photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Work continues Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at Peaslee Tech on small homes made with garage doors.

Garage doors aren’t just good for keeping your car safe from the elements – Peaslee Tech CEO Kevin Kelley says the material they’re made of is durable enough to use for a whole house.

And, in fact, there are four such houses taking shape behind the technical training center right now.

“In addition to being insulated and all that, the paint is baked onto this,” he said, pointing to the hard outer layer of one house with paneling and roofing made of garage doors. “… It’s not going anywhere. You’re not going to have to repaint this place for a long time.”

The four affordable homes are being built by Peaslee Tech students as part of a partnership with garage door company Amarr and housing nonprofit Tenants to Homeowners. Though they’re on campus right now, Kelley said they won’t stay there much longer. Within about a month, they’ll be relocated to their permanent site on North Third Street.

“These are all getting ready to go to North Lawrence,” Kelley said.

Kelley and Amarr plant manager Mike Bernholtz told the Lawrence City Commission about the project on Tuesday, before the commission voted to issue Industrial Revenue Bonds to help Amarr buy the manufacturing facility that it currently leases. City Commissioner Kristine Polian had asked about how Amarr gives back to the community, and Kelley and Bernholtz said this was one example of such a partnership.

“Folks needing a new start, getting a home is a very important piece of that, but also getting a job,” Bernholtz told the commission. “Can we connect the two and put some programs together to help folks who might be homeless … that are maybe struggling, just need a fresh start? I think we can do some great things together.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Peaslee Tech CEO Kevin Kelley shows off a new style of home that uses garage doors as a construction material on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

This is just one of many partnerships that Peaslee Tech has with local businesses, Kelley told the Journal-World on Wednesday, and it helps Peaslee Tech, Amarr and the broader community. “We provide training for many of their employees,” Kelley said, including leadership programs, training for the plant’s mechanics and more. “We have an ongoing relationship of, they support us and we support them.”

The garage door houses, in turn, will support affordable housing efforts in the city.

“What we’re really doing is we’re trying to help the affordability issue for housing on a small scale, in our little way,” Kelley said.

Classes at Peaslee Tech have built homes before – there’s a “village” of homes on Ward Street that they built a few years ago. But those were made with more conventional construction techniques and materials, Kelley said. This is the first batch made with garage doors.

The idea for using the doors as a construction material actually dates back to the COVID pandemic, when the city was starting its plans for the Pallet shelter village for the homeless. Peaslee Tech and Amarr were interested in creating a local alternative back then, built from garage doors. They produced a prototype for a 64-square-foot temporary shelter called a “Rapid Room” that could be quickly assembled and disassembled.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A special trailer, ready to move a garage door home at Peaslee Tech, is pictured on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The interior of one of the homes being built behind Peaslee Tech is pictured on May 13, 2026. The center room will be a bathroom, and the back part of the home will be the bedroom.

These full-fledged homes take longer to assemble than a shelter like the Rapid Room. Kelley said it takes about seven weeks for the Peaslee Tech students to build one. Soon, they’ll roll over to the North Lawrence site on a specially designed trailer with wheels that fit inside of the house, and they’ll be put in place with a crane. The plumbing and interior finishes will then be done at the new site.

Kelley said each house will have kitchen appliances, a small dining and living area, a porch, a bedroom and a bathroom with a walk-in shower. Instead of closets, there will be special cabinets and drawers installed beneath the bed and behind its headboard for storage, “so you have everything you need without taking up more space,” he said.

The response to the homes so far has been positive: “Most people come in and think, ‘I could live in this!'” Kelley said.

It’s important to him that these homes feel good to live in, and that they’re built to last for the long term.

“This is going to be somebody’s home, so we try to make them built well, very well insulated, nice little built-in porch on them,” Kelley said. “When we get them all done, it’ll be a nice place for someone to live.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

This home built using garage doors, pictured Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at Peaslee Tech, has a covered porch.