(Pictured above: Tagwi Secondary School TeacherJamie Poulin, foreground, and Rothwell-Osnabruck School teacher Marc Mainville, far left, are  leading  the Tagwi-Rothwell-Osnabruck House Buidling Project. The project has involved students in the construction of a 2,500 square-foot home as part of a four credit co-operative education course.)

(Cornwall) - While other students are building scale models in shop class, Kaylan Marfurt-Breakenridge is pouring a real foundation and framing living room walls.

The 17-year-old Tagwi Secondary School student is one of 14 senior high school students involved in the Tagwi-Rothwell-Osnabruck House Building Project, a construction co-op course featuring a two-storey, 2,500 square-foot home as its term project.

That project will also feature three bedrooms, a two-car garage, two full bathrooms, two powder rooms, hardwood flooring throughout, and a gas fireplace. 

Marfurt-Breakenridge says getting her hands dirty at a real construction site is a lot more interesting than the projects students build in a school-based technology class.

“In woodshop I might be building a tool box and while that’s fun this is much more challenging,” she said of the house-building project. “You get to work with different tools and, more importantly, with different people. That’s a good thing because you don’t just learn construction skills, it helps you learn teamwork.

And it’s a great experience because every day you get to learn something new.”

The construction co-op is one of two operating in the Upper Canada District School Board, says Tagwi Secondary School technology teacher Jamie Poulin, who runs the program with the help of Marc Mainville, a co-operative education teacher at Rothwell-Osnabruck School.

The program teaches students a variety of skills in the house-building trades, ones they can parlay into a career in an industry where those skills are in demand. By the time the project is ended the students will know how to frame a house and how to pour a concrete foundation. They will be familiar with the installation of wiring, a radiant heat system and plumbing, and know how to install a roof and properly brick-in a home.

They will have obtained two credits in construction technology and two in co-operative education toward their high school diploma, added Mainville.

The project broke ground in September and Poulin says students hope to have the home finished by February.

Much of the work is being completed by students but for more complex installations such as electrical and heating work, contractors are coming in to demonstrate how it’s done and to provide guidance to students who will assist them in their work.

Contractors know the value of such programs because they help inspire interest in the trades at a time when the industry is dealing with a labour shortage.

There is a good chance many of these students will choose the trades as a career. They were hand-picked for the job through interviews. An interest in the trades was one of the prerequisites Poulin and Mainville were looking for when selecting their student crew.

The project has allowed those students to obtain certification in areas such as fall arrest training and specialized construction skills such as in installation of the Nudura insulated concrete foundation system, which is being used to form the foundation and walls of the home.

The system uses giant pieces of Styrofoam that fit together like Leggo blocks to form a giant mold into which the concrete of a foundation is poured.

The system is in demand because it yields an insulated foundation that keeps heat in and lowers long-term fuel costs. The house will be bricked-in later. While it may cost more in the beginning, the system will yield long-term savings for the owner of the home, said Mainville.

“You know they say that with a system like this you can heat a room with a candle,” said Mainville. “They are that energy efficient because, with the Styrofoam, it’s airtight.”

Poulin says that the frame is 5 per cent more energy efficient than a conventional wood-frame home because there are no cracks to let heat escape.

A number of area businesses and contractors are involved with the project including : Grant Ready Mix, Meldrum’s Surveying, Emard Lumber, D. L MacDonald Construction, and Green Valley Glass.

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For more information, please call:

Chad Brownlee

Principal

Tagwi Secondary School

613-346-2122

Susan Rutters

Principal

Rothwell-Osnabruck School

613-537-2474

Posted November 4, 2009