Green house provides on-site lab for students

The four-bedroom home built in northern Brooklyn Park is a win-win-win for everybody involved:

• The 35 students at Hennepin Technical College who built it gained experience and course credit.

• Brooklyn Park, which owns the lot, plans to turn a profit on the prairie-style rambler.

• Future owners will save on water and energy bills and live in an environmentally friendly home.

"We got to build the house from the ground up and learned all about green products," said student Ben Elsen, 18, of Delano. "The whole experience of a green build was really good for me, because it is an up-and-coming thing."

It took about eight months to build the 2,780-square-foot home with a nearly air-tight poured concrete foundation, said instructor Bob Bostrom. A hot water-heated lower-level floor was installed, as was high efficiency heating and air-conditioning equipment that uses exhaust air to help warm or cool outside intake air.

Elsen said students helped pour the concrete foundation and insulate it with Dow Industrial Styrofoam exterior sheathing. Students stapled the thick sheathing every 2 inches "and we taped all the seams. It closes everything up real tight for energy efficiency," Elsen said.

"We dumped a 5-gallon bucket of water on top and it soaks it right up," said student Tony Meland, 22, of Plymouth.

He learned not only to conserve water and energy but to "be conservative with materials," he said. "You don't want to be throwing product away that you don't need to toss. You need to be precise on bidding and estimating."

"The students got an awesome on-site lab," Bostrom added. "They dealt with all the problems that normal construction workers do: weather, scheduling subcontractors and working with city building officials. They are held to all local and state codes and Minnesota GreenStar specs."

It was the first green house Bostrom has worked on in his 10 years as a Hennepin Tech instructor. He said nearly all lumber and other materials used were produced within a 500-mile radius, and they give off no unhealthy volatile organic compounds that produce the "new home smell" of traditional new houses. He has an 800-item checklist to document to get a state GreenStar rating for material and energy conservation.

Bostrom said the energy-saving improvements added about 10 percent to the cost of the house, but "it's going to be very, very efficient to operate."

"We thought it was a good partnership with the college for student training and to get a good quality house for Brooklyn Park," Schreier said. The city will begin marketing the house -- which has a three-car garage, front porch, back deck and two gas fireplaces -- this summer.

Bostrom estimated the students' free labor was worth about $50,000. He said two groups of carpentry and landscaping students each worked at the house for two six-hour days a week, ending in late May. The two groups also spent two days a week in the college shop, where they practiced skills on two mini-houses, each about 12 by 16 feet in size.

"If we were doing siding on the real house, we would first do it on the shop house. We also put in windows, drywall, all the stuff you do at the real house," Meland said. "It's like doing the work twice. It gets into your brain and you remember it better."

Elsen said the project provided hands-on experience and "reputability with employers, knowing I had the experience of building that first house, and it was a green build."

Added Meland: "I was reassured by how much I liked it. It was actually a blast."