Construction begins: the scope of the works and the practicalities; plus some practical lessons learned

• revdrcath

Construction begins:

Eventually dates for starting the work were agreed and there was excitement after the Christmas and New Year as the start date drew near. It had been agreed that the electricians, builder, lighting specialists, kitchen fitters and a tree surgeon, would meet on 17th January 2022 to start the work and sort out timelines for their various aspects of the project. 

Trainees on the Kick Start programme had also been on site for a couple of months, learning basic site safety, obtaining their CSCS qualifications and doing some preparatory work. They were looking forward to moving on starting the real work alongside contractors on the site. 

On Mondays, workers from community payback were also on site and it was agreed that they should continue to work whilst the building was ongoing as most of their work was outdoors, so there should not be too much of an issue of getting in the way. 

Health and Safety: A full set of site plans, a health and safety manual, fire safety plans, 1st aid points, a sign-in sheet[1] and other site safety paperwork had been prepared by the vicar, in conjunction with the Principal Contractor. This was to ensure that all legal requirements for health and safety were covered for both trainees and contractors and above all to ensure that everyone was safe on the site. 

The Unexpected: even on Day 1: 

In the event only two contractors showed up. Of the four who failed to show, one (the lighting specialist) had developed Covid over the weekend, another (the tree surgeon) had been on the way to the site and had developed abdominal pain which turned out to be a hernia. The third contractor was the builder who also said that he had health problems but then tried to say that he was not expecting to start in January anyway as he was over-running on another job; he thought that he had told us. It turned out that agreeing timetables was not his strong point!

The failure of over 50% of the contractors to even show on the first day was a bit of a disappointment and a poor example to the construction trainees whose hopes were also lowered. However, the electricians, Principal contractor and the kitchen specialist were able to agree on some issues concerning cable runs, fuse boards and timelines. It was to be the first of several overly optimistic meetings, with timescales being skewed by difficulties obtaining materials on time, challenges with labour and the continued incidence of Covid-19 infection. 

It also transpired that some aspects of the work just took far longer than anticipated. For example, although the tree surgeon did attend the next day, having had emergency treatment, and removed the trees that were blocking the area where the drains needed to be laid, there were still a lot of roots in the area. There was also a range of redundant pipework, made of different materials, from several attempts to replace broken rainwater pipes. 

No-one in the current church set up had known about the previous pipework or the previous failures of the pipework as there was nothing in any of the church records such as the Terrier, Quinquennial Reports or even previous PCC minutes. The root and pipe obstacles meant that digging the drains took a great deal longer than expected. The lack of information about the history of the pipes was a helpful lesson to the PCC and wardens about the importance of keeping records of building work to assist not only current but also future generations. 

January 2022 to January 2023:

The construction work took place over the majority of 2022 and into January 2023, with some final bits, like the fire security systems, still being finalised only in late 2023. The late completion of the fire security system is another illustration of the impact of wider market forces on the timescales of work. Following the Grenfell Tower disaster there has been huge pressure on fire security specialists and contractors, making procurement of even a Fire Risk Assessment a serious challenge, with contractors not even responding to invitations to tender let alone to actually do the work. Previously fire services were willing to assist and give advice but again the pressure on their services has restricted their offer to domestic situations only. A friend working in local authority property management advised, “Don’t beat yourself up about it, even local authorities are struggling to appoint fire security contractors, so it is no wonder you’re having difficulties.” It was, thankfully, the most extreme example of the procurement difficulties for the project. 

In addition to the work that had been planned a further development arrived during 2023 in the shape of CCTV cameras on the church and new fencing, thanks to the Places of Worship scheme run by the Home Office. The application had originally been made in the Autumn of 2021 and took two years to come to fruition, again because of pressure on resources.

