DensDeck® roof boards at Hamad International Airport

Hamad International Airport in Qatar’s Doha, formerly known as New Doha International Airport, features DensDeck® Prime Roof Boards as a part of the world’s largest insulated stainless steel standing seam roof as quoted by International Molybdenum Association (IMOA).

The roof assembly spans more than 217,000m2. The striking design by HOK San Francisco was voted the world’s best airport in the 2021 Skytrax World Airport Awards.  

The airport opened to the public in 2014 with an initial capacity of 29 million passengers annually. The plan was to increase the capacity with a series of expansions to approximately 50 million. This will make Hamad International the second largest transport hub in the region after Dubai International Airport.

The expansion plans commenced in 2015 starting with the North Node, Concourses D & E in conjunction with phase one and two. Ancillary buildings included a further 13,300 m2 for the consolidated car rental facility. 

Hamad International Airport is also one of the region’s most luxurious and comfortable commercial buildings. The performance benefits of the roof cover board were further maximised in the central concourse expansion that was delivered in 2022. The design by Meinhardt and Dar Group draws on the original benefits of the DensDeck® Prime Roof Board and utilises an additional layer of the DensDeck® Roof Board. This is to help provide high levels of acoustic comfort and to achieve performance requirements relating to fire resistance. 

Design Stainless Steel Project Doha (DSP) carried out the roof installation for the central concourse expansion and Project Director Peter Williams explains the reasons behind the initial specification of DensDeck® Prime Roof Board.

“Our primary reason for utilising Georgia-Pacific’s cover board was to comply with the performance specification requirements, obtain the weather tight stage earlier, and expedite the final installation of the  standing seam roof covering,” he comments.

DensDeck® Prime Roof Boards expedite roof weather tightness and help with the installation efficiency of the standing seam roof assembly 

The roof of the phase one passenger terminal was designed as a homage to Doha’s  heritage and resembles ocean waves and sand dunes. Behind the dramatic silhouette is a roof assembly that includes a steel deck, rock wool insulation, and the stainless steel standing seam roof covering.

15.9mm DensDeck® Prime Roof Boards are installed in the cover board position over the rock wool insulation layer. The cover boards provide a walkable substrate that also protects the insulation layer from compression during the subsequent installation of the stainless steel roof covering.  

‘Wild air’ was a requirement for the project. After appropriate assessments, the gypsum cover boards in conjunction with a vapour control layer (VCL) membrane were specified to help seal the building sooner by expediting the roof weather tightness.

Peter explains: “Without the cover board, and the VCL membrane that weatherproofed the roof, we would not have been able to achieve the ‘Wild Air’ date set for the project. The standing seam top sheet would have been required, and this is one of the most time consuming elements of the roof assembly.

“Furthermore, the cover board provided a walkable substrate to carry out the standing seam installation, unhindered by compressible insulation and the obstacle of roof zed supports.”

The fibreglass mat facer on top of the gypsum cover board does away with the need to prime the surface before installing the self-adhered VCL membrane. This helped cut down on the installation time and ensured the homogenous spread of the adhesive for high quality adhesion. Georgia-Pacific Gypsum LLC, the DensDeck® Prime Roof Board manufacturer, delivered bespoke length cover boards to accelerate the weatherproofing further and help with installation efficiency.  

DensDeck® Prime Roof Boards were specified again for the subsequent phased expansion. The current Central Concourse expansion builds on the efficiency enhancements the cover boards offered in previous stages. An additional layer of gypsum core cover board was specified to help achieve specified acoustic and fire resistance requirements for the new 40,000m2 roof.  

DensDeck® Prime Roof Boards for central course expansion to help meet specified acoustic and fire resistance requirements  

To meet the enhanced acoustic performance requirement, and the fire resistance standards of the Central Course Expansion, the specification of the cover board altered from the single 15.9 mm layer of board used previously to two layers of 12.7mm DensDeck® Prime Roof Board is once again selected as the top layer, in conjunction with the Resisto VCL membrane to offer the installation benefits already experienced during the previous phases. 

The fire resistance of the DensDeck® Roof Board was another reason for the specification, and they became integral to meeting the fire resistance requirements. Both gypsum and fibreglass used to manufacture DensDeck® Prime Roof Board are classified as non-combustible materials.

The high fire resistance of gypsum is due to 21% of its total mass being chemically bonded water. In the case of fire, the resulting heat will release the chemically bonded water as a vapour and may slow the fire spread.  

The roof assembly was successfully tested by BRE in the UK to confirm the specified fire resistance rating incorporating the cover boards, and to demonstrate compliance with BS 476 and BS EN 13501-1.  

Selecting DensDeck® Prime Roof Board over gypsum core and cementitious cover board  

Peter explains that DensDeck® Roof Boards also have advantages over equivalent cementitious cover boards that are sometimes specified. These advantages include, reduced weight to aid manual handling and installation as well as easier cutting. Cementitious boards are heavier than comparable gypsum cover boards, and are therefore far more difficult to cut on site.

Peter concludes: “There are very few direct equivalents to the DensDeck® Prime Roof Board on the market. These cover boards have been installed on large international infrastructure projects, and their performance benefits are tested and proven.”

Contact the company for more information on DensDeck® Roof Boards and DensDeck® Prime Roof Boards. It is happy to discuss how its range of roof and cover boards can help achieve specific performance requirements and speed up the installation of your low slope commercial roof system. 

Contact

CONTACT: densdeck.buildgp.com/contact-us
EMAIL: [email protected] 

Fire-resistant DensDeck® Roof Boards are helping to increase the performance of the solar panel flat roof system of IKEA Bangalore. Click the link for more info.

Georgia-Pacific Building Products
133 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta
GA 30303
(USA) 1-800-225-6119

Visit Supplier's page