St. Patrick Church and School

Chicken Little says “The SKY is falling!  the SKY is falling!”  BUT in St Patrick’s case it is more like “The SCAFFODLING is falling!!  The SCAFFOLDING is falling!!”  (I know, I’m dating myself).   Yes indeed, the scaffolding came down on Monday and Tuesday, what a sight to behold.  As you tour the church today stop and enjoy the beautiful sight of our new nave ceiling – granted it is not finished yet but you can get an idea of what it is going to look like.   The base coats of paint have been applied on the curved sections, and beams of the nave ceiling, and to the sanctuary ceiling.  Once we have the funds to put the murals, stencils etc on the sanctuary ceiling, window arches, and curved ceiling beams, it is going to be stunning.  The masonry workers have about three fourths of the east wall above the sanctuary roof bricked and hopefully will finish it by middle of next week.  They finished bricking the east wall of the meditation area, so now all that has to be done on the north side of the building is the north transept’s north and east wall.  All of the metal framing over and around all the nave windows has been completed and the stairwells are also metal framed.  On Wednesday Dan and Tim started working in the sanctuary area, framing in the support beams for the raised decking of the sanctuary floor.  The sacristy and confessional rooms are now completely sheet rocked.  All the corner beading has been put in place in the narthex and Craig has already put on a few coats of joint compound.  The corner beading has also been done in the social hall.  The taping and mudding have also been completed in the mechanical rooms on the second floor.   In the narthex walls, expansion joints have been placed in the sheet rock, not so much for expansion purposes but for design – to continue the beam line from the top of the ceiling all the way to the floor.  A side note, all of the inside walls have insulation in them to help with the sound containment.  The heat/air venting, extensions, and registers have been now completed in the narthex ceilings and wrapped with insulation .  Most of the PVC and iron piping (carrying the water) has been installed and wrapped with insulation.  The vents and runs in the nave area have also been connected with their registers.  Most of the sprinkler system has been installed, what remains is to carry it on into the old building.  Most of the mechanical room light fixtures have been installed and the electricians are now working on extending the conduit into the east end of the church structure.  Most of the wires have been run for the sacristy, narthex, social hall and nave areas.  The wood backing has been placed in the north side nave windows, ready for the installation  of the windows.  Placing of wood blocking has been a never ending job but a necessary one. 

Don’t forget – the old church is coming down on March 30^th!!!!!  On March 28^th we will be taking all the wood out of the old church, so if you have a few extra hours, please come and help.

From Your Construction Sidewalk Supervisor