Canadian covering protects in worst of worlds weather

9 July 1999

Canadian covering protects in worst of worlds weather

By Mike Williams

UK farmers looking for an economical general purpose building now have a new option to consider. The Cover-All range of buildings from Canada, with its woven plastic covering is designed to stand up to some of the toughest weather conditions in the world, including a 42lb/sq ft snow load. In UK conditions it carries a 10-year warranty.

The Cover-All company claims to have sold 25,000 of the buildings in Canada and the United States during the last five years, and its first UK customer is sufficiently impressed with his building to start a Cover-All sales and erection service covering the UK and Ireland.

The customer is Norfolk farmer David Richardson, who has a new 21.6m x 21m (72ft X 70ft) Cover-All building on his 405ha (1000-acre) Whiterails Farm at Great Melton, Norwich, for which he intends to use as an on-floor grain store and an under-cover clamp for sugar beet. It could also be used for fertiliser storage and an 8.4m (28ft) roof apex means there is plenty of room for even the biggest tractors and machinery.

Cover-All buildings are based on galvanised tubular steel uprights and trusses spaced at 2.4m or 3m (8ft or 10ft) to carry the Duraweave woven polypropylene outer covering. Duraweave is available in a range of colours and two levels of fire resistance, and it contains an ultra violet light inhibitor. Damage caused by careless use of a bale spike, for example, can be repaired by using a heat gun.

Mr Richardsons building is medium sized in a range offering span widths from 5.4m to 48m (18ft to 160ft), and there is no limit on the length.

The list of options includes roll-up side panels and electric lighting, and one end of the building can be an up-and-over door powered by an electric motor.

Uses for existing Cover-All buildings in Canada range from turkey fattening to sheep housing, and include broiler poultry, ostrich farming, pig fattening, a beef unit and a milking parlour. The long list of non-farming uses includes indoor riding schools, a hangar for light aircraft, a covered swimming pool and indoor tennis courts.

Prices vary according to building size and site but a rough guide, based on David Richardsons building, is approximately £4.50 /sq ft erected on a previously prepared base.