Located in the North of Belgium near the borders of the Netherlands and Germany, the Terhills Resort was a large undertaking for all parties involved. Not only are the 250 cottages all unique in size and features, the premium holiday park was also built with sustainable initiatives at the forefront.
The luxury retreat was fully designed by Dutch agency Zeelenberg Architecture and landscape architect Jean Henkens. A former mining and gravel quarrying site, the resort is built around a stunning natural lake pastured between the trees.
The 250 cottages are all unique in shape and size, each tilted in a slightly different direction to provide privacy for its guests. The buildings are made up of circular, renewable materials throughout, without compromising on comfort or luxury.
No efforts were spared to make the Terhills Resort a haven of sustainability. Naturally, the choice of roofing system had to comply with the overall sustainability goals of the project. Zeelenberg Architectuur prescribed the use of EPDM membranes for their superior durability of over 50 years. A vapor barrier membrane was installed over the wooden roof deck of the cottages, followed by PIR insulation boards. A total of 25,000 m² of 1.1 mm thick RubberGard EPDM membranes were fully adhered on top.
One of the main challenges was that the cottages were all slightly different, not only in terms of dimensions, but also featuring different roof details. Firestone Building Products’ roofing experts carried out a Bill of Quantities Calculation (BOQ) for the roof of every single cottage.
Installation was carried out by Firestone Master Contractor TECTUM DEKKERS within a very ambitious timeframe. Works started in May 2019 and although they were briefly halted in 2020 due to the first COVID lockdown in Belgium, the roofs of all 250 cottages were completed later that year.
In order to further reduce installation time, the membranes were cut to measure offsite. In addition, thanks to the availability of RubberGard EPDM in large panels, the number of seams was greatly reduced, with most roofs installed with one single panel without any seams at all. The ease that the RubberGard EPDM system offers when sealing roof details such as ventilation pipes was also an important asset during installation.
