God’s house is once again gleaming green after a five month recoppering project was completed at the Timaru’s Sacred Heart Basilica.
Last Thursday the large weather protection tent was removed and the scaffolding began to come down.
Work to re-copper the level one heritage building began in February, and contractors from Ashburton-based Bradford Building Ltd were tasked with re-coppering the cupolas of the two bell towers as well as the centre dome after they suffered heavy damage in a November 2019 hailstorm.
The new copper was imported from Italy and came pre-patinated, meaning the cupolas would remain their iconic green colour rather than the shiny red-orange shade of new copper.
Holy Family Timaru Catholic parish priest Father Chris Friel said he was very thankful for the high-level of work and professionalism shown by all those involved with the large-scale project.
‘‘We’ve been fortunate that the builders, scaffolders and tilers have been able to work around us for the occasions during the week when we might have a major funeral here.
‘‘We’ve worked in tandem very well, everyone has just worked together so beautifully, it’s just been great.
‘‘I’ve been up there every other day seeing what they’ve been up to.’’
Living in the adjacent presbytery, he said it had been great to observe the progress of the repairs first-hand.
‘‘I was trained in Rome for five years and I get back to Europe on different tours along the way so I know a lot about our cathedrals in Europe.
‘‘This is just a small building in relation to all of those.
‘‘But the same work still has to be done.
‘‘That same work that has happened here also happened 800 years ago on those buildings in Europe.
‘‘These tilers that have been working here, Kevin and his team, they have done such intricate work on this building.
‘‘Every piece of copper tile to be repositioned has been marked out in pen on the building paper underneath it.
‘‘The mathematics involved is extraordinary.’’
The basilica, which was designed by New Zealand architect Francis Petre and completed in 1911, had also undergone earthquake strengthening in recent years.
Fr Friel said the final process of removing the last of scaffolding could take up to another three weeks.
‘‘It’s all weather dependent, so it could be sooner.
‘‘Like a Christmas tree, scaffolding comes down quicker than it goes up.
‘‘It will be great to have the building back and three beautiful green domes — and an apse at the back of the basilica that no-one sort of realised was there, because it was a very blackened copper after 110 years.’’
It initially took the construction company about two weeks to set up the complex array of scaffolding to reach the cupolas — which sit about 35m high.
He said that thankfully there were no other immediate large scale projects in the pipeline for the basilica.
‘‘When the scaffolding comes done the whole building will be sprayed to keep the stone white, but that’s about it.
‘‘There is though still the main cross which has to be craned in to go on the top.’’
He said he had enjoyed seeing the wider community take an interest in the work.
‘‘They know what’s going on but they can’t wait for the big reveal — it’s going to happen fairly swiftly.’’
