In the past four weeks since my last update, things have moved on dramatically and the end is now in sight. That’s not to to say that the last few weeks haven’t had their own obstacles to overcome…
Most significantly in the last few weeks, our contractor has informed us that the oak veneered ply that was intended to be used to replace our floor is stuck on a Russian ship in the mid-Atlantic unable to dock in the UK owing to ongoing sanctions against Russia. The war in Ukraine and consequences may clearly persist for some time, and much plywood is manufactured from Siberian and Ukrainian timber and shipped by Russian vessels. To ensure the project is not delayed (causing a significant increase in cost), we have been required to seek an alternative material. The faculty (ecclesiastical permission) granted for the project included an option to use an engineered oak floorboard in place of the ply. In order to avoid needing to seek permission for a new material, we have sourced and approved an engineered oak flooring product with a 6mm Oak veneer that was in stock and has now been delivered to site.
Internally, the plasterers worked quickly to skim coat the ceiling panels. After completing the decoration of the north and south aisle, the decorators followed on to paint the new plaster and decorate the principal roof beams and high level walls. The hatchments have also been returned and installed by the conservators.
The wiring for the ventilation system (which we discussed in a previous post) has been completed and tied into the heating system in such a way that when the heating is on, the sub-floor ventilation is off.
Seven panels from the large west window have been removed for re-leading and restoration. Further glass repairs will be completed in-situ when the restored panels are replaced.
On the roof, a significant amount of progress has been made to tern-coated stainless steel sheet roofing. You will notice that the new material in comparison to the existing roofing (installed in 2018) is very bright and shiny, but this will dull down in just a couple of years like the existing material has done. Although there is an aesthetic compromise in using stainless steel, unlike the lead that it’s replacing, it’s not particularly desirable to thieves and is also much more difficult to steal. This means that the future risk of significant damage to the building through theft has been massively reduced. For the last 50 years, we and many other churches have continually battled with lead thefts and leaky roofs due to the use of lead as the main roofing material. This battle, for us, is now over and so long as it is well maintained, the new roof can be expected to last for many decades without the risk of being stolen.
By the next update, we anticipate that the scaffolding internally will have been removed and the oak flooring will have begun being laid. In our contract, we have a sectional completion for the inside being completed and handed back to us which is likely to happen in mid-June. In other news, the large block of site offices in the churchyard are being removed next week, so when we do return to site in June we can expect things to look quite different!
