St Martins Internal works

Deryn McAndrew

The long-awaited “Internal toilets” part of the St Martin’s Re-ordering project finally started on 20th October – with a projected finish date of 3rd December.

We put plans in place to take care of the church while this was being done – a rota to open up at 8am, and a rota to lock up at 4pm (being the declared times of start and finish every day). We thought that having someone on site at these times at least, would enable us to keep an eye on things, and assist the builders as required.

We also established a cleaning team to come in before evening events such as “In Loving Memory”, as well as the Sunday services, and we acquired a pile of old sheets to be used as dust sheets, and brought in the plastic covers that the new chairs had been delivered in last year – to use those as well……….albeit we did not use many of them at all…..

There were times when a lot of dust was generated (like when they were digging up the floor, and knocking a hole in the wall), but there were far more days when there was no dust at all – for example, days when there was no work done for some mysterious reason we were not party to…………

In the end, we gave the builder a set of keys so that the guys could all come and go as they wanted to – we never knew who was going to be there, and what they were going to be doing. I think a chapter of accidents contributed to this – things like:-

  • Unplanned work – e.g. the removal of the old radiator on the back wall was left off the specification, and this meant that the heating had to be drained down, the heating pipe re-routed under the new west door, and the system all brought back to working order. That took a whole day!
  • Delays while we decided the detail of things like the colour of the walls, the type of flooring inside the toilets and utility room, and the type of kitchen units needed in the utility room.
  • Family bereavement for two of the building team.
  • Diversion of the architects onto other work, and holidays.
  • Mis-communication of times of meetings.
  • etc. etc.

I guess this is all “business as usual” for any building work being undertaken – we’ve all suffered from some of these in our own homes, I’m sure. The project team worked hard to minimize any delays from our side – continuing to meet weekly to make decisions, and also agreeing details “off line” via e-mail, ad-hoc meetings, etc.

Gerald has been keeping a photographic record of the job – see selection of photos included

As planned, during this period, the Tuesday morning mass was re-located to St Peter’s in Senghenydd, to minimize disruption for the builders. I have to compliment the St Teilo kitchen team, and the St Peter’s ladies, who worked so hard to make this a happy transition. Vital equipment for toasting tea cakes was taken up to St Peter’s, and the ladies there made space in a cupboard for our equipment. Peter and Jean Starr masterminded the use of the benefice bus – based on keys being left at my house for pick-up and drop-off. It all worked very well……….except for the week when the bus refused to start and had to go into the garage!!

At the time of writing, it is looking doubtful that we will finish on time, so we are now considering “Plan B” for managing to complete the required work around the start of the Christmas season of concerts and carol services……………..

Hey Ho! The best laid plans of mice and men……………………