WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A QUALITY
CUSTOM HOME
1. Footings: Find out if the home is on medium to high expansive soils. If it is,
the foundation should be made deeper to prevent movement, thereby preventing drywall and stucco cracks.. The
standard depth is 18 inches below grade and 6 inches above
2. Concrete Reinforcement: A good slab on grade should be reinforced. A wire mesh or iron bar grid put
down before the slab is poured is better. The iron bar grid or wire mesh will reduce
potential cracking in the concrete and in the end, will save a good tile or stone floor as well as
preventing possible cracks of the walls and stucco. The best concrete slab, though more costly, is the
post-tension slab. The Post-tension slab is a series of cables in the concrete pulled taut after the pour creating
a one-piece slab that never cracks.
3. Exterior Walls: Exterior walls framing should be a minimum of 5 1/2" inches in width. The better walls
will have cellulose or expansive foam insulation to fill every “potential entry” for air, pest, heat and
cold it will also stay in one place and will not fall in the wall after its covered creating “hot
spots”.
4. Roofing: The best roof is a pitch roof with concrete, clay or other hard, non-deteriorating, color-through
material over at least 2 layers of tar paper.
5. Baseboard: Make sure your contractor doesn't “go cheap” and use a fiber or particle product. Once wet, it will
expand, contort, and have to be replaced. This is no good when you spill, or your tub or sink overflows. Use solid
wood grain baseboard. Finger joint is ok but harder to prep.
6. Cabinets: A good builder will use good materials here because this is the part of the house that is most visible
and is the most expensive. The best cabinets should be made of solid materials and not of particle for the same
reason given for baseboards. Could you imagine if you had a minor leak under or behind compressed particle board
cabinets? They would swell, contort and / or fall apart. They would have to be replaced. I recommend having
the backs and bottoms of the cabinets be constructed of veneer plywood or better. The drawers are equally
important as the drawer boxes should be dovetailed together; not lapped and trim nailed. The latter is inferior and
will eventually lead to your drawer faces falling or pulling off. I’ve seen it happen in every kitchen built this
way
7. Doors: Foam-filled doors are best providing a solid feeling door. Some may prefer doors to be solid wood
which are common for stain-grade doors, although they are a heavier door. If they are to be painted, use an mdf
foam-filled door, as you will find this to be a solid feeling door without the weight of the solid wood door.
Try to use metal or fiberglass exterior doors when they have a long exposure to the afternoon sun. This will help
in avoiding sun rot and having to refinish every year or two.
8. Air Conditioning: The way your air-conditioning contractor installs the system is key in the way it sounds as no
one likes a noisy system. Your return air intake grill should be as far away as possible from the unit and
preferably knee-height. This lets the noise the unit puts out to dissipate. If the return air grill
is in the ceiling and close to the hvac unit, you may use Flex to connect the return air to the unit. This acts as
a good sound buffer as noise cannot travel easily through a non rigid material. I suggest using hard metal
duct throughout as they do not fall apart and disconnect.
9. Windows: Dual-pain low-e glass argon gas filled windows with wood frame and aluminum clad or a metal,
thermal-break frame are best, providing the homeowner with an excellent way to save energy and reduce outdoor
noise ( there are some tax credit advantages ). The glass may be tinted to cut down even more heat and light
as well as reduce potential bleaching out of furniture and wood shutters.
10. Structured Wiring: Today's electronics are advanced to a point where they require special wires and optics.
Make sure you have a panel or two that your entire phone, speaker, cable, satellite, alarm system and cat-5 are
directed through them. This will allow you to customize each room to your needs via your panels. It may be a good
idea to install a conduit to the attic from your structured wire panel to allow for future upgrades.
11. Paint: Use quality paints. I try to stay away from flats on interior walls because they wear off more, are
harder to keep clean (notice paint on sponge after wiping a wall with flat paint) although I do use flats on
ceilings. Use satin, egg shell, or semi gloss for your walls. Exterior paint used depends upon the surface you
are applying them to. Talk to a paint professional, preferably a paint store manager, as they seem to know a lot
more than most painters. I like to use an f-stop primer, tinted with the finish color to save paint and to block
the efflorescence (the white stuff) from bleeding through the paint.
12. General Contractor: A good general contractor will save you a lot of money and headaches on a project. The
active general contractor (GC) saves money by using “tried and true” sub-contractors that he knows will do a good
job. The sub-contractors in turn know what the GC is looking for in quality, materials, workmanship and price. By
using the same people, the General Contractor gets his projects done within budget, in a timely manner, and with
fewer mistakes.
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