WiL

Living in Limburg focuses on sustainable and affordable roof renovation

Sustainable renovation expensive? Not if it’s up to Wonen in Limburg (WiL). The social housing company wants to make its houses and apartments more energy-efficient. To do so, they’re testing an innovative method to renovate the roofs of social housing faster, cheaper, and more sustainably. 

Renovating roofs without tearing them down
The demand for energy-efficient renovations continues to rise. But such renovations often come with a hefty price tag. Wonen in Limburg, the housing company that has united all social housing actors in Limburg since 2023, wants to approach things differently. WiL developed an innovative pilot project to carry out energy-efficient and circular roof renovations at a lower cost. For this, they partnered with Biesmans Group from Genk. In a pilot project in the Smeermaas neighborhood in Lanaken, the roof of a social housing unit was renovated and additionally insulated. Instead of discarding the old EPDM roofing, the Genk-based roofers reused it. The new insulation was added to the existing insulation layer using a patented anchoring system. 

Cost savings
This new approach is not only circular, simpler, and causes less disruption, but it also provides Wonen in Limburg with a savings of 18 to 20 percent on investment costs. The housing company intends to use those savings to reduce the waiting lists. WiL is now exploring whether the method can be applied on a larger scale. The main obstacle is the warranty period on reused roofs: the warranty must be extended by 10 years on the current roofs. The company hopes to implement the innovative renovation method more frequently in the future.