Yes.

or to put it another way...

You? Be overly sceptical? NEVERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

It's an act of the rugby gods...no seriously the winds where bad but not as bad as some we've had recently..more on the way it seems.

According to the chairman the club opted to keep the capacity at 18,000 and go for a higher spec stadium so I would imagine that you are being overly skeptical. I'm sure the company who constructed the roof will be more than concerned to find out exactly what has happened and thoroughly check the roof to ensure it does not happen a third time.


I can assure you that at 7.35am today they certainly were.

We aren't the only ones to have suffered wind damage to a new roof. Epsom racecourse has suffered the same fate only that one sounds worse as reports are stating that half the roof has actually blown off. I think ours folded back and exposed the fibreglass underlay which then blew all over the place.

It is interesting (in a low level way anyway) that the bit of roof that peeled back during the last lot of howling gales has remained in place this time. That leads me to speculate how much of this is down to either shoddy workmanship or underestimating the degree of fastening the aluminium sheeting requires.

I imagine the stadium is under guarantee and we won't have to cover the cost of the repairs.

We're lucky it's happened now and not during the season, we have time to fix the problem and ensure it doesn't happen again. Let's hope the cladding will also help with the wind resistance, theres alot of open gaps at the back right now.

Saints doing it on cheap, don't be silly

A cost of £25m doesn't suggest we did it on the cheap.

The cost of £25m has nothing to do with it and dont prove we've not done it on the cheap.

Speculating it is down to the roof construction company doesn't help the situation any & without any shred of evidence one might want to be careful until facts are borne out. Exceptional conditions, slight design flaws or combination of many other factors all might have contributed to create the situation. It's a shame but rather now than when a match was on so it's a blessing indisguise tbh.

To be honest, that wind was not exceptional, it weather that a brand new £25m stadium should have no problem. Other buildings in the area didn't have the problem.

The fact this is the second problem weve had with the roof is worrying. I just hope we don't have this problem every time high winds come and hope it don't effect the safety certificate that we going for.

I honestly can't see the Widnes game being on, the roof will need to be assessed and then repaired but firstly we need it looking At and with the wind still being strong, nobody can get up to look.

It had crossed my mind...

ill put money on it being a slight design fault, which with a little planning will be rectified. any takers

sounds about right.

If you look at aerial pictures of the stadium being built it gives a good view of how that corner of the roof was done.

There was an inspection of the roof today just after lunch. Looks like it was pulled back from the side edges of the stadium rather than it being a design fault causing upward forces from underneath, which is good news.

So might that suggest that there were perhaps not enough of whatever is used to fasten the aluminium in place to hold it secure under stress?

Indeed, a factor is that the stadium is a very tall structure, it therefore takes a stronger stress from the conditions than you're average supermarket would. The contractors specialise in supermarkets and the roofing is very similar to the one on Tesco.

The damage has occured twice, just where the corner lifts up, like a small wave. the first repair is alright showing they can make the roof secure, should have set the alarm bells ringing that first damage, hope they have a more extensive check this time round.

talking to a builder friend of mine he said it was common practice for these sheets to be simply crimped together and they are attached to the lower level of sheeting by a bolt at the bottom, but just a "tophat" crimped onto that bolt at the top. So not even bolted down!

Quote ="roader"I think they needed to have done a bit more design work. www.in-cumbria.com/firm-complete ... rPath=home'" Oh dear. Don't like the sound of "The developer took a bit of a punt on us because we’re a relatively young company, so we’re delighted to have repaid their faith" and "The construction game is very tough at the moment and the margins are very tight". I'd be a tad worried if I was a Southend or Aberdeen supporter - "The business is now Barr’s preferred bidder for roofing work on proposed new stadiums in Aberdeen and Southend". You would think that being in Carlisle they would be used to strong winds etc. It appears that this was the company's first stadium roof and the implication is that it got the job at least partially because it was doing Tesco's roof.

Quote ="roader"I think they needed to have done a bit more design work. www.in-cumbria.com/firm-complete ... rPath=home'" Oh dear. Don't like the sound of "The developer took a bit of a punt on us because we’re a relatively young company, so we’re delighted to have repaid their faith" and "The construction game is very tough at the moment and the margins are very tight". I'd be a tad worried if I was a Southend or Aberdeen supporter - "The business is now Barr’s preferred bidder for roofing work on proposed new stadiums in Aberdeen and Southend". You would think that being in Carlisle they would be used to strong winds etc. It appears that this was the company's first stadium roof and the implication is that it got the job at least partially because it was doing Tesco's roof.

I'm guessing it'll be the firm last stadium! noone will want them after this and Barr and Langtree will be furious

I would imagine that will depend on what has actually gone wrong. (Although I think you can probably add a certain Mr McManus to the 'furious' list!)

The wind is hysterical again. I'm keeping everything crossed that the roof will stay on the stadium tonight!

This firm may be inexperienced at building stadium roofs, but they are not inexperienced at fitting roofs full stop.
If they are a decent firm they will ensure they will learn from what has gone wrong with this roof at Saints and be better prepared for later projects.

I would suggest that the fact this firm has gained repeat orders from Tesco and was highly thought of by Barr, means they are most certainly seen as a reputable firm. Even good firms though sometimes come a cropper. Not always due to their own making.

stop blaming the contractor, they are being given bad press on here, when no blame has been atributed to them, tipical of people who dont know what they are talking about. You would think the whole roof has blown off, i know its a bit inconvienent with a game a couple of weeks away, but it will get sorted. Like I keep saying it will be a design fault, things happen like this in design and build, thats how they learn to build better.

You are correct in as far that we don't know how things have gone wrong with the roof - and I hope there are not people still thinking that things have not gone wrong. It could be a design fault and nothing to do with the roofing company.

However, the point I was making was fair i.e. that this is a young roofing company with a modest turnover for which this is their first stadium roof project. It is blindingly obvious that putting secure roof's on Tesco stores is quite a lot different to putting a secure roof on a stadium.

I do not think its a good idea that "thats how they learn to build better" is a principle that should have been applied here. It makes Langtree Park sound like a biulding experiment.

While I appreciate your point, companies need to start somewhere. Barr will have been inexperienced at stadium builds at one time but then somebody took a punt on them and they now have valued experience. These guys in Carlisle will have learned a lot from the stadium project and we don't yet know why the damage has occurred. No signs of any reports about more damage this morning and yet the winds were just as bad if not worse last night. If there is no further damage today then that would suggest that either some miscalculation was made in terms of what was needed to secure the roof in the first place or something else entirely (ie nothing to do with the roofers) has caused the problem.