The easiest way to date the different bits of development is to look at the various photographs taken on the way, which will illustrate the level of disruption far more vividly than words. The various aspects of the work, with before, during and after photos are set out below. The lessons we learnt were many and various including:

When buildings are developed and there is a change of use with significant rooms, that triggers the application of current building regulations. Since the church was built in 1957-8 there had been no substantial change which meant that many of the building regulations that had been passed in between times had not been implemented at St Edward’s, perfectly legally. The same is probably the case for many other churches that have not been developed over the decades. 

The regulations that required implementation because we were doing relevant, upgrading work on the building, included:

  1. Installing emergency lighting as a fire safety measure. The changes to the hall in the 1980’s, particularly as it was to be used for people who were vulnerable by reason of age, meant that emergency lighting was installed in the hall but had not been installed in the church as there had been no changes. 
  • Installing insulation to a minimum depth (at least 840mm thick on each wall) in both the new kitchen and bathroom areas, because those rooms were being developed and all new building required insulation. It is clearly an environmental measure and has made a huge change to the warmth of these rooms and their capacity to retain heat. 
  • Electrical capacity upgrades for the Church: These were needed in part because of fitting a kitchen with a far higher electrical load for kitchen appliances, than the lighting and occasional electric heater used previously in the Lady Chapel. 
  • Electrical capacity upgrades for the foodbank. Whilst upgrading the electrics in the main part of the church it became apparent that installing a range of fridges and freezers in the foodbank had overloaded the circuits in that part of the building. New, higher capacity circuits were therefore also installed in the narthex and foodbank rooms (formerly the Stage Room and Crying Room). 
  • Electrical Capacity Upgrades for the heating systems: Some upgrading had previously occurred when the new heating system was installed but at that stage all that had been done was to install new circuits. It was now identified that as all electrical systems were being upgraded it made sense to improve the capacity of the heating circuits as well and to improve the isolator systems. 
  • New fuseboard: The extra circuits and extra capacity added to the Narthex, heating and foodbankend of the building also required an extra fuseboard to add trip capacity and therefore enhance safety in cutting off supply in the event of electrical faults in that part of the building. 
  • New fuseboard in the kitchen: On the same principle a new fuseboard and isolators for various pieces of equipment were also needed in the kitchen. 
  • Surge protection: Although most of the changes to implement updated building regulations were responding to regulations passed some time (in some cases decades) before, the surge protection regulations came in as we were doing the work! In theory these changes were not actually required at St Ed’s because the new regulations came into force after our new work had begun. However, we decided that it would be short sighted not to implement the changes given that we had contractors on site and the changes were brought in for a reason, namely to address a concern identified by the Grenfell inquiry.[2]

Clearing the Lady Chapel and Vestry:

The Kickstart trainees were enlisted to help move everything out of the Lady Chapel and Vestry. This included the altar (which was moved elsewhere in church), the piano, a picture, all the children’s cupboards and Sunday School equipment, candle sticks, crosses, a desk, chairs and the children’s furniture. These items were all moved to the vicarage and vicar’s garage in the absence of anywhere else for them to live whilst the work was ongoing. They also dismantled the cupboard for robes, the frontals cabinet and another chest for linens and other items from the vestry. 

The most challenging thing to move was the 1930’s solid metal safe, measuring roughly 1 metre x 1 metre x 1.5meters tall and with a concrete base to make it hard to steal! It was loaded onto the churchwarden’s trolley and moved into what would be the new vestry area. The challenge of moving it put paid to any ideas of removing it from the church and replacing it with something more modern. Instead it has been repainted and touched up by the churchwarden to make it more presentable as it sits in the corner of the vestry. 

Electrical work: 

Electricians installed new electrical circuits running a thick cable from the main fuse board at the church entrance, off the narthex, through to the lady chapel/ kitchen and then across the chancel to the former vestry and now bathrooms area

.

Cables were run from the fuse board under the tower, the full length of the church using existing channels along the sides of the church. One of the major concerns with installing new electrical systems in a church is not only the electrical safety but also the aesthetic issues of where to lay cables and how to protect and hide them. In the case of St Edward’s the existing channels at the side of the church were a natural hiding place but thick cables had to be hidden at the entrance to the church nave for which new coving was needed. 

