FROM PROFESSIONAL ROOFING: Coweta County Courthouse's copper domed bell tower is difficult to miss, rising more than 100 feet with clocks on all four sides.
The neoclassical revival-style courthouse, designed by J.W. Golucke and built in 1904, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The building became vacant in 2006 when the Superior Court moved to the newly constructed Coweta County Justice Center. Coweta County voters approved a sixth special-purpose local-option sales tax that included the courthouse's restoration. Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architecture, Atlanta, was hired to lead the Coweta County Courthouse renovations and restore the building to its original beauty.
Headley Construction Corp., Newnan, was hired as the project's general contractor. In October 2008, Headley Construction contacted Steinrock Roofing & Sheet Metal Inc., Louisville, Ky., and asked the company to submit a bid to restore the courthouse's exterior walls, ceiling, copper dome roof and cupola. Steinrock Roofing & Sheet Metal was awarded the project, and work began immediately.
"The cupola had deteriorated and compressed and was leaking," says Timothy Steinrock, Steinrock Roofing & Sheet Metal's president. "This was overcome by substantial reconstruction of primary supports in the cupola—a series of custom-constructed beams were put in place by Headley Construction."
After the supports were reconstructed, which delayed the project about 6 months, freestanding scaffolding was erected from the main roof deck 80 feet to the top of the cupola. Three Steinrock Roofing & Sheet Metal crew members began removing the 16- and 20-ounce copper skin of Coweta County Courthouse's walls, ceiling and roof.