Apartments taking shape in former Ebenezer Church
NEW apartments being built inside the former Ebenezer Church in Brock Road, St Peter Port, are starting to take shape.
Since developer Pulse Group started work in August the interior foundations have been laid and drainage installed and the walls of the four units on the ground floor have gone up.
Behind the building, work has started on the site of the old church hall – once home to the 1st Company Boys’ Brigade – and this is being rebuilt as a three-storey extension to the main building.
With the church being a protected building some elements of the original structure have to be retained, including the windows and the cast iron support pillars.
Working in a building of this sort brings its own set of challenges, said Pulse director Dan Maree. ‘It’s not a big issue, but every obstacle you come across you just assess it and see the best way forward,’ he said.
The development will comprise one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, with those on the ground floor in the main building having one bedroom.
There will eventually be three floors and each of the flats in the north-west of the building, adjacent to the road, will also have a unique circular study area, since they will be occupying the space of the old bell tower.
With all of the church windows being retained, they will be restored where necessary and double-glazed, said Mr Maree.
Work on the walls of the new extension is due to start soon and these will be built using a new technique which the company has already used on a site it is working on at Cobo.
Nudura is an insulated concrete system in which insulated blocks with steel reinforcing bars running internally vertically and horizontally are put together like Lego, said Mr Maree.
The assembled walls are pumped full of C50 waterproof concrete, leaving a wall that has 75mm of insulation and a 150mm reinforced waterproof concrete core with another 75mm layer of insulation.
Silicone render is applied to the outside while plasterboard is fitted to the inner walls and he said this leads to low heat loss and good sound insulation.
Project architect Julian Hurley of Lovell Ozanne said he had worked on similar conversions of buildings in the UK.
There was one main issue with Ebenezer, he said.‘It’s very large. Plus you’ve got windows which are protected and which span between the separate floors and some cast iron pillars which support the truss work right up to roof level which you have to incorporate into the design strategy and the structural strategy.’