A series of new lighting cables also needed to be covered in the narthex. The only way that could be achieved was by adding a false ceiling for the length of the narthex adding another £4k to the costs. 

The electricians fitted out the former Lady Chapel for kitchen use, with cables, a new fuse board, wiring, sockets and isolators for the new kitchen equipment, working points and water heaters. Switches and other controls also had to be added for all appliances, lights, overhead heaters and the ventilation hood. All the designs for the electrical wiring came from the architects’ services plans but it was still up to the electrician to work out the precise details.

They also put in wiring to the ceiling and fitted new lights and overhead heaters, along with running cables throughout the building so that a different firm could install specialist lighting in the church itself and the new chapel and office area. Cabling, wiring and equipment was also fitted for the lights and water heaters in the bathroom, around the organ and a number of cupboards at that end of the church.

The upgrade of the new electrical circuits also revealed problems with circuits in other parts of the building. So extra work was undertaken to upgrade the food bank and boiler circuits, installing a new fuse board and isolators in the boiler room. This provided not only greater electrical capacity in terms of voltage and loading but also more protective measures in terms of a new fuse board, isolators and RCD triggers. 

Emergency lighting:

There had been no emergency lighting in the church (unlike the hall which had emergency lights since the Age Concern centre in the 1980’s) but the building works and increased fire risks triggered the need to install emergency lighting throughout the church building too. Once the building use changed the new building regulations were engaged, which meant that emergency lighting and other fire safety measures were required. The emergency lighting was fairly straightforward to install, both inside and outside the building, particularly as repair and upgrading work to the emergency lights became due in the hall at the same time. Accordingly, it was possible to do the works as an integrated project. 

Emergency lighting is designed to be triggered as soon as there is any power outage so that there is still sufficient light to enable people to evacuate the building safely. The system was first tested a couple of months after installation when there was a complete power outage along St Keverne Road, thanks to the electricity network having to repair a fault, one evening. 

Like fire and intruder alarms emergency lights need regular safety checks to ensure that they still work to capacity. Any installation of lights and electrics should come with an operations manual and record book for testing. 

Lady Chapel into Kitchen:

This work required gutting the former Lady Chapel, ripping out first the carpet and then the Covid installed flooring. An old piano had to be moved, initially to the vicarage although it re-appeared at Christmas for carol services. 

The walls had to be prepared, some of which was done by the Kickstart trainees, who repaired a damp damaged wall and ceiling, sanding it back and filling gaps with expandable filler. The Trainees also helped prepare the walls for insulating by applying blue grit, a material that adds some texture to walls to improve their adhesion. 

The old lady Chapel lights were removed and their sockets disabled. The holes left by the removal of the light fittings were covered using off cuts from the Royal Opera House workshop (which is next door to Kinetika who led the flag and banner making). The off cuts and painting had to be completed over night so that they were ready for the flooring company deadline to install the new kitchen flooring.

The wood and glass partitioned wall that separated the Lady Chapel from the Chancel had to be altered with blackout facing so that the unsightly insulation boards were not visible through the glass. A variety of methods were explored. None of the acrylic paints supposedly designed for glass actually worked, leaving streaks and drips and other uneven stripes and blobs. In the end a mixture of black and starred patterns were used alternating the panels, which adds a pleasant feature to the wall. 

However, the designs were subsequently obscured by the addition of pink plasterboard (white-washed over) to ensure adequate fire safety compartmentalisation for the kitchen area. There is now a solid white plasterboard wall instead. 

