Painting and Gilding - Specialists Hare and Humpries paint and gild the ceiling.

Delivery and installation - September 2009 - After dismantling the structure at the TMJ works, installation commenced at the cathedral on 21st September.

Tracery Assembly - Installing the tracery elements to the vaulted ceiling is the final stage implicated by Taylor Made Joinery at our works. The ceiling will then start to be dismantled into manageable components, delivered to the Cathedral, and installed some 100ft within the tower.

Tracery Manufacture - Tracery components were also laminated using the same process as the structural timber elements. These were then machined by the five axis Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine, and then finally cleaned and inspected by our craftsman. The intricate components were hand carved to give the detail required for such a project.
All structural fixings will eventually be obscured by the tracery elements of the vaulted ceiling.

Support Engineering - Our design team had to over come the weight and movement issues, by designing spherical bearing joints for each of the 8 corners.

Structure Assembly - Due to the sheer size and complexity of this project, the ceiling has been designed in over 2500 components, which will take approximately 21 weeks to construct at TMJ works.
Before the ceiling could be constructed, there had to be a temporary support frame made to withstand the weight, and replicate the exact measurements of the void within the tower. This now with stands approximately 5 tons of solid Oak.
Due to the weight of each component, the design incorporated specialist stainless steel fixings and comb joints, which will increase the longevity of the ceiling.
Once the ceiling is completed at the works, it will be dismantled, primed and delivered to the Cathedral where it will start to be installed between September 2009 and January 2010 it will then receive its final specialist paint and gild finish.

Structure Manufacture - The material used for this prestigious project had to be both hardwearing and durable; for these reasons we opted to use solid FSC European Oak, which can only be supplied from sustainable sources.
Through-out the construction of the ceiling we used a laminating process, which minimized the waste and increase the strength of the timber. This involves layering up various size timbers to create the final components. Each element was then precisely machined by the five axis Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine, and then finally cleaned and inspected by our craftsman.

Design Development - Taylor Made Joinery was initially given two drawings from the Architect; an outline concept, and a proposed colour scheme. We then expanded the design of the ceiling by visiting Kings College Chapel, Cambridge for inspiration.
The St Edmundsbury fan-vaulted ceiling was created using a ‘point cloud’ survey, new laser technology which enables the designers to accurately map the existing structure. High Definition Surveying equipment set immediately below the tower was able to accurately measure 29 million points within the ceiling space, without the need for scaffolding or the disruption this may have caused.
The information generated was imported into a 3D computer software programme where accurate working detail drawings and ultimately five axis tool path drawings were then designed.
Even at this early stage, we could view how the ceiling would look within the historic tower.