Lenape students get learn by doing education building house

It all started as a pile of lumber, but within the next two months, it will be someone's home.

After 16 months of work, Lenape Technical School's carpentry and environmental control students are putting the final touches on a 930-square-foot, three-bedroom modular home they built as a class project.

There are things in the classroom you can't simulate, so we decided doing is the best way of learning, teacher Rick Heltion said. We want to give our students a true-life scenario.

It is the third student-built house supervised by the school's industrial arts department.

Carpentry teacher Nathan Stairs said the students are finishing drywall installation and plan to begin painting in the next several weeks, before installing cabinetry and counters in the bathroom and kitchen.

Some of these kids working on this project have never swung a hammer in their entire life, so we're starting at the first step with a lot of them, Stairs said. I show them how to do something once and they just take off and do the rest of the work.

Before building the house, students work from plans to write up an estimate of labor and materials for each job to complete the house.

Students built the house's framing, flooring and installed electrical, heating, cooling and plumbing systems, Heltion said.

Just like a real construction company, the students must have their work inspected by licensed building inspectors. Whenever the inspector spots a problem, it's up to the students to fix it before the project continues.

Not everyone is going to leave here and become a contractor, but they will know enough to work on their own homes, Stairs said.

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Lenape students get learn by doing education building house