Building Work in the Lady Chapel:

Once the Lady Chapel was gutted and the electricians had laid the first sets of wiring (“the first fix”) there were a number of enabling works to make the space suitable for installing the actual kitchen equipment and work surfaces. These included:

  • Raising the floor level with a poured concrete floor to bring the level up to the plinth that the old altar had stood on. Boards were used to contain the poured and setting concrete. At this point it was thought that this was the more effective way to deal with the height differentials than trying to remove the now redundant plinth. With hindsight we might have been better removing the plinth and flattening rather than raising the floor as was done with the high altar plinth in what has become the office. 
  • The challenge with raising the floor was that it altered the height of the doorway. It also necessitated a ramp for access up the steps and this has meant that a non-standard door is needed for the kitchen door. As the kitchen door also has to be fire proof this is quite an additional cost and because of the ramp space is at a premium. 
  • In any event, as regards costs, even if the plinth had been removed a poured concrete floor would be needed to ensure a smooth enough surface. 
  • The Kitchen floor at St Edward’s is laid in horizontal blocks and sealed with flooring mastic. It is generally more effective to engage a professional contractor to lay specialist flooring as it is stiff to work with and it helps to have the specialist tools to cut it appropriately. 
  • In between repairing the walls and completing the concrete floor and before laying the Altro floor it was necessary to paint the ceiling and walls at the end of the kitchen area as we did not want the risk of paint spilling or dripping onto the new floor. This meant that timings were sometimes quite tight to meet the timetable of the flooring specialist. In the case of the kitchen some of the painting happened overnight to complete the work in time. 
  • Installing 850mm thick insulation boards along all the external facing walls, ensuring that they were cut neat around the windows. The adhesion of the panels was achieved firstly through the blue grit applied by the apprentices and secondly using fixing products like “No more nails” so that the insulating board stuck to the wall without any nails or other items that might puncture the insulation and affect its effectiveness. 
  • Once the boards were fixed and sound the final layer of the walls was added. This was Altro Whiterockwhich is a very hard wearing plastic type material which is easy to clean and therefore ideal in kitchens and bathrooms where easily cleaned splashback surfaces are needed. 
  • Large holes, of 3600mm diameter, had to be bored through the walls to create channels for the ventilation system.

Once all the infrastructure for the kitchen had been added the second stage of the Electrical works could be undertaken, ensuring that wires were threaded through to the sockets on the walls. The photos below show the range of equipment installed for which sockets were needed, including a six ring hob, full catering oven, microwave oven, double washing up sink with water heaters, a handwashing sink with water heaters and hands-free tap, fly trap, overhead heaters, strip lighting, a freezer unit and sockets for two more fridge/freezer units already on site, plus sockets along the workbenches to plug in equipment such as whisks, kettles and toasters.

It is not the most attractive entrance to the building but changing it significantly would require significant structural alteration which was outside our price range and disproportionate to any benefit it could bring. The narthex has been improved by brighter lighting, clearing junk, ensuring the end windows are clear and doors can all open. A new ceiling, to hide the cabling has also helped tidy it and brighten it up. 

Vestry Development into the toilets:

The old vestry was cleared and gutted in a similar manner to the lady chapel. This meant that the vestments and altar frontals, linens and silver all had to be moved to the vicarage and the woodwork broken up. The old linens chest was too far gone to be salvaged, all but the plaque from the Whale family who had donated it. Similarly, the thin and damaged panels of the vestments’ cupboard had to be thrown as they were not fit for salvage. However, the wood for the frontals’ cupboard was retained and stored for re-use in the new vestry space. The most challenging thing to move was the safe which took two flat trollies and eight human beings to move the 10 metres and two steps from the vestry to the chancel. 

Repairs were also needed to the ceiling of the vestry and the tops of the walls but before that could be done a number of structural changes were also needed. The existing vestry toilet was removed and the wall of the room broken down. The radiator was also taken off the wall by plumbers to be re-fitted on the other side, which would be a corridor in due course. 

The final structural change was to widen the doorway to enable wheelchair access. Accessible doors should be at least 90cm wide; standard door width is 75-80cm. Space to turn wheelchairs around is also needed at the tops and bottoms of ramps and by the widened doorways. 

New door frame

Once the structural changes were complete, the plaster damage was repaired and again the walls and ceiling were painted, with the trainees once more adding blue grit for the insulation boards. In addition, at this point the first fix electrical work was undertaken so that the cables for the water heaters were behind the insulation boards and trunking for the ceiling lights was also hidden. 

