RESTORING BUILDINGS TO THEIR PAST GLORY
Chalmers Heritage Conservation has completed many interesting projects
There’s something comforting about the smell and feel of old wood, but to Dave Chalmers, it’s much more. The owner of Chalmers Heritage Conservation treats it with care and reverence, doing all he can to preserve timbers where they sit or find a new use for them. Restoration and conservation is the focus of his company — he just does not work on any new construction projects.
A carpenter by trade, Chalmers spent four years working for another restoration company before deciding to hang out his own shingle. He launched his company just three years ago in his home garage with a few basic tools, and was fortunate that a number of former clients approached him to continue working for them.
Soon, he was able to rent a 1,000-square-foot portion of a warehouse and then into a bay in Rocky View County, building up his inventory of tools and hiring staff to help his growing portfolio of work. A year ago, he made the move into bigger premises on 11th Street S.E. and now boasts 14 employees, in the office/plant and in the field.
Chalmers has completed many interesting projects around southern Alberta; one of the most rewarding being the restoration of the old water tower at St. Mary’s University.
Built in 1921 as a necessary and welcomed plumbing apparatus for the Lacombe Home, it had been neglected since de-commissioning in 1959.
Today, thanks to the generous gift of Tom and Debra Mauro and the skills of Chalmers and his crew, it serves as a fine-art gallery and teaching space.
The structure is anchored by massive beams that Chalmers patiently steam-cleaned using a mild detergent. The rest of the interior was recreated historically accurate using as much of the original materials as possible, and when new was necessary, such as for the strip lap walls, the same species of wood was used.
The four-month project from floor to 16-foot-high skylight is now a wonderful, symbolic beacon for the university.
A big contract still underway is helping EllisDon with the restoration of the historic city hall building. I was surprised when Chalmers toured me around his plant to see sections of the clock face he had dismantled, waiting to be cleaned alongside huge doors that are being cleaned, repaired and given a new coat of traditional paint. Windows are being brought up to current code and the hand-soldered galvanizing on the tin lanterns that sit atop the building has to be repaired.
The company works primarily for local architects and the provincial and civic governments, and it continues to get called whenever great care is needed in bringing buildings back to their former glory.
He says that Alberta Culture and Tourism have been a great help in providing records of all historic buildings in the province. In a neighbour’s bay that he is using, a huge stack of timbers are being hand-hewn with a broad axe to replicate the original logs used at Fort WhoopUp in Lethbridge. Each dovetail is being cut by hand, just like the original builders did, and craftsmen will rebuild the structure using gravel and clay as caulking.
Wood was certainly the building material used for the 1876 vintage Hunt House, the oldest building on its current location in the city, alongside the Deane House in Inglewood. The 200-square-foot cabin was taken apart piece-by-piece, and pine log walls, rough plank boards and tar paper roof restored and replaced.
Greenwood Manor is a ‘newer’ building, a 1900 provincial historic resource still proudly standing along Memorial Drive.
The metal roof has 1,500 tiles that are being cleaned with hydrochloric acid and electroplated before being painted with an automotive finish that will look like the original surface and last another 100 years in this harsh climate.
Chalmers runs a busy, wellequipped shop today, proud to be in the restoration business while keeping a team of skilled craftsmen employed.
NEWS AND NOTES
Summers mean the opportunity to buy fresh, locally grown produce, and we will have another venue to enjoy the colour and aromas of stalls of vegetables and fruits and baked goods at the new Farmers & Makers Market that opens at cSPACE King Edward creative hub on June 2.