Saint Leo the Great Parish
"This is such an architecturally beautiful building and such an important part of the community, that we were grateful for the opportunity to make sure it's going to be around for a long time." Steve Yocham
Bigham Taylor's vice president of field operations
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Project Name: Saint Leo the Great Parish
Client: Diocese of Oakland
Location: Piedmont, CA
Description: The Diocese of Oakland is home to some of the most historic and picturesque churches in all of California, including the Saint Leo the Great Parish in Oakland, CA. Founded in 1911, the parish was named to honor Pope St. Leo the Great who served from 440 until 461. The building that now serves as the church was opened in 1926.
Other than a handful of interior updates, the church building had been mostly untouched until it was determined that a structural and seismic retrofit was needed after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Hired by McNealy Construction Company, BT was tapped to assist with the structural retrofit work on the roof structure. Rather than demolishing the existing roof system, the choice was made to carefully remove the original Gladding McBean tiles, put them on pallets and then re-install them.
Because of the care called for, the roof work was done in sections. Once the interior walls of the building were retrofitted, BT braced the roof structure and then applied Self-Adhered Granulated Underlayment before reinstalling the original tiles. On some of the half-dome radius roofs, BT sprayed urethane foam before installing multiple layers of Rigid Recovery Boards, a new PVC membrane and the tiles.