For decades, spring runoff had been rotting the east wall of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
No one really knew how bad it was until Ken Weseen took a look behind the drywall in mid February.
"I had the insurance guy come. We knew it before that (but) we didn't realize quite how bad it was. It was the Friday that I opened up the bottom and saw how terrible it was — the whole wall," he told the Albertan.
"So then I supported it in 10 places, just so it wouldn't cave in, because it probably was ready to crack, and if that would have ever happened it would have been just condemned, for sure.
"It's been a long, slow rotting process."
Weseen and other volunteers have been working to solve the problem for the past 10 days or so. He figures the entire project will be completed in about another week.
It's been quite a job. Weseen estimates it will cost a total of about $5,000 because he and others are all supplying volunteer labour. He says the cost will be split between the church and volunteers, including Joe Gustafson, who owns property nearby.
"All the bottom 16 inches of the east wall of the fellowship hall is all rotted out from runoff just off of the parking lot on that side. So we had to dig out the parking lot," Weseen said.
"We moved about 22,000 kilograms of asphalt and soil and then we've come inside now and we've had to reframe over 60 feet — the bottom four feet."
The project has also involved sawing off and replacing 16 inches of stucco on the outside as well as digging out the asphalt and re-contouring the parking lot.
The project also called for the east wall to be re-insulated and the drywall replaced.
Weseen has been working hard on it.
"I've been going 10, 12, 13 hours a day," he said. "I'm usually here at 5 every morning, or 5:30 and work till supper and get 'er done. We had to because it could have caved in. We couldn't waste any time, actually."
Weseen figures the parking lot at the east side of St. Paul's Lutheran Church has been in existence as far back as 1995.
