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Our Perspective and Philosophy
Our approach
to the building and restoration of steeples has been formed
not only by our experience, but also by one very
obvious fact. “Steeples are hard to reach and cannot be
seen up close”. This fact leads to the following conclusion. “ It
is wiser to spend time and money creating a product that will
long endure without maintenance, than to spend time and money
creating a product that looks nice from 10 feet away”.
We have developed a number of techniques that we believe produce
a product that will last an exceptionally long time. These techniques
are described in the “specific
techniques” folder. These techniques are often time consuming. In some cases,
such as the sanding of all wood to 60 grit, these techniques lead to a coarse
up close appearance. Some techniques, such as the use of expansion joints, are
time neutral. There are a few techniques that save time. For example, we fill
our screw and nail holes with our standard urethane caulk, rather than sanded
epoxy wood filler as is appropriate for work seen up close. This saves time but
leaves the filled holes visible from 10 feet away. In general, working in such
a way that we can concentrate on longevity rather than up-close appearance, allows
us greater creativity with techniques for achieving longevity.
As we build and restore our steeples, our dialog revolves around the mantra of “100
years with no maintenance but for paint”. We use whatever method will yield
the best results. Since we do all aspects of construction ourselves, we can control
quality, cost, and timing.
Also, a large portion of any steeple restoration is simply the cost of getting
access to the structure, whether through ropes, scaffolding, or removal. Therefore,
it only makes sense to do a complete, high quality restoration, since the access
costs remain the same. So, I often advise churches to do a complete restoration,
and if this is not possible, to do a “quick’n’dirty cheap fix” to “buy
them a few years”. It is the “partial” restorations that should
be avoided. |
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