When Byron Smith looks at The Old School House arts centre, he sees one of the words in its moniker being perhaps more relevant than the rest: old.
The building, is close to celebrating its centennial as a landmark of Qualicum Beach and bears some of the complaints one would expect with a grand old building of that age — complaints the Town of Qualicum Beach carpenter and his crew are working to correct.
Smith uses the claw of a hammer to pry loose a piece of the building’s exposed foot plate to demonstrate the problem.
“The foot plates are rotten in places — some of it is completely black, with black ants and termites,” he said. “As well, the building is not fastened to the foundation with anchor bolts. That’s why we’re here.”
He crumbles the duff into dust as his co-worker continues to pry off the exterior cladding to expose more of the problem.
“It’s a problem,” he said. “Obviously, it’s load bearing, so that’s job one. We’re opening it up as far as we have to, all the way around.”
While they’re at it, he said, the municipal staff plan to do some seismic improvements to the iconic structure, anchoring it firmly to its foundation.
Although Qualicum Beach residents won’t have noticed any change to the building prior to Monday’s start to the renovation, Smith said he has been planning and preparing for the operation for months.
“The shiplap we were pulling off has to be re-done to the same dimension, same material,” he said. “You can’t just put plywood in and call it good enough. As well we had to mill our own siding because you just can’t buy it anymore. I have that stockpiled, pre-painted and ready to go.”
Smith said he is unsure of exactly how long the job will take, noting he plans to continue right around the building.
“We’ll go until we run out of money for this year,” he said. “Then we’ll stop, save up and next year we’ll just carry on.”
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