Housing Sewanee Building 16th Home • Project Includes Sustainable and Local Materials

by Mark Flournoy C’16, Special to the Messenger

More than 300 students, members of the Monteagle Sewanee Rotary Club, and skilled volunteers from the Sewanee community have donated their time to Housing Sewanee Inc.’s latest project on Jump Off Road. This is Housing Sewanee’s 16th home, which is being built for a local resident whose family has owned the property for more than 50 years. It is an isolated lot that has required substantial infrastructure work by volunteers; clearing for a driveway, power line and water line. The framing was started by a group of University students who spent their fall break off-time on the project. 

Unlike the previous 15 houses, this project is incorporating non-conventional building practices, following environmental goals aligned with the University’s Sustainability Committee.

Before the proliferation of plywood in 1940s residential construction, home builders used one-inch thick solid wood boards for subfloors, exterior sheathing and roof decking. These boards were often installed on 45-degree diagonals for strength. This exterior sheathing can be seen running at an angle in older homes missing siding. 

“Our subfloor is 1- by 6-inch poplar, almost 50 percent less expensive than plywood although it takes two to three times longer to install,” said Dixon Myers, Housing Sewanee president.

“The poplar we are using was cut in Keith Springs, south of Cowan, milled in Elora [32 miles from Sewanee] and trucked to our site. In plywood manufacturing, the raw material can come from one country, be manufactured in another and sold in the United States. The environmental impact from the transportation cost alone contrasted with the Keith Springs-Elora-Sewanee model offers an interesting comparison,” Myers said. Housing Sewanee is also using local poplar for framing the floor joists and studs. 

The home will also feature reused materials, a concept popularized by the organization Rural Studio in Hale County, Ala. Myers has been taking students on field trips to see the Rural Studio homes for years and was excited about finally working this concept into Housing Sewanee’s building procedures. 

“We are utilizing a set of double-insulated windows, kitchen cabinets, countertops, and a shower unit that have all been donated. We went into the old Sewanee Inn before it was torn down and took out a lot of solid oak and pine paneling that will go into the interior space,” he said. The home will have one-inch foam on the exterior and blow- in cellulose in the walls, two state-of-the-art insulating practices. It will be completed in the summer of 2014.

Housing Sewanee Inc. (HSI) is a nonprofit organization, modeled after Habitat for Humanity. For fourteen years, HSI has built a house each year. Clients have included the elderly, the sick, the physically or mentally disabled, and grandparents raising their grandchildren, to name only a few. HSI accepts applications and selects recipients based on need and their ability to sustain a no-interest mortgage. Recipients are expected to volunteer when possible.