The never-ending story of the upkeep of Risca Male Choir Headquarters Part 5
Kevin Lovett
As we explained in Part 1 of this series, several of the upstairs rooms of the choir hall had suffered damage due to the leaking roof. This leak was eventually successfully repaired in the summer of 2020.
With the outside work now completed, we were able to turn our attention to repairing and decorating these rooms.
The one which had been most badly damaged was the largest of the upstairs rooms. This room will soon be used as a second practice area when the choir needs to be split into sections, either for social distancing reasons or to aid the learning process.
Mike Sullivan
On a cold Monday morning in November 2020, we began by assessing the ceiling which was damaged in several places. We realised that due to the height of these rooms, scaffolding was needed. Once in place we could safely carry out any repairs and subsequently paint the room.
The wall below the leaking section of roof was badly water damaged and had to be re-plastered. Many thanks to Mike and Alan for my crash course in plastering!
It now just remained for us to decorate the room. The ceiling was treated and painted, the light fittings repaired and cleaned.
Damaged window frames were repaired and painted. The walls were repaired where needed and painted.
Skirting boards and the central heating radiators and pipework were rubbed down and painted. Extra electrical sockets were fitted and the flooring repaired and made ready for carpeting.
With the repairs and decorating completed, all that remains is to find curtains for the two large windows and the fire escape door and possibly decorate the walls with choir memorabilia.
Monday mornings are our regular maintenance day and everyone is more than welcome to come along and lend a hand. Plenty of the jobs don’t need any specialist knowledge.
Many thanks to Alan Davis, Mike Sullivan and Chris Davies for all of their hard work, one room down, many more to go!
This building blog is written by Kevin Lovett
