Residential Carpentry

This two-week intensive will focus on carpentry, framing, and exterior finishing for new construction. The job site will serve as the classroom. Students will learn both traditional and contemporary techniques, including: architectural documents; foundation considerations; floor, wall, and roof framing; exterior finishings; roofing; window and door installation. Along the way, students will gain comfort with a variety of hand and power tools plus the general terminology of designing and building architecture at a smaller scale. Although seemingly simple, this modular construction project calls for attention to detail and precision in the execution of the build. Below is a rendering of the full project and the module that this course will be building.

This course is considered more advanced than our Basic Carpentry course because

• We will be building to a residential standard, meaning the building will be fully dried in
• This project will incorporate the fundamentals of building science
• Should time allow, we will begin working on interior finishing (insulation, wall coverings etc). The pace of the class will be driven by the students themselves. If we don’t have time to do the actual work, we will explore these topics in a lecture format

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Familiarity with design & construction of a small scale building
2. Hands-on skills in framing and general carpentry
3. Familiarity with relevant building science
4. Competence with all associated tools