The completion of a brand new church in County Tyrone has been hailed as a fantastic success.
Valued at just under £1 million, the Dungannon Free Presbyterian Church Development project has seen the construction of a brand new church in Dungannon. The project was completed in November 2011 – four months ahead of schedule – and has already proved very popular with the congregation.
Work began in February 2011 when the former church was demolished. Construction on the new building then commenced with Russell Brothers Builders as the main contractor and McCarter Hamill Architects as the architect.
Russell Brothers Builders Quantity Surveying Director, Douglas Fraser, said:
“There was a real team ethos on this project, which helped us to complete the job successfully and ahead of schedule. Tender documentation stated the project was to be finished by March 2012 however we completed the church well ahead of this date which made this project a fantastic success.
“We achieved our goal through teamwork and a great deal of communication. Any design feature that the church wanted to include we tried our best to incorporate and we also worked very closely with the building committee. We also appreciate all of the assistance of McCarter Hamill Architects and the staff at Dungannon Free Presbyterian Church.”
The new church building was constructed using a steel frame with cavity block walls and aluminium windows. The roof features cut timber beams and Cupa Spanish slates, whilst the exterior of the building is clad with a sto render.
Internally, the walls were covered with plaster whilst the floors were finished with a mixture of carpet and ceramic tiles. A number of stained glass windows were also incorporated in the building.
Additional features include a pulpit, prayer rooms, a minister’s room, a mezzanine floor, a kitchen and toilets. The building is also fully DDA compliant.
Although the majority of the work involved the construction of a brand new building, one very important element of the original structure was retained.
Douglas Fraser said:
“The original church building was beginning to look a bit dilapidated and had reached the end of its use, however the church hall was still functional and so it was decided that it would be more cost effective to keep it intact than to replace it.”
Although the decision was made to retain the original church hall, a few alterations were made to bring the structure up to date. New storage areas and toilet facilities were incorporated and the external facade was covered in sto render and painted to match the design of the new building.
To complete the project a car park was built on the site to provide up to 100 parking spaces for the church, including provisions for disabled drivers.
Douglas Fraser said:
“We’ve worked on quite a few churches in the past but it was great to see this project completed as it was well designed and looks great. The building now offers a multipurpose function for the community and the feedback so far has been very positive.
“We always strive to complete a job as efficiently as possible and we think we outdid ourselves on this particular occasion.”
