Latona Green

Innova Redevelopment continues its contribution to high quality affordable housing in Philadelphia with 10 affordable, Energy Star V3 townhomes in Point Breeze. This tumblr page follows the construction, completion, and sale of the homes.

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A peek inside 1231 S. 17th St. before the new owner moves in, photos courtesy of Sam Oberter.

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We'll be doing our initial punchlist inspections on 1713-21 Manton next week in anticipation of 100% completion by Thanksgiving. The street is much cleaner and quieter at this stage and we're grateful for the amazing amount of patience and cooperation we've received from neighbors on the block over the past 5 months.

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We did our initial punchlist inspection earlier this week at 1726 Manton and the touch up work is in progress inside. The outside has come together: house numbers and railing are installed in the front, landscaping is in the rear, and the fiberglass color coat and finish work is complete on the rear balcony.

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1231 S. 17th St. was fully insulated with spray foam last week and drywalled inside this week. The rear entry ramp and Latona St. sidewalk was also poured this week. Front steps will follow next week on the outside, and interior doors and trim will be installed inside.

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Brick is more than halfway complete at 1734 Federal Street. This facade will be complete by Monday or Tuesday and our bricklayers can move over to 1637 Latona to complete the last facade.

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We've made good progress getting our concrete and brickwork done on the homes before the cold weather sets in, freeing us up to get moving on 1637 Latona again. Earlier this week we prepped and poured the slab, and by this afternoon we had the majority of the first two stories framed up. 

Framing will wrap up next week and we'll follow right after with windows and brickwork as weather permits.

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Sidewalks were poured this week on Manton Street and it makes a world of difference. Hardwood flooring will be completed in the last home over the weekend, and then we have some minor finish work, placement of gas meters, and installation of metal railings. The street feels like a completely different place since the start of the project.

Brick was completed at 1624 Latona last week, and will be finished at 1606 Latona over the weekend. Our brickies will move on over to 1734 Federal next week as we try to get all of our masonry and concrete work finished before the winter.

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It's a little dusty right now, but 1726 Manton will be ready for our punchlist inspection, along with 1717 Manton early next week. We did our final blower door test for our Energy Star rating this week and our air infiltration numbers came in 50% lower than the Energy Star requirement. Careful attention to air sealing details and spray foam insulation on exterior walls help make this an incredibly comfortable, high performing, energy efficient home.

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Work picked up again at 1637 Latona with the Manton St. homes being close to punch-ready. This home is ADA accessible, thus it is slab-on-grade to allow a zero barrier entry from the sidewalk. Underslab plumbing is in place, and today we backfilled and compacted the soil, and started putting crushed stone in place in preparation for our slab pour next week. 

The slab features vertical rigid foam insulation at the perimeter of the foundation extending down to the footings, and will also have horizontal insulation 2 feet along the perimeter.

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The past few weeks have been quite eventful. The brick exterior on 1231 S. 17th is now complete and the cladding on the bay is in progress. Brick at the front steps on Manton St. was finished today and we'll be putting all of our sidewalks in there next week. We are now staged to start brick at both 1606 and 1624 Latona next week, then over to Federal St. while we still have decent weather.

Interior finishes have been in progress on Manton Street as well and beautiful pictures of the interiors are forthcoming. 

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With the completion of the interior framing at 1734 Federal, our framers have moved onto another project. In about a week or two they'll be back to frame 1637 Latona once our underslab plumbing is in place and concrete slab is poured.

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Scaffolding is down. PGW will be out next week to put in our new gas service, then with their holes filled back in we'll get the cladding on the bays.

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Brick is now complete on Manton Street. We'll break down the scaffolding next week and start to trim out the bays. 1717's drywall is complete and will start to get interior doors and trim next week. 1715 was insulated today and we'll have our Energy Star insulation inspection on Monday. Our drywallers will run through it after that. Finally, 1713 will also get insulation early next week and we'll start to see a lot of finish work inside of the homes, aiming for November completion for these 5.

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1231 S. 17th St. has windows in and Tyvek installed. The limestone water table is in place and first few courses of brick have been laid on the Latona St. wall. The whole side of the building will be getting brick, so we'll need about a week of good weather to finish it here.

Inside, ductwork and electrical rough is complete, with plumbing in progress. Insulation will follow and this home should also be getting drywall in the next couple of weeks.

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Windows and ductwork are in at 1624 Latona. 1606 Latona is fully framed and has a roof on. Windows will go in there next week and rough-ins will move along down the street.

Just as we've been doing on the other homes, we'll be taping the seams on all of the gypsum board panels on the side walls to minimize air infiltration at the party walls. Most builders unfortunately just cover it with building paper, slap some stucco on, and call it a day, but a roll of sheathing tape and a little bit of labor can make a substantial difference in energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

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Rough framing at 1734 Federal was more or less finished by this afternoon. It will be getting plywood sheathing on the front and back walls next week and have the roof put on. Then we'll get our interior wall partitions up and MEP rough-ins. 

As you can see in the pictures, this is a nice, deep home made possible by the 80 ft. deep lot. This house also gets a nice sized backyard which is a fairly unique feature in this area.