The roof of the Waasland Shopping Centre in the Belgian town of Sint-Niklaas has undergone a major overhaul. The roof has been completely renewed and made ready for the future: from waterproofing to the rooftop car park system, and from lampposts to buffers.
Exceptional in Belgium
The Waasland Shopping Centre was built on the southern edge of the centre of Sint-Niklaas in 1972. In 2004, the complex was expanded considerably to no less than 45,000 m2, with 140 shops, car parking facilities all around, and a rooftop car park. The rooftop car park, comprising a total of 28,000Â m2, has been completely renewed. This included dismantling the existing structure and waterproofing and reconstructing the roof, tasks which made this an enormous job!
Renovation using Pardak®
The rooftop car park consisted of cast asphalt, but had been used so intensively that it was worn beyond repair leading to cracks and potholes that resulted in leaks. AEW Europe, the owner of the shopping centre, decided to renovate the roof. Celsius Waasland/Ceusters, the operator of Waasland Shopping Centre, together with its scientific guidance agencies and architects, opted to renovate the roof using the Pardak® system. They based their choice on 25 years of positive experiences with this system at the Wijnegem Shopping Centre which they also own.
Price is an important element of any decision, but long-term durability is equally essential. A roof is not something you want to replace every five or ten years; it must have a much longer lifecycle than that.
Trial section
However, it turned out that the Waasland Shopping Centre roof structure was not suitable for renovation using Pardak®110. And because of the intensity of use of the roof, the smaller Pardak®80 slabs could not be used either. It was therefore decided to combine a larger slab with the Pardak®80 technology. This combination has been used successfully before on projects in Germany. After a trial section using this system was installed at Waasland Shopping and was found to perform as required, we were awarded the assignment to renew the entire roof.
Phased work
The renovation project was carried out together with the ZDP, Zolderse Dakprojecten, roofing company and consisted of three phases. This possibility is one of the great advantages of the modular Pardak® system. The roof was thus always fully available, also during the busiest shopping months of the year.
Watch the video
Patrick Meutermans (AEW), Toon de Meester (Ceusters) and Stephan van Berkel (Zoontjens) talk about this large-scale renovation in this video.