About this project
Organisation
RoofYou
Strategic Agendas
With BossCover Circular and Modudeck, Biesmans Group, through RoofYou, develops fully demountable roofing systems that enable reuse across multiple life cycles. By choosing screw and click connections instead of gluing, and by focusing on long-lasting materials, the company reduces the environmental impact of both flat and pitched roofs. A strong example of how ecodesign supports circular construction at scale.
A circular roof revolution
Biesmans Group, active in Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland, specialises in flat roofs and façades. Through their distribution company RoofYou, they develop innovative products for the building envelope. Because they are not a manufacturer themselves, they can work with different suppliers and prioritise technical performance over brand interests. In recent years, the company has built up an innovation department with a strong focus on sustainability and circularity. This means that new developments are only continued if they fit within the R-strategies (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle), with an emphasis on lifespan extension and reuse.
BossCover Circular: the first 100% demountable EPDM roofing system
In 2023, RoofYou launched BossCover Circular, a fully circular system for flat roofs made of EPDM. Traditionally, EPDM is either glued or mechanically fixed. With gluing, the membrane can no longer be separated from the substrate; with conventional mechanical fixing, the reinforced edge strip must be cut off, making reuse impossible. BossCover Circular makes both the membrane, the strip and the fastening fully reusable. The screws remain accessible, allowing the EPDM to be removed without damage.
The complete system consists of various mechanically connected components that together form one watertight whole. No gluing or ballast is used: all parts are screwed, clicked or clamped onto the substrate, both at the upstand (the junction between flat roof and vertical edge) and at the roof edge, thanks to a patented anchoring system.
EPDM also has a lifespan of 70 years, significantly longer than bitumen or PVC. Through the combination with the new installation system, the environmental impact is drastically reduced: up to 26–27% CO₂ savings compared to traditional bitumen construction. For a residential area with a total roof surface of 10,000 m², this CO₂ saving corresponds to the annual emissions of 30 households. In addition to reuse in situ, EPDM is processed via mechanical recycling into rubber roof tiles, again fully demountable and ideal for roofs with heavy foot traffic.
Modudeck: circular roof insulation and prefabricated roofing systems
With Modudeck, Biesmans Group now also offers a future-oriented solution for pitched roofs. Together with Buildwise and OVAM, they investigated the reuse potential of PIR/PUR insulation boards, which are widely used in renovations today but rarely reused. Tests on 22-year-old PIR/PUR boards showed that they still fully meet the requirements for new boards—and sometimes even perform better. This led to the development of a circular prefabricated pitched roof element: fully screwed and clamped, with detachable layers such as insulation, vapour barrier, interior finishing and waterproofing. The element is self-supporting and can be reused either as a whole or per component. During renovations, it increases load-bearing capacity, meaning ageing roof structures are no longer a limitation.
Installation is extremely efficient: up to 26 m² per person per day can be installed, compared to 12 m² in traditional construction. The system was recently presented at Belgian Roof Day and applied in a scout building in Hasselt, where it saved 32 kg CO₂ per m². As with BossCover, RoofYou is also exploring a circular business model for Modudeck, with the ambition to embed reuse on a large scale.
