Using very specialist skills honed over the past 80 years, Cembrit are well known for their natural slate from UK quarries in Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall, and also much further afield such as Western Europe, Canada, Brazil, India and China. However, one of their most popular brand of tiles are the manmade Cembrit Westerland fibre cement slates. Westerland slate comes in black/blue, graphite and also Welsh Blue and looks identical to natural slate. Its natural dressed edges and riven surface make it the ideal solution for when traditional appearance is important. The manmade slates are lightweight, very cost effective, do not require grading or sorting and are suitable for all types of commercial and residential construction.

Cembrit Westerland fibre cement slates were used in the construction of Hill House, a high end eco-development in Hampshire. Specially selected to give the development a contemporary look, over 7,000 blue/black slates were used for the 7000 sq ft timber frame house.

Designed and built by The Malthouse Consultancy, Hill House is pretty exclusive. The house is constructed from softwoods, so reducing the pressure on slower growing hardwoods. The design also includes all mod cons for heating and cooling and like all houses built by The Malthouse Consultancy, Hill House is bespoke and built to owner specification. Each slate in the Westerland fibre cement range is pre-holed and offers consistent width, depth and weight, saving lots of on site time on sorting.

The cement slates from Cembrit are manufactured using Portland cement and a non-asbestos formula of synthetic and cellulose fibres. Each slate is pigmented during its production and fully compressed. They are then finished with a high quality, semi-matt acrylic coloured coating to the top face and edges, and a clear binder to the back face.

Quality levels at Cembrit are rigorously maintained to high standards with fibre cement slates produced to BS EN 492:2004 and manufactured under the control of a BS EN ISO 9001: 2000 quality management system. The company operates an environmental management system to ISO 14001:1996. Cembrit UK is a member of Cembrit Holding A/S (formerly the Dansk Eternit Holding A/S) of Denmark, one of Europe’s major building material producers of fibre reinforced cement products for the roofing industry.

For more information about Cembrit please contact Cembrit Blunn.