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SALT LAKE CITY — Students with Davis Technical College got firsthand experience last winter when they built and put plumbing into two homes for low-income families.
The Ogden homes were an opportunity for both the plumbing and construction technology students, many still in high school, to learn the implications of the programs they are going into.
The project was undertaken because Weber Housing Authority contacted a Davis Tech instructor, asking if his students could help with the houses. Nic Hadley, lead construction technology instructor, said they originally took the students to the construction sites to watch the work being done when the person running the project asked if the students could help with the framing. Their involvement evolved from there.
"It was neat to see it go up. We worked all through last winter ... That was challenging, but it was fun to have students setting trusses in the snowstorms, stomping around in the mud, cleaning things up, moving lumber in the mud. It kind of gives the students an idea of what construction is about and how hard you have to work, yet how rewarding it is when you get to see that structure up at the end of the day," Hadley said.
John Anderson, one of the students, said working on the house was far more gratifying than doing homework at a desk.
"I think the feeling of getting back on the bus and knowing that I actually did something was probably my favorite part ... when we walk out the house and we say, 'We set up that wall yesterday, or we did all that siding,' it just gives you something to look forward to. Like one day we're gonna have this done and that'll be fun," Anderson said.
Davis Technical College has worked on similar projects in the past, including building for Davis School District, Weber Housing Authority, remodeling women's shelters and adding wheelchair ramps to structures, plumbing apprenticeship instructor Craig Randall said.
"You can simulate construction in a warehouse environment, but you can't give them everything — the ladder's never on an uneven surface, or the temperature is not ideal. It's neat to go out to the job sites and get a taste of the real world, and I think it gives them a better training," Randall said.
Hadley said the houses went through the same inspection process any house needs to go through in order to be lived in.
