. After the boom, crash and wallop of the past two weeks with the concrete pouring, the Wellie Gang going about their concrete smoothing work with a cheerful and excessively loud demeanor and the roofing frames arriving on site, this week has been slightly more tranquil! Although, as Mr. Einstein noted, “everything is relative” so even that tranquility has to be taken in the context of steel framers attaching their metal trays to the concrete block footings with a device that fires (quite literally shoots) bolts into the concrete whilst "over yonder" the bricklayers make merry with demolishing an old brick façade.
So let’s delve a little deeper into the demolition activities. You may recall the front of the building between the Angel’s office door to the day school entrance had a Frankenstein’s monster look about it. A low flat-roof line and the 10 inch white, wooden planks that marshalled the bricks into little patches of disorder all set off by odd looking oversized windows making the whole façade look like the product of a design committee working to a very tight budget. Well this past week Frankenstein’s construction monster was laid to rest by the demolition of the whole façade and a sprinkling of some roofing and trim magic to align the now pitched roof with the rest of the building. In the next few days, the new bricks will be laid in the same look and style as the rear wing which will then blend in with the great hall and narthex. It’s going to look “cracking*.” Meanwhile the action continues as Mr. Crumley orchestrates work on multiple fronts. In the rear wing Atlantic Heating and Air are continuing to install the HVAC system, above work to build new roofing and replace old shingles continues all punctuated with various, to date successful, City inspections. I’ve already mentioned the metal trays that provided the basis for the steel web of studs, braces and beams that will trace out the external and internal walls in the great hall and narthex. You will be delighted to know that progress on erecting that steel web is well underway and most of the external walls are now picked out by the utilitarian metal work that will soon metamorphosis into a place of contemporary worship. I have been asked by a couple of parishioners (no really, I’m not just saying that as a transition to a new subject, I really have been asked) about the concrete block wall that now cocoons the end of Tucker Hall, around past the old main entrance, across what used to be Father Bob’s office windows to end by wrapping around the front of the building. What is it for, perhaps some modernistic architectural feature? No not an architectural feature, what you see is a firewall made necessary by the City’s fire code the basically states a requirement to segment the overall building into “fire zones" designed to contain a fire so it does not spread to one of the other zones. We now have three of these fire zones; the existing building, the new rear wing and the new narthex/great hall. To meet this requirement a firewall has already been built between the new rear wing and the old library, it stretches from concrete floor right up to the peak of the pitched roof, and what you see in the front of the building is the exposed firewall between the narthex and the existing structure. Both firewalls are rated as 2H meaning in the event a fire shall be contained by these self-standing walls for 2 hours, so plenty of time to evacuate the building! In the final constriction both firewalls will be concealed by the internal finish and we will forget we ever saw them. Well off to the hills for the weekend, so stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach. “Cracking:” Colloquial English for something being “very good” and can be used in several ways e.g. “It looks cracking” i.e. “looks or looking good,” “it’s a cracking game” i.e. “it’s a very good game” (a term seldom used in the same sentence as Plymouth Argyle Football Club). Not to be confused with “let us get cracking” which means “let’s make a start” or with “crack or craic” which means having a chat in the pub, usually in Ireland and usually with a wee (small) glass of whiskey or two!
2 Comments
Marti Jones
11/18/2020 11:58:48 am
Wow! that is some great work getting done!
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Mal Higgins
11/18/2020 02:43:15 pm
When it comes to a cracking good project, this new church construction is it! Great photo of a workman hopefully using that machine on the concrete and not his foot.
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AuthorDavid Beach is our Building Project Manager, and has been an active part of our parish family for more than a decade. He is retired from NATO and the British Army and is a joy and blessing to all of us. Archives
July 2021
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