Recently Completed Projects

One month since we last posted, and our site is practically unrecognizable! It’s been a productive few weeks out in Uniontown, so let’s catch up.

South Street’s newest slab was just itching for some walls, so we started by installing pressure-treated sill plates. Using a powder actuated nail gun, we shot nails through the lumber and concrete, giving our walls a solid connection to the slab. 

We then framed up all of the exterior walls, attaching them to the sill plates and bracing them back against the ground to keep everything plumb and level. 

After bracing the exterior, we turned our attention to the porch and ramp where there was yet more concrete to be poured. We built formwork for the column base, porch caps, and ramp edge. Over the next couple of days, we hand mixed and filled the formwork. Mixing the concrete ourselves allowed us to work at a slower, more careful pace and finish the pours to our satisfaction.

Then we were seeing green – green ZIPS panels that is. Thanks to the fine folks at Huber Engineered Woods, we started sheathing our walls to make them more rigid before raising the trusses.

And now we’re ready to raise the roof for real! Our trusses are on site and ready to be raised within the next few days. Until then, Auburn’s basketball team won’t be the only ones practicing their crane skills.

As Summer winds down, the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team is heading into Fall with a shiny new slab, but how’d we get here?

Picking up from our last post, we trenched for plumbing and put a pipe puzzle together, making sure that all of our pieces were properly placed before pouring concrete. A big thank you to this week’s guest stars on site, our friends Elisia and Caitlyn.

In the past couple of weeks, twenty new faces arrived in Newbern signaling the start of a brand new academic year. With the new year comes “Neckdowns,” and our team was lucky enough to have a whole crew of helpers throughout the week. Continuing with our prep for “The Big Pour,” our new 3rd and 5th-year friends showed up to place rebar and grout our CMU cells to further strengthen the foundation.

After the pipes were buried, we brought in gravel as the next ingredient in our slab sandwich.

Vapor barrier and mesh then followed, as well as formwork for the showers. Because the shower needs to slope to drain water, we built formwork that will allow us to do the showers as their own pour. The maintenance closet also gets its own pour, so we prepped for that too.

Once we got everything placed, plumbed, and tied, we were ready for the main event: “The Big Pour.” Once again, thanks to the crew from Crosby Carmichael for the concrete. With the help of our concrete finishers, we got the whole pour done in a morning, and we were able to use the extra concrete to set anchor bolts for the porch.

Who knows what these next few weeks hold? We do, actually.

Our trusses are ready for delivery, and by the time this is posted, our lumber package will be on site. We’re also taking some time in studio to explore new details for the windows and the porch, so we’ve got plenty to nail down before our next post, literally and metaphorically. 

This Summer has flown by for the C.H.O.I.C.E. House team. Good news! We’re officially up and out of the ground! A few rainy weeks put block laying on the back burner, but thanks to local mason James Harris, we’ve raised the slab (and the roof will soon follow)!

While block laying was in progress, we continued working on the third volume. The main house units are built on an elevated slab foundation, but the third volume is designed to be on a slab-on-grade foundation, so no need for any concrete blocks. With the help of a few of our fellow “leftover” students, we knocked out the small slab pour in under an hour and got it finished up and ready to frame.

Building the small walls of the third volume was a great way to knock the dust off of our framing skills before we tackle the main units. With the help of professor Steve Long, and a much appreciated guest appearance from our colleague Caitlyn, the walls were up and braced in a morning. Framing the third volume first was also a great way to test our strategy for connecting the porch header to the wall. It looks like the “notch” in the framing was successful! Soon, we’ll assemble the third volume’s column and header to test the entire detail assembly, almost like a second mockup!

Now that the CMU walls are up, we also backfilled the footprint of the units with dirt. Next up is setting up plumbing, adding a layer of gravel, building some formwork, and then we’re off to the races for our final concrete pour!

Until next time, we’ll be keeping our hopes high and our trenches dry.