Joe Greiner's Friday wasn't starting out as easily as he would have liked.
A power drill he was using completely failed to bite into the painted screw heads of the loft he was tearing down.
"Are they keeping this one?" said Greiner, a food industry management junior. "It sucks when they're painted."
He grabbed the loft railing and heaved until it broke free.
"That's one way to get it down," Greiner said.
Laughing, he put the railing into the hallway before picking up a ratchet to go back to work.
Like other MSU students this weekend, Greiner was trying to beat Sunday's deadline to get lofts down in Wilson Hall. Only he wasn't tearing down his own loft. He spent the weekend helping other students tear theirs down.
Greiner was one of a handful of students motivated by community service to remove lofts and donate the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity. The group charged $20 a loft, which they say is cheaper than local loft companies.
Vic Maurer, a Wilson Hall mentor and criminal justice senior, first organized the project last April after getting a group of about eight hall residents to give up a couple of weekends to raise money for charity.
"We wanted to cap off a great year by doing something positive - something we could leave as an example and give back to the community," Maurer said.
After recruiting some extra help from his floor, he said this year's group grew to about 15 people.
Maurer said they took down 61 lofts by Sunday night, raising a little more than $1,000. After buying extra tools and pizza for everybody on Sunday, he said about $800 of the proceeds will go to Habitat for Humanity.
Interdisciplinary studies in human resources junior David Astrein helped Greiner and Maurer dismantle lofts on the first floor of West Wilson Hall on Friday. He said he worked with Maurer last year and decided to lend a hand again.
"Vic put it together - he's dedicated," Astrein said. "With finals I help whenever I can, but he's at it every day."
While the other two unbolted bed springs from the posts holding the loft up, Astrein took a long side board into the hall to pound out the nails. As he got to work he admitted he wasn't a professional.
Astrein said it can take up to 45 minutes to completely remove a loft because the group also reassembles the original bunks and will take carpeting out if asked.
If a student wants to keep the loft, the group put the lumber in storage until it can be picked up by the student's family. Otherwise, the wood was donated to the university to help build a nature center in Lansing.
During the deconstruction, physiology sophomore Amy Serafin stopped by to see how the group was doing with her loft. She said she first heard about the project when the group took down her neighbors' loft.
"They did such a good job putting everything back in order," Serafin said.