As in the kitchen the insulation boards were fixed with “dot and dab” adhesives before also adding the white rock, easily cleaned splashbacks. There was less concern in this development about fire safety as there was no electrical equipment, other than the lights and water heaters, all of which had separate isolators. So, no pink plasterboard was needed on this occasion. 

Once the walls were finished the electricians returned for the second fix completing the socket work and wiring for the water heaters. However, no light switches were added as it was agreed that a PIR system, which turns itself on and off, should be installed to reduce the numbers of times that lights might be left on in the toilets.  Strip lighting was added by the electricians who undertook the functional as opposed to the specialist church lighting work. These were on the same circuits as additional sockets placed around the pulpit and in the candle cupboard and organ console, so as to maximise effectiveness in installing them. 

Delays with the plumbing: 

If the proper order had been followed the pipework for the basins and toilets should also have been added at this stage. However, the sub-contracted plumbers engaged by the building contractor repeatedly failed to attend. This charade went on for over three months, with the vicar and several church members re-arranging weekends and evenings to enable access to the site for the plumbers, only for them not to arrive. After 4 months it was agreed, with the Principal Contractor, to engage a separate plumbing firm and tell the building contractor that we were no longer willing to use the plumbers he intended to engage, due to total failure of contract. 

These delays meant that the first fix plumbing, which should also have been behind the insulated plasterboards and the white rock, was not properly installed.

Accordingly, somewhat unsightly plumbing then had to be installed later, in more visible locations and then lagged (by the vicar and churchwardens) for insulation and safety’s sake. The delays also caused significant challenges to events planned for the church space. A race night in May, two weddings and other events all had to be re-configured with shared use of the toilets in the hall by those at the church event and those using the hall for a party. Similar challenges arose for the Summer Fair and other events later in the year. It was not until October/November that the toilets were finally in a position to be used and the plumbing is not as neat as might have been hoped. The work is passable in the toilets, as an out of sight area with little aesthetic impact on the church; however, had the area affected been in the church itself there would have been serious challenges from the DAC. 

At this point the floor, again Altro anti-slip was installed with additional skirting and sealing to ensure that spaces under or behind the flooring could not get damp. On this occasion the flooring was laid in four quadrants with double layer sealant being applied in all the joins for additional waterproofing. 

The windows, which had been made better insulated through the addition of secondary glazing in 2019 had to be made privacy compliant. The inner panes of glass were removed and opaque self-adhesive film, with patterns was added to the inside of the outer panels of glass to ensure that people could not see into the toilet cubicles. This work was done by the trainees but it looks as though it may need re-doing or a longer term solution found as it has begun in some places to detach from the windows, compromising the hoped-for privacy. 

Before installing the cubicles careful measurements were needed to ensure that minimum space requirements were met for both the standard toilets and the accessible toilet which needed to be larger both for wheelchair access and a self contained cubicle with sink and a baby changing facility. 

As space was limited it was agreed that the toilets would all be unisex which meant that the partitions needed to be from floor to ceiling rather than the standard size, to ensure complete privacy. Door hanging and the direction of opening also required careful thought so that the access corridor could be kept clear but also so that there was enough space. 

Four cubicles were installed altogether including the accessible toilet, which also contained a sink and baby changing unit. The sinks for the standard toilets were placed in a trough design at the end of the washrooms.

A new door had to be installed for the accessible doorway into the area and doors were fitted, as part of the composite bathroom design. Further consultation was undertaken, with parishioners and site users, as the work progressed about colour schemes and designs. Unfortunately, the door for the accessible toilet was mis-designed on two occasions and a surplus door still remains on site. 

