The Unseen Elements of a Quality Home
What makes a quality home isn’t the icing. It is the siting of the house on the lot, the framing, the electrical system, the plumbing, the climate control systems; these are the elements that establish top quality from everything else.
Scores of products go into the unseen skeletal systems that make a top quality home. Making that top quality home suited to each individual home owner requires sifting through the craftsmen and the products and selecting those that provide the specific solutions needed to make each home top quality.
Jeff Errington, founder and owner of Errington Builders, has been in the business of custom home construction for 35 years. He knows which subcontractors in the Southern Maryland region can best address specific concerns. He has developed professional relationships with hundreds of suppliers.
It begins with the land itself. Walking the property with owners, Mr. Errington can begin describing what goes into the grading and site preparation to position the home on its lot. Indeed, the very selection of the property can have the most significant impact on the quality of the home.
Foundation construction follows, with obvious importance. How the site is graded, the landscape established and the climate determines what type of foundation will remain sound.
Framing is not merely the skeleton, but the determining factor in how all other systems, such as heating and cooling come onto play. For example, the placement of windows, of interior doors, of hallways determines the movement of air.
Roofing and siding also impact the systems of the house as well as the obvious importance for the life and integrity of the structure itself. Selecting the right one for each home’s success benefits from an experienced professional.
The electrical system, the plumbing schematics and the heating and air condition systems all need to conform to the framing decisions, the siting implications, the desired environment inside and the surrounding environment outside.
These are only some of the considerations that will turn a homeowner’s vision of the perfect home into a top quality home, said Mr. Errington. And these are the considerations that require an expertise best attained through decades in the business.
It’s an investment of a lifetime. With the right builder, the same investment in the unseen guts of the house will assure a top quality final project.
