Friday, February 3, 2017


 A major construction milestone occurred on Thursday: carpenters removed the plastic sheeting that has been covering a large hole in the roof of our historic building since September and connected the roof of the new building to the roof of the old. They will continue to work on the roof today, Friday, and all day Saturday. By the end of Saturday, most of the roof of our new home should be framed and sheathed. That will set the stage for the roofers, Bucco Roofing, to affix the shingles on the new and old sections of the building. Because our roof is a dominant feature of our building, re-shingling the entire building will add coherence to the design.


The large open section that can be seen in the rear of the roof will be framed out to form a dormer. The decision to add the dormer was made at the recent owners/contractors meeting. The dormer will include a 36" X 6'8" door to provide access to the flat roof over the infant/toddler room where condensers for our HVAC system will sit. Without the doorway, anyone providing service to our equipment, which will be installed in the attic, on the flat roof over the infant/toddler room and in the mechanical room in the basement, would have to climb down the attic steps, walk around the building, erect a ladder and climb up over the safety railing to the roof. In addition to slowing down maintenance work, climbing up a ladder and over a railing to the roof is a safety issue. The benefits apply to contractors we might hire to do the work and members of the congregation who regularly maintain our church. Our HVAC contractor felt so strongly that adding the dormer was the right thing to do that they gave us a $1,000 credit toward the approximate $5,000 cost of the change. In addition, having the door should provide financial benefits by reducing the cost of future maintenance contracts.

As mentioned in Wednesdays post, the air handling unit (AHU) that will sit in the attic over the men's room was delivered and craned in through the open roof early Wednesday morning. The unit weighs about 900 pounds and will be mounted on four springs and 2X6 lumber to add stiffness to reduce the amount of vibration transferred to the building. This unit will force heated or cooled air through two vertical ducts attached to the Blueduct under the concrete floor. To further reduce transferring vibration to the building, the AHU will be connected to the duct-work with flexible connectors. Once the building has been "dried in," work on our HVAC system can move ahead.

If you zoom in on the photo taken through the window of what will be Roy's office, you can see some the electrical wiring that has been installed. Apropos of that, following the staff meeting on Tuesday, the staff donned hardhats and walked through the new office space to begin the discussion of how the offices will be laid out and what furniture will be needed. Separately Michael Hennessy and John Armstrong walked through our historic building and put together a list of work we'd like to accomplish before we move in to make the old space compatible with the new. The biggest task will be fixing up the former rainbow room by adding a false wall over the east wall, leveling the floor, removing the slop sink, patching the walls, fixing the ceiling, redoing the powder room, painting, repairing the exterior door and adding new carpet. We would also like to address the north wall of large basement classroom by adding drywall, add new lighting and paint the wooden ceiling chases to brighten the room. There will be plenty of work for volunteers willing to help with the process. A formal request for help will appear in the Beat at a future date.






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