Staff writer
Some students use a pen or a computer to do their work; the students in Lucas King’s construction class use nail guns and power drills.
On Thursdya, They worked steadily, studiously measuring and marking the wood precisely where the next cut, nail or screw needed to be placed. The sharp hum of circular saws and drills irregularly swooned through the open air as they worked. The students are on a mission; they are building a house.
They don’t have any time to waste — King has already structured the class around some necessary deadlines: before the end of October the house has to be weather tight, Dec. 1 the heating unit has to be in place, and by Christmas the house needs to have insulation.
“The students that have taken the class before know what it’s like to be out there when it’s cold,” King said.
King said that his class is currently ahead of schedule and the progress — even at five hours a day — is obvious, looking at the house from Denver Street. The frame of the empty structure looms over a finished but naked floor.
“We’ve got, pretty much, all the outside walls done in about a week,” construction student Marshall Ragland said. “We did all of these roof tresses in a day.”
King said that the students in his class do almost all of the work on the house themselves. The only parts of the job that require the services of professionals are the foundation (which King did himself with his crew over the summer), the dry wall finishing that uses specialized and expensive tools, some of the electrical wiring, air conditioning, and most of the plumbing in the house.
“We were looking at a project that would encompass all the different trades,” he said. “We do have to involve professionals from time to time because things have to be up to code.”
But, King plans to give his students a little bit of experience in everything. He is going to have his class pour concrete for a patio and driveway. He’s going to have a few students who are interested in becoming electricians work closely with the electrician, and they will do some plumbing work.
Right now, while the weather is at a premium, the class does most of its work outside — about 95 percent according to King. In the winter more planning and drafting needs to be completed indoors. The construction class works closely with the computer drafting class at MHS to make sure that all of the blueprints are made to specifications.
King expects the class to be done with the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house by May and is planning to put the house on the market. He estimated that at, the going rate of $100 per square foot, the house, if constructed by regular contractors, would cost about $150,000.
Although the class uses new tools, King uses VE-2 federal grant money given to specialty classes like art classes and shop classes. The school district pays for all of the building materials for the class.
Because of these factors, plus the cheap labor, the house will cost significantly less than $150,000.