Thursday, January 31, 2013

Installing Our Insulation

For the final week of January the students of Juneau-Douglas High School’s House-Build Project began to install our home’s main insulation using the REMOTE technique they had learned from last week’s lesson.
 
The process began with an assembly line model that would have made Henry Ford proud. While one group was preparing the foam boards and properly emplacing them another was ripping plywood sheets into 3” wide lengths to serve as our furring strips. The furring strips serve as a fastener for our foam boards and a landing for our siding.
Construction Manager, Justin Fantasia (right), oversees the emplacement of foam-board installation.

After ripped to their proper width, the furring strips went to their next station where they were given markings for the location of the screws used to fasten them. Once marked, they were slid down the bench for the next student who was responsible for placing the screws on the aforementioned markings. With the screws in the proper places the furring strips were taken to the original group laying out the foam boards and installed over the boards to hold them in place.

 
JDHS students prepare furring strips by marking them and placing screws.
 
JDHS student Taylor (white hat) asks the Construction Manager fo some tips.

Spending Monday familiarizing themselves with the subtleties of the preparation and installation processes, Tuesday and Wednesday saw the students increase their pace and by the end of the week we should have over half of the house encased in insulation.
 
JDHS students, Crystal (blue) and Morgan (gray), double-check markings before setting screws



In addition to their interest in residential building insulation techniques, it appears the main topic of conversation amongst the students and staff is the upcoming trip to Florida to work with Habitat for Humanity. Upcoming, I will have more information on the trip itself, but for now I will just add a little reminder of what we have in store:

Juneau weather at 9:47 am Alaska Time: 31 degrees fahrenheit with a light freezing raining
Orlando weather at 12:47 pm Eastern Time: 62 degrees fahrenheit and sunny.