Brims Construction were successfully appointed to deliver the restoration and conversion of Durham Road Baptist Church into 12nr residential flats/apartments whilst a section of the church was refurbished to provide a new worship space and additional function rooms for the community on behalf of B&R Developments.
In 2017 the church partnered with B&R Developments who are a Christian development company that helps churches with unsustainable buildings, find solutions for funding etc. The Durham Road Baptist church had been in state of extreme disrepair for several years, surveys revealed the building required an extensive programme of repairs. In order to fund the works required to keep the church going, they produced a plan to use the 850- seater main space, which wasn’t being utilised due to a dwindling congregation and transform the space into apartments which in turn funded the restoration works to their community and worship space.
The primary structure of the building is a traditional timber and masonry cellular structure. To facilitate the works we were required to remove the gallery and new structural elements were installed within the footprint of the building. The refurbishment works increase the robustness of the external walls by providing additional support and restraint. The new floor joists span between new timber walls and the existing masonry. There was a key requirement to retain an existing curved staircase within the church building, as part of our works we carefully propped and protected the staircase during the demolition works. The new floor structure now incorporates a trimming member to pick up the stair in the permanent staircase.
The restoration also facilitated the inclusion of new roof windows within the footprint of the conversion, to make the apartments light and airy. There were a number of masonry defects that were apparent during the early surveys of the project, we rectified all the defects during our fabric repair works.