Drains and Pipes Before the drains and pipes could be laid trenches were needed to lay them in. The original plan was to use a mechanical digger but, the discovery of roots, from trees felled to prevent them undermining the church foundations, along with five generations of former rain pipes, meant that the digger could not access much of the area to be dug. Digging by hand was the only alternative and required a lot of labour as the drains needed to be a meter deep to ensure that the pipes were at least 60cm below the ground. The labour force included a couple of the Kickstart trainees, the vicar, a neighbour of the church and a couple of friends of the building contractor. The work was eventually completed around the Queen’s Jubilee weekend.  

The blue pipes carry fresh water from the mains, extended from the boiler room water system in the church, to the new areas (kitchen and bathroom) that needed incoming water for sinks, water heaters and toilets. 

The brown pipes are the drain pipes, linked into the existing mains drainage. It was vital to ensure that the correct drains were located as sewage and run off water from the sinks needed to go into the mains sewage pipes, not into the pipes for rainwater running off the buildings. In the absence of plans for the drains we had to raise manhole covers and piece together the pattern. 

Once laid and connected the pipe work and drains also needed to be tested to ensure that the fall or gradient over the length of the pipes was sufficient to enable the water to flow as necessary. This included both the freshwater coming into the site and the wastewater being carried away. The pipes also needed to be bedded in 5mm gravel to provide support and protection from the pressure of the clay, which will move with changes in the water table. 

If there is no possibility of getting the fall right, because of the land layout and respective gradients, it is possible to correct the operative flow of the water by installing pumps. This was considered at St Ed’s, particularly after the drains sank due to the weight of rainfall after they were laid, but before the trenches were filled in. However, with some further digging and re-laying to correct the fall it was possible to get the flow running sufficiently well in due course. 

The final preparation before filling in the ditches was to ensure that the pipes were lagged, or insulated, enough to prevent them freezing in cold weather. This was completed with foam specifically designed for water pipes and was particularly necessary for the water pipes the narrower diameter of which made them more vulnerable to freezing. This became particularly apparent when a small corner of the pipe bringing water into the kitchen sink proved to be insufficiently lagged and froze during weather of -5 degrees just before Christmas. Further lagging was added. 

Finally, once the pipes were lagged the ditches needed to be filled in again which was slightly easier work than digging out the clay but not much. This time use of a digger was not possible at all due to access and the presence of the pipes. We had to wait until the summer for the soil to dry out and not completely waterlogged. 

Laying the external pipework and drains could be undertaken by the building contractor, supported by our various labouring volunteers, as it is a more generalist exercise and did not require plumbers. Provided that the fall and drainage are sufficient there are few other technicalities, although ideally the tests of the fall and drainage flow should be undertaken by the plumbers. Film footage, proving that the drains work, also needs to be provided to the Building Inspector, although they also reserve the right to come and observe on the site. 

Flooring:

It had been hoped to install a sprung wood floor to enhance the flooring for exercise and dance classes. However, the costs which were high before Covid 19, had more than doubled by the end of it, as timber prices worldwide escalated. Accordingly, we had to be realistic and go for a design and materials that we could afford, opting for an engineered wood flooring called LVT, with a click lock system and built in underlay. To enhance insulation, comfort and resilience additional underlay was also laid.

Dry lining and decorating:

The last major structural stage of the work was to build a new chapel to replace the Lady Chapel that had become the kitchen and the vestry that had been turned into the bathroom area. It was also agreed that more office space would be helpful so the new vestry area would also include some office space. Both new areas would double as potential spaces for Sunday school to meet as well. 

At first sight the idea of creating a wall in the area of the end arch across the chancel seemed both extraordinary and foolhardy; it is over 12 meters high. However, we were to discover the joys and versatility of dry lining. A timber frame (of 2” x 4” timbers) is constructed with plasterboard walls across the timber frame, layered in a double skin of overlapping plasterboard and double skinned, ie with plasterboard either side of the timbers. This pattern creates a strong structure which is also highly resilient and provides added insulation. The insulating effect of the plasterboard can also be enhanced by inserting fibre based insulating materials inside the cavity of the plasterboard skins. The insulation works for both heating insulation and also acoustic insulation, was particularly important in creating a chapel and office space that could continue to function whilst other activities were carried on in the nave. 

