First Church of Christ in Woodbridge, CT Stabilization Complete
Woodbridge, CT
Construction at the First Church of Christ (c.1832) was completed this month to stabilize the roof, attic, and first floor structures. GNCB completed a Condition Assessment of the Church in the summer of 2016 and discovered numerous items requiring structural intervention. We were retained to complete Construction Documents - including drawings and a project manual, to assist the Church with procuring a qualified restoration contractor, and to monitor construction.
Stabilization of the timber roof and attic structure included reinforcing the roof/attic trusses and the secondary roof framing, as well as re-supporting and stiffening the attic floor joists. Elements of the roof/attic framing had previously been reinforced but movement in the framing was still active and a fresh failure in the bottom chord of a timber truss was observed during GNCB’s condition assessment.
To mitigate the effect of deep tenons in the truss bottom chords, GNCB designed steel splice plates to span the existing tension failure and the potential failure zones in the remaining trusses. Supplementary framing was added to stiffen the attic floor which supports a decorative painted lath and plaster ceiling, recently stabilized by John Canning & Co, Ltd. The use of the Church’s attic space for cellular equipment created additional challenges for this job.
Work at the first floor consisted of adding new steel beams at the mid-span of the floor joists to greatly reduce the flexibility of the Church’s sanctuary framing and bring the floor up to modern live load capacity.
Contractor for Structural Work: Kronenberger and Sons Restoration, Inc.
GNCB provides similar services for many other Connecticut Congregational Churches. Darien Congregational Church retained GNCB for a comparable project in 2016.
