The scaffolding reaches the top!

This week the scaffolding has reached the top of the Grace Episcopal Church Bell tower. It is quite and impressive site to the the work climb to the top of the tower.



Our masons are almost done with the front vestibule of the church, when they are done, They will start work on the interior of the bell tower until the scaffolding is ready for them to begin work on the exterior of the tower. The High Street door of the church may be closed for a couple of weeks.




The Bell company sent the bell to the foundry in the Netherlands to have it repaired (see the last blog post for the story of the cracked bell). The foundry (Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry) can't fix it, but will take a mold of our old bell and cast one that is identical. They will also use digital technology to shape the new bell's sound to exactly replicate the old bell's sound. They plan to take our old bell and melt it down and use the same bronze to fabricate the new one. All of this is at no additional cost to us. There will be both material and metaphysical links between the old and new bell!

Right now the bells are scheduled to come back the begging of October, and we hope to have the entire project completed by early November. The work seems to be on schedule at this time.

Phase II Tower Work Begins

The Phase II Restoration work on the Grace Church bell tower has begun!  We anticipate that this work on the Bell Tower and the High Street foyer will continue until the first week in November.

Our General Contractor, Murray Brothers has demolished and removed the internal first floor of the bell tower.

And the second floor platform (which will not be replaced).

The floor was then filled, and will have new concrete slab added later.

Our masons are working to match the mortar color and consistency with the building -- 

You can follow our masonry subcontractors perspective on this project on their own blog found here. 

We also have learned, unfortunately, that one of our bells developed a hairline crack as the bell contractors were working on it.  The bell is being shipped to the foundry in the Netherlands in order to be repaired.  You can see the crack in the photo below radiating down from one on the bolt holes.  We are told that the crack does not effect the part of the bell that produces sound, and will be able to be fully repaired.

Replacing Our Ancient Boilers

Compared to the rest of the historical buildings the boilers and furnaces are not that old, but they were at the end of their lifespans at 40, so as part of the overall restoration of Grace Church, we are replacing them with high efficiency natural gas boilers and water to air heat exchangers.

The benefits of the new boilers are many, but here are a few of my favorites:

• Saving Energy - We expect to save 100,000 kBTU each year, saving us thousands of dollars and reducing our environmental impact by 18 metric tons of CO₂ every year.
• No More Oil - We no longer have to deal with oil deliveries, the volatile price of oil and having oil tanks on site.  What a relief!
• No More Combustion in the Church - with the removal of the natural gas furnaces and their replacement with water to air heat exchangers and fan coils, all of the combustion for the heating system now takes place only in the boiler room and not underneath our beautiful sanctuary.

Here are some pictures from the boiler upgrade work that Medford Wellington has been doing.

Before & Now

Old inefficient boilers

Old Oil Boilers Piping

New High-Efficiency Natural Gas Boilers

Old Oil Tanks

Old Furnaces that mostly failed this Winter

New boilers wearing blankets because it is cold today

Old ducting and furnaces for recycling

Pipes and fittings to be installed for new heating system

Bags of fittings for new heating

More to come...

Bell Removal!

The bells were removed today from the Grace Episcopal Church bell tower, and sent to Chime Master in Lancaster, Ohio for restoration.  The entire operation took two days, and was an amazing feat.  The bells will be restored, fitted with new clappers on a new metal frame in Ohio, and then disassembled and brought back and reassembled inside our bell tower after the tower has been restored.  We hope to have the bells back this fall.

Update - May 14

Restoration Update - May 14, 2012

Bell Restoration: We have selected a contractor – Chime Master of Lancaster, Ohio. Tentative bell removal date - first week of June!!

Phase II: Is on track to begin this work in late summer of 2012. Our Architect is finalizing plans and developing bid documents for this phase relating to mostly the bell tower. We hope to get this out to bid soon, with a late May or early June start date.

New Parish Heat System (s): Medford Wellington has begun work on the new system. They are installing pipes now and will switch out the old system, and install the new one when our heating season is over. National Grid is also upgrading the gas line into the Church, which will involve some excavation of the front lawn, and moving the gas meter from inside the basement to the outside of the church.

Sanctuary Lighting: There is a demo light currently installed in the Baptismal area, and on one section of the South wall of the church. The building committee is testing and trying several possible alternatives to provide more light that is also energy efficient. Additionally, a new fixture has been ordered for the Baptismal area.

Restoration Update - February 28, 2012

Wedding and front church Door: We are still interviewing prospective contractors to do the work on the doors.

Bell Restoration: We have selected a contractor – Chime Master of Lancaster, Ohio. They are affiliated with Duffy and Sons who worked on the Grace Church chimes in 1973. The Vestry elected to make the large bell (once the Medford fire bell) able to be swung by a rope, in addition to and electrified clapper, so that we can have the experience of manually swinging that bell. Thanks to Wes Foote, Jr, Allison Andrews and Noah Evans who worked interviewing and selecting a bell contractor.

Phase II: It seems that we are on track to begin this work in late spring or summer of 2012. Our Architect is finalizing plans and developing bid documents for this phase relating to mostly the bell tower. We hope to get this out to bid in March.

New Parish Heat System (s): The Vestry has approved a contract for a new heating system for the church and parish house. This system will consist of high efficiency boilers and will reduce our heating bills and carbon footprint. We hope to have the new system installed in the Spring or Summer.

Restoration Updates - January 9, 2012

Phase I: This phase of the Grace Church Restoration program is complete. We are in planning mode for Phase II.

Wedding Door: We are currently interviewing prospective contractors to do the work on the door. The stairs are complete with Phase I.

Bell Restoration: We are in conversation with several Bell Restoration companies about the bell restoration part of the work. We hope to have had a final decision about the bell contractor by mid to late February.

Phase II: It seems that we are on track to begin this work in late spring or summer of 2012. Our Architect is finalizing plans and developing bid documents for this phase relating to mostly the bell tower. We hope to get this out to bid in February.

New Parish Heat System (s): We are currently in conversation with four heating contractors about the new system (s). Grace Church parishioners should be aware of the fact that the heating system for the Church only is in really bad shape, and running about just over half capacity. With winter upon us, there is a slim possibility that the system will not operate to full capacity for Sunday services, especially if we have extreme severe cold weather. We do not anticipate this occurring but in the event the Church is not sufficiently heated, the 8am and 10am services will be moved into the Wiles Parish Hall. We have tested the system with outside temperatures of 15 degrees, and it has been able to keep up, but we do not know if it get colder than that.

If Sunday services are moved into the Parish Hall, parishioners will be notified via email by early Sunday morning. The heating system will be replaced and upgraded sometime in the spring or summer.