Lighting in Church, Chapel and Office

The lighting was one of the most significant maintenance challenges in the building. The pendant lights required a scaffolding tower every time that a light bulb needed replacing. Consequently light bulbs went unreplaced for lack of funds to hire a tower. Even when all bulbs were replaced and working the lighting was generally inadequate, particularly across the chancel and around the organ. 

Some members of the PCC, including the vicar, would have preferred to remove the pendant lights and replace them with something more modern and accessible. However, the DAC was opposed to the idea of removal, as the lights are an original feature of the building, which needed to be retained even though the church is not listed. Accordingly, a scheme was developed to upgrade the pendant lights and to add new lighting along the aisles and spot lights in the chancel. 

A beautiful new space: the New Chapel:

The new chapel was built in the vacated chancel space, abutting onto the new rear arch wall that created the office and vestry areas. It was built using the same dry lining technique as the office wall, with double layer and double skin plasterboard. However, to increase acoustic insulation the space in between the plaster skins was also filled with acoustic insulating materials, which has proved extremely effective. 

Fire protection measures were also needed to provide compartmentalisation or fire retardant barriers between areas of electrical circuit risk and the rest of the building. The barriers are a material known as pink plasterboard which works as a fire retardant insulating material. Unfortunately, were not told this before the work was done (despite inspections by the Building Inspector) so the fire retardant materials had to be added later around the kitchen area and above the fuse board in the main electric cupboard. 

Office area: 

The office area was the far end of the church where the high altar had stood. However, as it was never used as an altar and was only used for the Christmas crib and Easter Garden the decision was made to use the space to provide a new office and vestry area in place of the end of the chancel. The final arch of the chancel was filled in using timber and plasterboard dry lining, with a double thickness plasterboard for acoustic insulation. Scaffolding was used to enable access to the highest levels of the arch which meant that the insurers had to be informed of that aspect of the works. 

The plinth on which the high altar had stood had to be removed. Quotes were obtained to break up the plinth, pour a new concrete floor and smooth over the surface before it set. We worked out that hiring a pneumatic drill and doing the breaking up ourselves could be a more cost effective way to complete the work, although we knew we did not have the skills to pour a concrete floor. 

Parish Volunteers’ input:

Accordingly, we accepted those elements of the quote for which professional help was needed and the warden and vicar had a great time smashing up the plinth with the pneumatic drill and carting out buckets full of rubble. It was two days quite hard work but it saved about £1,500 (and any need for the participants’ gym membership!).

There were to be a number of other aspects of the work that we undertook through volunteers in the parish in order to save some money on contractors’ costs. The work we undertook in this way was all the lower level plaster repair and decorating, putting shelves in the cupboards, building housing for the sound system and putting down the bathroom flooring. The painting and plastering engaged the largest groups of volunteers via painting parties held over a couple of weekends. It was an illustration that many hands make light work. 

Our experience was that the contractors respected our decisions and in some ways our volunteers and staff doing some of the work alongside them built a better partnership. From the point of view of the parish it also built camaraderie and a sense of engagement and ownership of the works. Over 20 volunteers got involved ranging in age from their 20’s to 80 (our retired PTO priest proved very enthusiastic when it came to wielding a paint brush). Two of the volunteers have subsequently joined the PCC for the first time and over 50% of existing PCC members helped paint at one point or another. 

Sound System:

We have been fortunate in having a churchwarden who knows something about sound systems and modern technology. This has enabled us, with advice from some other churches and DAC audio adviser, to replace our old amplifier and speakers with a new speaker system, mixing board and much more up to date equipment so that we can now avoid clashes of microphones and music. We are also seeking to train a wider group of church members to use the system so that it is not dependent on just a few individuals like the vicar and wardens. 

