Glamourizing Faith Chapel Christian Center's Word Dome
November 11, 2005
by Freda Parker
The beautiful 280-foot diameter Word Dome, completed by Faith Chapel Christian Center (FCCC) of Birmingham, Alabama in 2000, is growing lovelier with each passing day. In fact, you might say that it's happening one square at a time -- a porcelain tile square, that is.
Currently, a team from Monolithic Constructors, Inc. is laying a mantle of American Marazzi tiles over the entire, two-acre, 86,000-square-foot, outside surface area of FCCC's Word Dome.
The team will cover the bottom half of the dome with 20-inch square tiles and the upper half with 13-inch square tiles, using five silicon strips for adhesion.
David B. South, Monolithic's president, explained just how you can get a flat, non-bendable, porcelain tile to effectively stick to the curved surface of a dome. "The bottom part of the dome, where the 20-inch tiles are applied, is so close to flat that it only raises the tile edges 1/100th of an inch," he said. "But as we work our way up the dome with the 20-inchers, that gap will grow larger, so we will switch to the 13-inch tiles. With the smaller tiles, we'll get a gap of 1/10th of an inch.
"And we really want those gaps," David continued. "The gaps will allow rain and air to go underneath the tile. Porcelain tiles are harder so they won't absorb the moisture. Any rain that gets under the tiles will hit the fabric of the Air Form and run off."
Word Dome's glamourizing process will take nine semi-loads of tile and approximately 30 days of work.
"Faith Chapel is doing this for two reasons," David said. "The dome will look just gorgeous, so one reason is aesthetics. But this will also give them a permanent, outside surface. The tiles will provide maximum protection from both weather and the sun."
Related Articles
- Faith Chapel Christian Center Prepares For Expansion
- Faith Chapel Christian Center Breaks Ground: Six new domes to benefit congregation and community
- Plans Continue for Major Expansion of Faith Chapel
- Pastor Reveals Successful Church Development Strategy
- Lessons Learned by Monolithic in Exterior Coatings
- Monolithic Manpower-- Crews for hire
- Faith Chapel Christian Center-- Dome News Fall 2001
- Catching the Vision-- New churches rise across the nation
- How to Buy a Church
- Monolithic Dome Church Pricing
- Risky Business: Hiring an Architect
- Free Evaluation for Church Facility
- Catching the Vision-- New Dome Churches Nationwide
- Is that a church that just landed?
- MDI's Commercial Feasibility Studies: Schools, Churches, Gymnasiums, Office Complexes, Storages and more...
- Downloadable Information Pak (PDF)
177
Dome Park Place - Italy, TX 76651
Tel (972)483-7423 - Fax (972)483-6662
| Press Room