St Brendan’s Church is in the Harwood area of Bolton, Greater Manchester and is a busy hub of the community and connected to a school. The Priest was keen that the disruption to normal services be minimal so a restrictive two-week timeframe was set, the Church had to be closed to services during the works due to access requirements for scaffolding and Pews being moved.
Painting the church took place from- to. The works consisted of internal painting of the main Chapel, side rooms, kitchen, and ceilings. Originally painted over ten years ago, a survey was conducted at the time by Dulux to decide on the colours. This original survey has meant the church is unique in its colour scheme, producing a wonderful showcase of beautiful pinks including the showpiece celling. We completed the project to the specification provided by the Church.
Challenges The main challenge of this project was the tight two-week timeframe, cleaners were due to attend the day after the completion date to get to Church ready to hold services as quickly as possible. The timeframe included the movement of the benches and delicate objects within the church to make way for the scaffolding. After completion all these items were then returned to their original positions.
Parts of the ceiling were difficult to reach due to the team not being able to move the marble altar. Through excellent teamwork and collaboration, the team employed specialist scaffolding to reach the ceiling above the altar and balcony.
With great care and consideration, painters also had to work carefully around delicate statues in the church such as the large cross above the alter to avoid damage to any of these items.
The high strutted ceilings also made access difficult and required painters experienced working at height and the appropriate safety measures in place in order to paint the 12-14m celling. Alloy towers and fixed scaffolding were used to reach these areas.
The work was described by painting director Danny McCann as ‘difficult and delicate’ especially around items such as the immovable marble alter.
This job was completed on time and on budget and the customer was happy with the work done.