Zig Inge is a retirement village pioneer, having built his first development in 1979. His association with Bristile Roofing and their sister company Austral Bricks goes back to the days of Inge Bros, well known in the 1970s as quality home builders.
The Terracotta roof tile range, available from Bristile Roofing , has been used in Zig Inge’s recent project, Hunter’s Green at Cranbourne on Melbourne’s eastern fringe.
“We have used gloss finishes but we believe the unglazed tiles look more natural,” explains Narcisse Toniolo. The profile chosen throughout was a classic Marseilles, from Bristile Roofing’s terracotta roof tile range.
To ensure a good blend of colours, the tilers worked from three open packs, picking progressively across before stacking the tiles on the elevator. This is a standard blending procedure, but more critical because of the natural fired ceramic finish of the unglazed product.
The low maintenance requirements of the terracotta roof tiles and bricks and they do not come any lower and consequent reduced ongoing costs are part of the reason for their selection.
“This is important in amenities for the elderly, to help keep down body corporate fees,” says Narcisse Toniolo, the group’s construction director. “That has long been Mr Inge’s doctrine on what he requires in a village.”
When fully developed, it will comprise 200 independent living units, all two bedrooms, some with a study grouped around a large community centre.
The units are paired, and built on a single level, as is the 1200 square metre community centre. Like other master planned projects the major challenge is to ensure maximum utilisation, while retaining privacy, individual appeal and Five Star energy efficiency.
“It came up really well, nice and straight,” Richard Wilkes commends. “We never have too many problems and [Bristile Roofing’s] quality control is really good. Their subbies do the job, they have supervisors checking on it, but then they have another guy who does an audit on the roof. They’ve been really good out here like that.”