Water Damage - a major problem

[revtonynewnham]

In dealing with a batch of NPOR updates, I've come across information that lists no less than 11 pipe organs repaired following water damage in 2009 - no doubt there are more which aren't included for various reasons.  The majority of these it seems are due to the theft of lead from church roofs.  This seems to be a growing problem - and I don't know what the answer is!  At least we can resolve to report any suspicious activity that we see.

Every Blessing

Tony

[Barrie Davis]

Hi

St Edmunds Dudley has had to replace its pipeorgan due  to this problem. Trevor Tipple was ready to begin work putting the new building frame in for this then the floor was found to be unsafe . The organ being installed is from a Methodist Church in Nantwich and was originally built by J.J.Binns, I will add more details about this when the work is complete.
Going back to Tonys post, the West Midlands has been hit heavily by lead thefts, my own church has suffered this three times. Unfortunately we can only replace like by like and any other material is unacceptable. We are looking at paints to apply to try and deter the thefts.

Barrie

[Janner]

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The majority of these it seems are due to the theft of lead from church roofs.  This seems to be a growing problem - and I don't know what the answer is!  At least we can resolve to report any suspicious activity that we see.

Every Blessing

Tony

There is a product called Smartwater which you paint onto the lead. It has in it a unique identifier which can be traced to a particular church. The identifier is registered on a database maintained by the manufacturer.

It is expensive, but if your church is insured by Ecclesiastical Insurance it can be purchased through them at an advantageous rate. In fact, having just looked into this for our church, I believe I am right in saying that Ecclesiastical Insurance are now adopting a policy of paying only a proportion of any claim relating to the theft of lead unless you have applied Smartwater. I believe the amount they are paying is only 50% if you have not used it. This includes not only the cost of replacing the lead, but also the repair of any damage caused by the subsequent leaks.

Apparently it also works on other surfaces, so could be used for other removable valuables.

Hope this helps.

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

This has been widely advertised to churches - but information such as this has a habit of not getting passed on to the person who can deal with it - especially if it goes to the clergy!

The warning about insurance payouts unless this marking solution is used is timely - I don't think that our insurers have made this stipulation (Baptist Insurance) - and it's less of a problem for us as the current sanctuary is the gorund floor of large Victorian house - and we live upstairs on the 2 top floors.

Every Blessing

Tony