Students adjust to bone chilling temperatures

JDHS house build 11/18-11/29

Story by: Samuel Bibb

Documentation by: Drecar Del Castillo

With the dark days of winter starting to seep in, The weather seems to affect everything that you do. While working outside in the cold, keeping warm is key. The JDHS house build class encountered many problems through their first week of winter. One of those problems being; trying to stay warm the entire class period. A simple cotton sweater and jeans won’t do the trick, you need more than that.

With the base of the roof being installed work inside of the house may be used as a way to escape from the elements. With monday the 18th of November being one of the first days of sub- freezing temperatures. Adjustments had to be made all around. A lot of the students weren't dressed for the weather which impacted their performance on the job site.

A majority of the students worked on the ground level putting up Tyvek on the perimeter of the house. Tyvek is used to provide a water barrier between the outer cladding of a structure and the frame. The rest of the students finished up jobs that to needed to be done. Later in the week After finishing up the tyvek process, the students headed back to the classroom to work on much needed math skills. Arithmetic is a very important concept when it comes to construction. PCL’s construction manager Trever Gallagher supported that idea by saying “You don’t just have to know how to pound a nail into a board to be successful in construction, you have to be well rounded and very intelligent.” Gallagher visited the class tuesday the 26th to inform the students on the future after high school. Alot of the students including myself we’re inspired by what Trever said to us.

Wednesday was a transition day for the class, the scene changed from the classroom back to the jobsite. There was also a sense of transition on the jobsite. The class switched from working outside to working inside. The next major job to complete for the house build team was to complete framing and construct the 2nd floor interior wall framing. The class started that process on Wednesday.