Zoontjens

Embodying more than 100 years of industry experience, Zoontjens has developed from a family company into a flexible international business that is responsible for the construction of Europe’s largest rooftop car parks
Bespoke designs under one roof

From its base in Tilburg, the Netherlands, Zoontjens is a market leader in the rooftop car parks and for the design of concrete slabs, the use of ceramic in rooftop applications and a lightweight levelling system for walkways and balconies. The company offers a full service package and operates as a lead contractor in specialist roofing projects in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. Its service portfolio includes the delivery, installation and maintenance of roofing systems, as well as responsibility for the warranty of installed packages. Zoontjens is typically involved with projects at the design stage and incorporates a number of production companies, which enable it to develop new products and systems in-house, as well as to oversee the purchase of special materials. “We are a relatively small company, however we are very specialised in roof making and we are the only company in Europe that is 100 per cent specialised in roof paving,” explains Zoontjens Managing Director, Paul Heerkens. “This is the entire focus of the company and ranges from smaller slabs for pedestrian areas, to much larger slabs which are typically found in rooftop car parks in shopping centres all over Europe, including London’s Westfield Shopping Centre.”

While the roots of Zoontjens date back to 1905, the business today operates as part of the CRH company. CRH was founded in 1970 and is a leading building materials group that employs over 89,000 people at around 3900 locations around the world, which adds further strength to the Zoontjens service offering. Indeed, by leveraging the assets and experience of the wider CRH Group, the company is able to add increased value to the roofing solutions and associated services that it provides. “CRH Group represents one of the largest building materials businesses in the world and includes companies such as Tarmac in the UK, which is a sister company of Zoontjens,” Paul says. “We were originally founded as a concrete manufacturer and have since grown to provide products in a host of materials. We work with a number of partners within the CRH Group, as well as third party external businesses throughout Europe and are able to work with ceramic tiles and special concrete products.”

With the support of the wider CRH Group and its ability to work with a variety of roofing materials, Zoontjens is able to provide a comprehensive solution in rooftop projects. The company is a specialist in roof parking lot developments and is able to incorporate a host of parking accessories including lamppost elements, speed limiters, buffers and inspection slabs. Further to some of Europe’s largest shopping centres, its accessories are commonly also found in redevelopment projects, heavy goods traffic and car dealerships. Zoontjens maintains its own in-house design capability, which allows it to work with designers and clients to develop unique solutions to bespoke requirements. “We do a lot of engineering and if there is a specific question or requirement, we can provide an answer. A good example of this can be found in a job that we completed in Paris, where Caterpillar trucks needed to move around the paving and the architect wanted natural stone. We were able to combine the natural stone with concrete and design a special system underneath to support the heavy and dynamic loads of the trucks,” Paul explains. “This was an extraordinary job, where the cost ran into more than £1000 per square metre for this system. We are highly specialised and able to carry out this type of engineering and provide a unique design as necessary.”

The company’s encompassing experience has allowed Zoontjens to work on several high-profile projects throughout Europe. London’s Westfield Shopping Centre, for example is Europe’s largest inner city shopping centre and forms the main access to the city’s Olympic Park. The development of the site called for an entirely new approach to the installation of parking roofs. A removable parking roof system, known as the Pardak® 90 from Zoontjens operating in Great Britain under the name Cityroofs, was selected for the project. The system was installed on an inverted insulated roof, as a sustainable and safe rooftop parking area for visitors to the shopping centre. The company was also involved in a prestigious project to breathe new life into London’s iconic Battersea power station by converting the site into flats, while retaining the building’s iconic structure. “We undertook work relating to a number of apartment buildings that involved roof paving for balconies and roof terraces. These varied from concrete and other roof decking that incorporated our bespoke support systems,” Paul reveals. “Although we are a concrete manufacturer, we do not work exclusively in concrete and can work with the specific materials that the architect wants, meaning that we can install full roofing systems with ceramic, concrete and associated support systems.”

The systems installed by Zoontjens are designed to provide a bespoke roofing solution that adds value to the client’s building or structure. Although Zoontjens systems are not necessarily the cheapest available on the market, the durable design of the company’s products significantly reduces maintenance, which ultimately reduces the lifetime cost of buildings for the owner. “Maintenance can be expensive but our systems are design to last between 30-40 years, this is quite an advantage when compared to other systems. Typically our products are installed free from the concrete decking so that the building moves independently of our system and the water drainage is underneath the paving, which eliminates bonding and cracks,” Paul explains. “If there are any problems on the roof, it is possible to simply remove a few slabs, do the repair work that is required and reinstall the slabs, leaving no visible difference.”

Zoontjens roofing systems represent both a unique and innovative solution to the demanding needs of large roofing projects across a host of applications. Further to being a highly reliable solution, the systems are also designed to be highly sustainable, which further adds to the value of the company’s products. These strengths coupled with wider capability of the CRH Group will enable the business to continue to develop market-leading roofing solutions for years to come. “We were the first company in the Netherlands to recycle our concrete and use it in production, which we started 25 years ago and has now become an industry standard. We also recycle water, energy and employ green energy. The rubber supports we use in our systems is derived from recycled rubber and we use recycled plastics in our supports. When we design a solution, we are always concerned about ensuring that it is a sustainable solution,” Paul concludes. “We have a strong package of services and have entered into the market with a message, so there are many countries, especially in Western Europe where we will continue to expand. There is also a lot of activity in Eastern Europe, but this is a greater distance in terms of haulage so we are looking at developing the manufacture of our products in Eastern Europe in Germany and Poland. This is something that we are currently investigating as a longer-term goal of the business and we are looking for partners in this as well. In our current location we have the huge advantage of being part of the CRH Group with its manufacturing capability and this in itself represents a huge opportunity.”

Zoontjens

Services: A market leader in the rooftop car parks

4 November 201614 November 2022 Admin 7 min read

Materials Insights