San Juan College’s building trades program held an open house Saturday to show their fully finished sheds, now for sale.
Chad Triplett, assistant professor and graduate of the building trades program, said the program has been in existence for over 40 years. Triplett ran the outdoor leadership program at San Juan College in 2000 after moving here from Illinois. He did that for a few years before entering the building trades program. After graduating from the program, he left to work in the trade, then returned to assume the coordinator position of the program 14 years ago.
Triplett said he worked for several builders in the Midwest and South and on the East Coast before returning to Farmington.
“We have a cohort so we have students that start in the fall, and that number could be anywhere from 20 to 23 students,” Triplett said, adding that the students work together as a team in the fall and spring semesters.
They build the sheds from the ground up as they learn to construct the floor, frame the walls and build the roof. The sheds are insulated, and the interior walls are finished with Sheetrock and painted.
Triplett said third-semester students return to take a management-supervision class with him. It is a required class for attaining a two-year associate degree. The program includes general education coursework in math and science.
The program focuses on home building and carpentry. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC work are not included.
“We model everything toward reading and understanding the International Residential Code, which is the code book for residential construction. That’s generally the best place to start,” Triplett said.
Triplett said the building trades are “different every day, the tasks that you do. You’re working outside, you’re being active.” He said that the “biggest benefit, and the students realize this very quickly, is that whatever you’re doing that particular day ... you can see firsthand what you got done, like boom – there’s the progress.”
“The reason I came into this industry is because I was sitting in an office eight to five, and you'd go home, wondering what you got done. I just think you continue to learn year after year,” said Triplett, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years.
He said this “idea of a master carpenter – yeah, I guess if somebody is very experienced, but I don't think you'll ever necessarily master anything. You’re just constantly learning, and the industry changes.”
Building codes may change year after year, and energy standards change dramatically, he said. “So you learn those things and you have to adapt.”
In the shed program, students traditionally spent two semesters building full-size houses of up to 2,000 square feet.
They were built to code, permitted by the state and sold at auction. That program lasted until 2021, when the department decided the moving process was “expensive and complicated,” Triplett said. Electrical and plumbing work was subcontracted, accounting for half the cost of the house.
The sheds now provide experience in the aspects of building doors, windows, floors, framing, siding and roofing.
“More of a particular task on smaller structure and large one,” Triplett said.
The 12 sheds built over the past two years are now for sale.
Triplett said they also built two roughly 400-square-foot tiny homes. One went to the New Mexico State Ag-Science facility at Navajo Agriculture Products Industry for graduate student housing, and the other now serves as the building for the Oso Grande Coffee Shop in Farmington.
Lynthreth Wall, a third-semester student from Tempe, Arizona, talked with the Tri-City Record before one of his classes Friday. He said that when he started college, he was “going after his liberal arts degree” and was working in construction on the side.
“I think it wasn't until I graduated, went out and I came back realizing that there was a lot of job opportunities for construction,” Wall said.
As a Native American, he benefited from help with tuition and other expenses. Wall will graduate in May and looks forward to working locally.
Wall is happy with the courses in the program.
“It’s broad – they start you off with the basics of safety and then building from the ground up – very detailed.”
“I think it feels good knowing that you've seen something from nothing and then watching it come up,” Wall said.
Jerome Black of Farmington said the program is “pretty good – I just enjoy doing hands-on stuff.”
A 2018 Farmington High School graduate, Black got his degree in welding from San Juan College. He said his grant had enough left to allow him to get another degree.
Black said he wanted to have the background in building because it complements welding and will expand his job opportunities. He said his grandmother was a welder and his grandfather worked in construction, so he’ll have skills in both trades.
He said the coursework has been “pretty fun,” including the “cost-estimation and energy-saving making energy-saving buildings.”
Black gave a rundown of the tools in his belt and bags, including a framing hammer, pry bar, chisel, framing square, nail punch, pliers, notebook, pencil and a construction calculator.
Power tools include a circular saw, reciprocating saw, miter saw, router, table saw, planer and drill press.
The shed sale Saturday morning drew a turnout of about 75 people.
Holly Jason of Durango said her mother read about the sale in the Tri-City Record and they’re looking a taking a shed to Durango as a possible living space for a caretaker.
Anna Bressler of Aztec, Jason’s sister, said the sheds are really nicely finished with great attention to “detail.”
Zack Pettijohn, assistant professor, said he was very pleased with the turnout and the interest. Pettijohn said visitors had the opportunity to see what “young people in our community are doing and how productive they’re being.”
“We like to say that we tried to train everyone to be a finish carpenter,” he said. It’s the finished product that people see, so that’s what ”truly wows“ them.
“What they see is that finish carpentry mentality and making sure that’s truly something you can stand by and be proud of,” he said.
