St Richard Church

The Brief

Carry out concrete repairs to various high level areas of the bell tower to St Richards Church, Hanworth

The Solution

One of the biggest challenges on this contract was gaining access to the areas that needed repairing.

We had originally planned to use a mobile hydraulic arm to allow us to reach the area of works however this was not feasible due to the limited access points which meant hydraulic booms were not able to reach the required locations.

Our next option was to erect an adaptable tower scaffold, around the existing bell tower structure mounted on top of the lower roof of the church as shown in the photos. Initially it was thought a tower scaffold could not be used due to the multiple pitches of the available base points but using adjustable legs and outriggers this was achieved safely and suitable access provided.

All loose concrete was carefully removed avoiding any further damage and a clean edge and shoulder formed by Diamond Hand Sawing.

The repair was carried out using a specialist cementitious Fosroc Renderoc HB Mortar with Nitobond HAR Primer applied to the concrete surfaces prior to coating. All rust had been removed from the reinforcement and the primer Nitoprime Zincrich Plus applied to the steel surfaces.

Our operatives left a clean neat and strong repair as per the photos below which will serve the church well for many years to come. They even managed to fix the bell itself which had previously seized and remained silent for many years! Happy days.

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