Day 5 March 10th

A lot of progress has been made the last 24 hours. The Deltec shell is complete with most of the wiring and plumbing also done. We are now almost on schedule and looking to complete the church by Wednesday morning.

This includes paved driveway and landscaping too. It is still hard to imagine a finished building by then but with this crew anything is possible.

John Rutledge of Rutledge Builders out of Benton LA is one of the lead builders. Also on the lead build team are Ben Poss, Structural Engineer for Deltec Homes, Greg Simmons of Simmons Homes out of Tulsa OK, Jeff Junkert of Jeff Junkert Construction out of Billings MT, Craig Gallagher of Gallagher Family Homes of Tampa FL, Dana Dugas of Dana Dugas Affordable Homes of Iberia LA. Also on site were a large crew from Sunrise Homes out of Slidell LA and Don Mead and his crew from Atreus Homes out of Raleigh NC. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.

What is amazing is that anytime of day or night someone from each of these companies is on site helping do the impossible. John Rutledge and Dana Dugas are the only builders on this team that have built a Deltec Home before but you would never know it. Representatives and volunteers from all the other companies are working round the clock to make it happen. I came through about 3:00 am to find some guys from Sunrise and Simmons Homes working on solution to some issue involving the HVAC and electrical. You would think these guys and gals knew each other well they way they all work together.

The insulation went in last night. It is spray applied vegetable oil based foam from Demilec. It expands within seconds to 120 times its volume to fill every nook and cranny providing superior energy efficiency and improved indoor air quality by eliminating air movement through walls. This church will be built with some of the latest high wind and eco friendly technology. The vents in the foundation are provided by a company call Smart Vent. The vents help eliminate a lot of problems caused by high water and flooding by allowing the water to flow through more efficiently. They also can reduce a homeowner’s flood Insurance by as much as 90%. Smart Vent also donated 10 years worth of flood insurance premiums to the church and the house.

By this evening, they were hanging sheetrock. They are hoping to have the house dried out and ready for trim and paint in morning. They will be working on shingles and siding tonight.

More to follow-

Joe Schlenk Deltec Homes