Garden Gate

This project is a five-unit townhome complex in Woodbury, MN. Overseeing this build are site supervisors Jake Kirchgessner and John Regan, along with AmeriCorps member Alex Robinson.

June 10, 2011

The Woodbury build hit the ground running with a double work group composed of both Andersen and 3M CARES volunteers. In the first weeks we stick framed and installed all of the ground floor exterior and interior walls, set first floor trusses, capped the first floor, and raised a first floor exterior wall-surpassing our first week goal! Since then, 3M CARES has taken over the workcamp with between 20 and 40 volunteers daily. These huge volunteer numbers over the past few weeks have allowed us to raise all exterior and interior first floor walls, set the second floor trusses, lay the second floor subfloor, and erect a massive scaffolding structure to surround the entire five-unit complex. Despite the blistering heat and torrential rains, the dedicated volunteers have kept this project on track and on schedule.

June 24, 2011

Week five of the Garden Gate build proved to be another challenging yet productive one. 3M
CARES volunteers sheathed, raised, set and plumbed all second floor exterior and interior walls. With the help of long-term volunteers like Jim Ramberg, Dick Kasel, Pete Pedersen and Tom Malone, we were simultaneously able to build and install the stairs and landing connecting the first and second floors. The garages and utility rooms were insulated and prepped for the masons to pour our floors. The fresh new concrete floors provide a cool shaded break room for our over-heated volunteers.

July 1, 2011

It was truss mania this week on site with volunteers doing everything necessary to prepare for the crane scheduled for noon on Thursday. All of our roof trusses were organized, the party-wall trusses were sheet rocked, and interior walls were heavily braced. We had every truss, wall, and volunteer in the proper location to make most of our three-hour window. The crane came and all the trusses were lifted with an hour to spare! Friday was spent installing the roof trusses. Despite the heat index reaching a whopping 106 degrees, we were able to install trusses on all five houses by 2pm.