Habitat for Humanity | ArcWest Partners Volunteer

The ArcWest partners, Todd Heirls and Robin Adams, volunteered recently for a “Habit for Humanity” residential building project locally in Denver.  The project superintendent (Trevor) started the morning introduction with the “safety speech” … Typical stuff such as wear your protective gear, hard hat, safety glasses, etc..  Don’t stand on the top of ladders and take care when using sharp knives to always cut away from your tender body parts.

I know we were all eager and anxious to know what we were going to be doing for the day.  As Trevor wrapped up his 10 plus point safety speech, we finally arrived at the moment we were all waiting for …  The suspense was a killer.  “Today we are going to be installing the insulation” Trevor shared with a bit of a grin.  Ugh … Not the itchiest job of all jobs – Yes, we would be installing the fiberglass batt insulation.  The building inspector was scheduled to show up on site at 2:00 PM for a complete inspection.  There was a lot of work to be done, but with the many volunteers on hand, the task would be completed in short order.

Once we completed the insulation, the next goal was to start hanging the drywall on the ceiling.  Was that right?  We were going to be hanging the ceiling drywall – Also a notoriously arduous task.  We had our work cut out for us. By the end of the day we were certainly going to be itchy and sore between those two tasks.  It took all morning to carefully install the insulation making sure the insulation reached all corners of the framed

After lunch the volunteers worked on the last  portions of the insulation, along with installing the baffles for the attic below the roof in anticipation of the “blown-in” loose fill insulation scheduled for a later day.  The house was going to be well insulated.  I had the opportunity to use the expanding foam insulation to insure all the gaps and cracks around the windows and door frames were completely filled and air tight.  The building inspector showed up at 2:00  as scheduled and gave a thumbs up. We had the official approval to start hanging the drywall.

For the remainder of the afternoon the volunteers divided into three teams and started working on installing the ceiling drywall.  The key with drywall is to take a good measurement, then allow for an 1/8 inch on all sides for wiggle room for the installation.  Drywall is brittle and will snap if you attempt to flex it into position.  Moving the 8 foot x 12 foot sheets into place is something you only want to have to do once.  Strong motivation to make sure you measure twice and cut accurately for a good fit.

All joking aside for a moment, it was incredibly satisfying to see how much our volunteer crew accomplished in the period of a day – Very rewarding!  ArcWest is looking forward to our next “Habit for Humanity” volunteer day.

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