Project: Fascia boards

The largest project and the one that took the most cooperation among the team was the preparation of fascia boards to frame the top of the building.

When we arrived the walls were being finished with a stucco material most of the way up the sides. The tops of the walls were exposed blocks of styrofoam insulation. Our job was to prepare furniture-grade plywood sheets to cover the foam. These sheets, once professionally finished and weather-sealed would both protect this foam from the elements as well as an an architectural feature.

The plywood sheets will extend...

... all the way ...

... around the building

The first step was to add furring strips around the top of the building so that we would have something strong enough to mount the heavy plywood sheets to.

David prepared the custom measured furring strips.

Lloyd practially lived on the ladder for several days nailing up the strips.

Bob spent almost all of his time working over the side of the roof, first attaching the tops of the strips and later helping with the positioning of the plywood sheets.

The process of preparing the plywood sheets begins.

The first sheet goes up. Two men on the roof would lift each sheet into position  by pulling on ropes attached to  sheetrock "carry-alls". These men would have to hold the boards steady while other men called out instructions for leveling the boards and once leveled hold them perfectly still while they were screwed into place. The first few boards went up slowly and awkwardly as each person on the team refined their techniques. We eventually became quite proficient at the task and could do it quite quickly.

A plywood sheet gets moved into position.

Two people would work from below centering the board, identfying when it was level and attaching the bottom screws.

Finalizing one of the last boards

This is what the building looked like with all of the boards up. However, we had to remove the screws and lower them all back to the ground so that they could be sent to the woodworker to be professionally treated and weather-sealed. The boards did not return from the woodworker until after we left.

The back of the building showing the treated boards remounted to the building

The building already looks dramatically different from the Soviet-era community cafeteria that it started out as.

Here you can also see where they have poured a new foundation on the left side of the building on which a new foyer will be constructed.