efficiency rating has meant that these homes are now meeting EESSH (Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing). Following the success of this, our first programme of PV, we are now considering rolling out PV programmes across other schemes.”

“We were delighted to be selected to work on this project, and it was really pleasing to receive such positive feedback from Osprey and their tenants” said Forster Energy Managing Director, Steve Scott. “PV provides a great solution for meeting the EESSH and tacking fuel poverty. It is cost effective and less intrusive than other measures and can have a significant impact on the Energy Efficiency ratings of homes and other buildings”.

The project was delivered through the Scottish Procurement Alliance (SPA) Energy Efficiency & Refurbishment framework. “We are really pleased with how this project was successfully delivered, it’s a great example of our Energy Efficiency & Refurbishment framework working well. Forster demonstrate the excellence we strive for at SPA, they have effectively safeguarded our client and demonstrate a suitable opportunity to procure an energy efficiency solution,” said Clive Feeney, Head of SPA Operations.

Barratt Homes, Evolution, Aberdeen

This well situated city centre development of executive apartments presented Forster with yet another opportunity to excel in their ability to combine roofing and solar PV installation services.

Having worked with Forster’s for over 20 years, and following their success on the previous Devona Gate and Pinefield sites, Barratt Homes again selected Forster’s to install fully integrated PV tiles (including all electrical and commissioning works) in conjunction with the roofing works at the Evolution development.

Russell, Grampian Slate Grey roof tiles were fitted along with 454 Solar Century C21e PV tiles on five of the sites 13 flatted blocks. This included a 172 tile (8.6kWp) and 144 tile (7.18kWp) array on the two prominent entry blocks. The electricity generated is being used to provide power for communal areas (ie corridor and stairway lighting) within the blocks.

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