Story

Failed building maintenance for decades, general deterioration, wood rot, and insect damage had caused widespread paint failure at the exterior envelope, as well as deterioration to the framing members of the belltower. Rot and insect damage at the North sill plates and Northeast structural columns, in particular, had caused the bell tower to begin leaning and pulling away from the rest of the church structure. Worcester Eisenbrandt’s objective on this project was to assess and replace rotted/irreparable structural and decorative wood components, restore historic wood components, and replace irreparable historic millwork with accurately replicated new millwork. WEI conducted a thorough investigation to identify all damaged and deteriorated elements on the exterior envelope of the building. Our field carpenters carefully removed selective exterior profiles piece by piece and prepared them to be sent back to our shop for restoration. WEI worked closely with our scaffolding/shoring sub to install a shoring tower which would carry the load of each floor of the belltower. Once complete, needle beams were inserted from East to West through the structure to shore each floor and arrest the bell at the top of the tower. WEI then removed portions of sheathing from the structure to allow for removal and replacement of structural components. Each level was lifted on the shoring tower, and WEI carpenters secured new sill plates, columns, and beams to help correct the lean of the belltower. This presented multiple challenges in engineering design and methodology for loading the floors onto the needle beams. Meanwhile, our shop craftsmen painstakingly rebuilt and restored the salvaged historic components from the exterior profile utilizing epoxy and dutchmen repair methods. Roughly 2000LF of historic components were repaired, and 2500LF of replicated components were fabricated to match the historic profiles. All components were primed with an oil-based primer and painted with two coats of finish paint before returning to site. Once repairs and fabrication were completed, shoring was dismantled, and WEI carpenters rebuilt the historic buttresses and sheathed the building using structural plywood to replace the removed and deteriorated board sheathing. Once shop-restored items returned to site, reinstallation was conducted beginning from the bottom of the building using restored components first to facilitate providing more frequent maintenance to the historic components. Great care was taken to preserve as much historic fabric as was possible in this process.