January 24, 2008

BRANTFORD EXPOSITOR

The $6.5 million rebuilding of St. Andrew’s Church in Brantford, Ontario made extensive use of custom-fabricated steel trusses to maintain the 19th century architectural design.

New material technology restores a historic look at Brantford church

Light gauge trusses bring burned church back to life

PETER KENTER

correspondent

BRANTFORD

When St. Andrew’s United Church in Brantford, Ontario was destroyed by fire last January, its building committee had a tough job on their hands. The insurance pay-out was inadequate to restore the church to original specifications, so the entire building had to be reconstructed on a $6.5 million budget.

Starting with just the surviving church bell tower and façade, architect Craig Newsome of MMMC in Brantford showed the congregation how they could use light gauge steel construction to salvage historic period detail while adapting the building’s interior for the 21st century.

“They wanted a design that was respectful of the original late 1800s architecture,” says Newsome. “On the inside we gave the church a fresh start.”

Newsome’s design lowered the floor to street level and creating a flexible worship space, featuring movable seating and fixtures. To achieve those features, Newsome chose light steel trusses to support the new higher ceiling profile, and to tie in the weakened façade and bell tower with the new construction.“Light gauge steel allowed us to create a 17-metre fireproof truss that could span the entire sanctuary,” says Newsome. While the cost of steel construction runs about 50 per cent higher than traditional wood — a reflection of material costs — steel framing reduces fire insurance premiums by more then two-thirds. Installation costs are comparable, with trusses screwed together similar to steel stud walls.

VanderWal Homes and Commercial Group of Petrolia, ON was chosen to manufacture and install the steel architecture. The company is one of only a few contractors in Canada specializing in light gauge steel trusses.

“This type of construction has become more popular over the last few years in institutional settings like hotels, nursing homes and water treatment plants,” says company president, Jim VanderWal. “This is our first church.”

Each aspect of light-steel construction is customized to suit local conditions, including expected roof snow loads, says VanderWal. The new trusses were fabricated on-site using the new concrete floor of the sanctuary as a workspace.

A challenging aspect of the design was a series of 10 gothic vaulted windows in the church’s sanctuary. Vaulted windows are traditionally created using wood framing, but because the interior walls of the church would be finished with drywall compound, Newsome wanted to avoid twisting or movements of wooden studs that could cause the walls to crack. The use of light gauge steel guaranteed that the window structures remained stable.

To achieve the complex design, VanderWal ordered a special device—a track and stud bender—at a cost of more than $5,000 to fabricate the window vaults.

“It’s a hand-controlled device that bends cold rolled steel,” says VanderWal. “Without it, we could never have gotten the radiuses right on such a complex design. With this device, we can form steel into anything people can think of.”

VanderWal says that, in addition to its strength and design flexibility, steel construction is an environmentally responsible choice.

“This project will have an expected service life of about 240 years,” he says. “Unfortunately, we won’t be here to prove it.”

Construction is scheduled to be completed in July, 2008.

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