It has been a “slow” couple of weeks from the construction perspective, but this enforced pause did give Father Bob an unexpected opportunity to leverage the Great Hall, fully cleaned out and completely swept (at least six times) by Scott Crumley, and some of Scott’s construction equipment for Holy Week and Easter Day worship.
So it was that Easter Day found the 0900hrs service in the Great Hall attended by some 90+ parishioners, all carefully seated in their socially isolated pods under an array of hanging ducting, cabling, lights and partially installed insulation. The 1000hrs outdoor service in the Eden Chapel (a.k.a. the cemetery) saw some 320+ parishioners seated in socially distancing pods arrayed around the cemetery and treated to the spectacle of Father Bob rising above their heads, a on off performance brought to the congregation by Scott Crumley’s “person lift” and some hasty operator training for the good Rector. Let us turn to the construction, after all that is what this blog is supposed to be about, so what’s been going on? Over the past 4 months the pace of construction has been tantamount to frenetic, the progress made is a testament to that pace so when that pace drops off a tad, as is inevitable when there are so many moving parts (inspections, materials, trades, etc), a lack of visible progress is even more noticeable. Now that is not so say nothing has been going on, far from it. The brickwork has mostly been completed, trim installed, air conditioning and heating in the Great Hall and Narthex finished and the external aircon units for the rear wing installed on new concrete pads. Inside the buildings the cut over to the new data network is ongoing with all the new data drops and WiFi systems in the real wing and existing buildings now online. The office refurbishment is complete so soon we will be able to vacant our temporary, open office layout in Tucker Hall and return folks to their refurbished offices or, in the case of accountancy, their new offices in the rear wing. What has caused this lull in construction activity? Well, you can be sure it is nothing to do with Scott Crumley’s drive and enthusiasm to get the job done but rather a COVID-19 induced global shortage of building materials that has not only made materials hard to come by but also raised the prices when there is limited availability. Scott was kind enough to give me the “Building Materials 101 For Idiots” explanation. COVID-19 strikes causing processes, factories and supply chains that manufacture and deliver building materials to go into reduced production or even complete closure. Of course, it is not just the building material sector that shuts down, so do service industries, finance, manufacturing – you name it and it shut down resulting in many billions of people across the world spending a whole lot more time at home with a lot of extra time on their hands. What a perfect opportunity to plan and tackle that home D.I.Y. project or those renovations that have been sitting on the back burner for months, if not years! Off to Home Depot, Lowes and B&Q* for tools and materials or for those bigger jobs, and no doubt to correct the ensuing D.I.Y. failures, the construction industry. So here we have the conundrum, on the one hand construction material production is nigh on at a halt whilst on the other the demand for construction material has seldom been higher, and as a matter of interest builders, electricians, painters, plumbers etc, seldom busier. The result is, of course, shortages and price hikes. Let me try and give you some examples. There is a nationwide shortage of roofing shingles and I heard (he blogs trying to sound like a blogger who has his ear to ground in the construction world, which as I hope by now you know is far from true) about roofing shingle delivery to a supply company. In normal times they take delivery of 5 truckloads of shingles per week but in these COVID stricken times that is now one truckload every two weeks. Then there’s lumber, the truss package for our new buildings increased in price by several thousand dollars between contract signing and ordering – a gap of but a few months – as the price of lumbar sores. Lumber is currently at an all time high, increased by over 350% compared to one year ago and don’t even ask me about copper (surged 80% last week). Through careful prior planning, preparation and an encyclopedic knowledge of his industry Scott Crumley has guided our project around the rocks and reefs of outrageous construction fortune, savings have been found to offset cost hikes and an astute awareness of the supply chain, backed by an impressive list of contacts, has kept the ODEC construction wheels turning – until insulation for the Great Hall became an issue. True, there was a veritable “stash” of insulation tucked away in the new library waiting to be installed but, sadly, not quite enough and, as luck would have it, insulation installation is on the project’s critical path. Without the insulation, no inspection, and no dry wall hence no big activities in the Great Hall, if you don’t count Scott’s floor sweeping actions, and we have an indoor space available for Father Bob to exploit over Easter. A symptom of the extraordinary times in the construction industry or maybe a higher calling at work in creating time and space to contemplate the meaning of Easter? Stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach. “B&Q”: As superstore chain, like Home Depot, of do it yourself (D.I.Y.) stores in the UK that, many years ago, had an advertising “ditty” that was an inspiration to a generation of D.I.Y-ers attempting home improvements and a cash cow to the professionals coming in after the failed D.I.Y projects to clean up the mess. Neither I nor my bank balance will ever forget those immortal words, a veritable titan in the advertising world: “You can do it when you B&Q it!” alas not so!!!
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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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