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Paybody Community Diagnostic Centre

Conventry

The Paybody Community Diagnostic Centre is a £14 million healthcare refurbishment transforming former NHS offices in Coventry into a diagnostic medical facility.

Client
Tilbury Douglas
Project
Refurbishment
Sector
Medical & Healthcare
System categories
Bitumen Waterproofing Systems, Cold Liquid Waterproofing Systems
Accredited installer
Advanced Roofing Limited
Flat rooftop with dark grey felt surface, metal safety railings, cable, and mounting brackets. Solar panels on adjacent pitched roof. Overcast sky.

Systems in use

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Project Overview

The Coventry Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) is a £14 million healthcare refurbishment. The project was to transform the former NHS offices inside the Paybody Building into a diagnostic medical facility on the City of Coventry Health Centre campus. It is scheduled to open to the public in late 2026.

The scheme is commissioned by NHS Property Services on behalf of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust, delivered by principal contractor Tilbury Douglas Construction with Design-Buro as the architect.

The refurbishment has been delivered in two phases: a 1,286 square metre Imaging Suite and a 419 square metre Physiological Measures wing, designed to accommodate approximately 90,000 patients a year.

Axter was involved from Stage 4 through to completion, providing waterproofing design and installation across the lower and upper roof areas.

Flat rooftop with grey felt membrane, a central metal vent, two small roof lights, metal railings, and a brick building visible in the background.
Large grey concrete paving slabs on an outdoor terrace, with white metal furniture legs and a small raised fixture visible in the background.

Considerations and Project Challenges

The existing building had a RAAC deck, which was removed and replaced with a metal deck as part of the refurbishment.

Axter carried out a roof survey to assess the refurbishment detailing, working around existing abutments, door thresholds and upstands. Meeting BS 6229 requirements against this existing structure required close collaboration with Advanced Roofing, Tilbury Douglas and the local Building Control officers to agree the detailing for these areas.

An existing concrete gutter channel on the upper roof level was retained, requiring the tapered insulation design to bridge between the metal deck and the concrete gutter while managing differing fall gradients and thicknesses.

A difficult upstand detail on the lower roof, created by the type of cladding panel, made it hard to achieve a suitable termination. Advanced Roofing overclad certain sections to create a workable detail.

The site sits next to a live hospital, adding a further layer of care to the sequencing and logistics of the works.

Existing structural beams determined the falls for the new metal deck, and these varied across the roof; some areas were compliant with requirements, and some were not. Multiple site visits were carried out to measure the falls and produce bespoke tapered insulation designs to resolve them.

Flat rooftop with grey felt surface, white safety railings, rooftop fixtures, and bare trees with tower blocks visible in the background.
Dark grey granite kerb stones forming a raised edge between two levels of aggregate surface, with timber and metal fencing visible in background.

Axter's Approach

During Axter’s participation on the project, we carried out multiple site visits with the QA team, tapered insulation design team and Tilbury Douglas to resolve the bespoke detailing required around existing abutments, door thresholds, facades and upstands.

Both the lower and upper roofs used an Excel warm roof multi-layer system with tapered Hytherm ADH insulation, with abutments detailed using Starcoat PMMA.