Poole-based Chartered Building Company (CBC) Greendale Construction has handed over its most recent major contract: a ceremony room block for a funeral director in Ferndown, Dorset.
The build was for AE Jolliffe & Son, a branch of Douch Family Funeral Directors. Greendale had previously completed the major renovation of Douch Family Funeral Directors’ Lesley Shand branch at nearby Corfe Mullen in 2018.
The 70-week contract was completed over two phases and included demolition and removal of a number of dilapidated outbuildings, service buildings and a chapel.
Construction of the new 460 sq m ceremony room block included the cloistered terrace – a timber-frame structure on traditional strip footings with beam-and-block ground-floor slabs. Groundworks included bridging over Wessex Water deepwater drain systems which criss-crossed the site.
The flat roof, built to falls, has secret parapet gutters, two layers of ply, glued and screwed to create a structural diaphragm. On this, and over hard Celotex insulation, Greendale applied a single-layer roofing covering system. White aluminium pressed metal copings feature on the parapet walls.
Timber acoustic ceiling
The new block houses hearse and funeral vehicle garaging, staff areas and back-of-house facilities, while the ceremony room features a slatted timber acoustic ceiling and sophisticated lighting and AV.
Greendale also extended and refurbished the original house. Major remodelling occurred on the ground floor of the old property. The modern extension juxtaposes against the old, and offers private chapels with a client and family door entry system and service facilities.
The client and architect’s brief was to create a clear wide sightline from the old building across the new gardens to the new ceremony room, so the Greendale team relocated incoming electrical supplies and undertook structural work to create a wide corridor/atrium, making an open and welcoming space.
