Tiling

One of the various trades that were on site in the run up to Christmas were the tilers.

As with the rest of the building we've kept things simple with clean white tiles for the food prep' and washroom areas. The photo shows what progress had been made when we were last on site, and judging by the speed at which they were working, Mike and his team from DJBennett & Son should have completed their work before the holiday.

And with the kitchen fitters due to start installing equipment into this area immediately after New Year it should soon be transformed into a completed Cafe/Kitchen.

News

The Bristol Evening Post visited site and interviewed Tim Groves (Church Leader) and Cathy Knowles (Project Coordinator) a month ago. Cathy ended up on the cutting room floor (!) but here's what Tim said about the new building.

Wrapped up

With the Christmas holidays starting construction work is virtually complete for 2011.

Everything is still going to schedule so the New Year should see a busy January leading to handover of the completed building in February. Meanwhile all manner of finishes, fixtures and fittings are now starting to arrive and are being installed. This includes the servery, which will provide the focal point in the Cafe. Unfortunately we'll have to wait until well past Christmas before we can unwrap it, but we're sure it'll be well worth it.

Inside curve

With Christmas almost upon us, the builders want to make the most of the enforced break by pouring the remaining floor screeds so they can cure over the holiday. This not only means that the underfloor heating pipework has had to be laid, but it also means that the internal scaffold has been taken down. So, for the first time we've been able to get sight of what the main hall will look like, especially the curved rear wall which we think looks great.

Emerging

At long last the scaffold, which has obscured the building as it's been built over the last few months, is finally coming down. We've not yet had chance to see the building in daylight as it emerges butterfly-like from it's scaffold cocoon, but here's a glimpse of it that we caught yesteday evening as we passed.

Porcelain

It's getting extremely busy on site with various trades now working around each other as the finishes start to be installed.

Part of this is the second fix of the plumbing, with the installation of sinks, WCs and their associated taps etc. So far one of the basins has been installed but that's sure to change over the next few days with all these ready to be unpacked and fixed in place.

Heating

December has arrived along with the first frost of the winter and while the building isn't yet protected by a functioning heating system, the plumbers are making good progress.

Installation of the bulk of the underfloor heating pipework happened a few weeks ago when the floor screed was poured. The plumbers are now installing all the other pipework that connects the gas fired boilers to the heating system.

Once the pipework system is complete and pressure tested they will then be able to fire up the boilers, allowing the heating system to start the important process of drying out the building.