IIt was late July, Scott Crumley and I had just emerged from a meeting with Father Bob and Gretchen Hood where the prospects of opening the Day School in September was discussed and as re-opening seemed unlikely the decision to accelerate the construction was taken.
Right from the get-go the construction plan had been designed to minimize, to the greatest extent possible, impacts on the day-to-day business of ODEC and the day school whilst maintaining compliance with fire code for an occupied building, which mainly entailed making sure there were sufficient exit doors to be code compliant. It was, of course, always recognized that some impacts were going to be inevitable but with a careful, stepwise approach over a 18 to 22 month schedule it was hoped these could be minimized. With the meeting’s decision to leverage the opportunity offered by a near empty campus by accelerating construction the step wise approach went out of the window. Translated into words a layman could understand (that would be me) the new approach set aside the paced, sequential approach we’d followed to date and now had carte blanche to “go at it” from all angles at once and no finer way to start down this path than a spot of demolition. Instant action, within days the front of the building was ripped off, the car park was ripped up and the ceiling in the kindergarten was ripped out – it really was a ripping time! And there was more, to replace the flat roof over the library, corridor and day school wing nearly a ton of masonry had to be removed to establish a level and secure base for the new pitched roof. Progress in every direction, what could possibly go wrong with the plan? Well, sometime after adopting the “go at it from all angles” building approach, and after a great deal of careful planning and hard work by the day school directors and staff, reopening the day school became a feasible option and the school was at last able to open it's doors to its pupils on 8 Sep. Bit of a “curve-ball” for the construction plan! With great alacrity ceilings were replaced, lighting was installed, holes where windows should be were concealed, new power cables were installed, air conditioning units were re-commissioned, sewer lines were repaired, parking was organized and safe access was set in place. I feel I’ve missed something ……… of course the roof! How could I have forgotten the roof? If a ton of masonry is removed from an, albeit slightly leaky, flat roof and it rains, even with a partial pitched roof frame and plywood in place over the top, there are bound to be some leaks! If it rains really, really hard and the scuppers aren’t exactly what the used to be, which at their best wasn’t much, then not only does water get into the rooms below but the far greater risk from rainwater pooling on the flat roof and then causing a “breach” that would do significant damage to a classroom's ceiling. Remember Thursday 17 September? It absolutely “hammered down*” from early afternoon into Friday daybreak, the weather radar for Witchduck Rd was red, red and more red! The worst possible conditions for our half-finished roof and a disaster seemed imminent – or would have been had it not been for Scott Crumley mounting an individual watch through that stormy night. Placing buckets and bins under ceiling leaks, mopping wet floors and carpet tiles, and most importantly keeping the scuppers flowing by strategically “twitching” (my words not his) the flat roof’s rubber membrane to prevent water pooling. At a conservative estimate during that wet and windy night the storm deposited over 20,000 gallons of rainwater on the flat roof and of that less than 20 gallons penetrated into the building below and much of that was caught in buckets thanks to Scott’s diligence and dedication. Stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach. “Hammered down”: In the Brits escalating scale of rain fall descriptions “hammered down” is one up from “raining cats and dogs”!
1 Comment
Mal Higgins
9/22/2020 02:19:30 pm
Wow! Thank goodness for Scott Crumley, our fantastic general contractor and loyal parishioner. I had just seen Scott the day before on site, when none of the remnants of Hurricane Sally had yet reached Virginia Beach. All was calm as roofers went about their business.. Who knew it was about to hammer down, or as others might say, smash the place.
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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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