Fire systems

One of the major areas that had to be addressed due to the changed use of the building and the introduction of a kitchen, was fire safety the risks of which had increased significantly. As well as the fire safety insulation a fire security system was needed to detect fire and trigger evacuation. The hall already had a fire alarm system dating from the 1980’s and use of the hall by Age UK. However, that system was beginning to malfunction, so the decision was taken to seek a combined system if possible. This took far longer than anticipated. Fire inspectors, manufacturers and installers have been somewhat overwhelmed in the wake of the Grenfell Fire disaster and enquiry, as businesses, local authorities and others with property used by the public seek to fire proof them and take on board the Grenfell recommendations. 

Eventually only two companies tendered for the work and it took weeks to even get designs and quotes prepared. This sort of delay mirrored challenges at other stages of the project as materials and labour became hard to source, thus delaying the provision of quotes and tendering not just the work itself. 

The two quotes received were also widely differing in price and in their presentation and detail. This raised further questions so that it was not possible to make an immediate decision as further information was needed to clarify whether they were like for like or premised on different understandings. Asking contractors questions is also not always popular so managing their defensiveness was also an interesting part of the process!

Eventually a third quote and survey was provided with a price in between the two extremes. It also answered the outstanding questions and flagged up that we would need a gas fitter and electrician to fit solanoids in the gas pipes to isolate the gas supply in the event of a fire. This was another feature that neither of the other contractors had even mentioned in their quotes. 

CCTV and Security:

Whilst seeking the fire security quotes a further piece of work came online, with the approval of a bid to the Places of Worship security scheme, aimed at providing safer fencing, CCTV and other security measures against hate crime, vandalism and anti-social behaviour. 

This is a bid process that operates in a slightly different way from other funders as the Home Office identifies the team and contractors who will design and fit the system, rather than just dishing out the funds. The really helpful thing about the scheme is that the Home Office team also sort out the budget and finances, which is a great saving of time and effort for the parish. 

The team includes both the experts in security equipment but also members with police experience to design out crime, making the system effective based on tried and tested schemes elsewhere. The development of the scheme is in consultation with the parish and only after two or three site visits. There is some comfort being able to design a scheme with such expertise on board. 

The design process also has to take into account the Faculty process but the good news is that, at least for unlisted church buildings, faculty approval can be given by the Archdeacon under List B. The Home Office team should be aware of the faculty process and the need for plans and designs to be submitted in order to obtain the faculty but this is something they might need to be pressed on. 

Although the designing out crime team has the main input into the scheme and the Home Office chooses the contractor, there is scope to influence the design, for example the camera positions, particularly inside a church. Aesthetic decisions and aspects of the design, such as the style of gates, is also an area for client input.

The system installed at St Ed’s in the church building complemented the existing CCTV cameras in the hall, that had been put in during the vacancy. The hall now has 6 cameras and the church has 10, enabling coverage of the whole site, front, rear, side and inside, with the recording boxes for both systems stored in the office in the hall, so that footage can be watched with the police or others in one place. 

Screens to view the camera footage are just a straightforward TV monitor, as we discovered when we had to change the hall monitor three times in one year. They can be wall or desk-mounted and, in each case, there will be a recording box that needs to be located close to the monitor. With the aid of a memory stick, clips and stills of significant camera footage can be captured and used as evidence if needed in legal proceedings. 

Live footage can be viewed on the screens without a password; historic and saved footage can be viewed by logging in with the password. It is retained for 30 days before it is automatically recorded over by the machine. The password also allows the recording to be viewed at close up via Zoom. 

The fact that people crossing the site could be caught on CCTV cameras means that there must be notices across the site to warn that CCTV is being used and that people could be caught on camera. The notices act as both a deterrent to inappropriate activity and a GDPR notice to those with lawful reasons for being on the site. 

[1] Templates, examples and copies of the plans are in the appendices. 

[2] The fire at Grenfell Towers in 2016, destroying a whole block of flats and killing the majority of residents, had been caused by a faulty fridge. The lack of surge protection and isolators were a factor, though by no means the only one, in the rapid spread of the fire. 

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