Such Great Heights!

Such Great Heights

One of the biggest concerns for our clients when they are selecting a floor plan or deciding to build a custom home with Carbon Custom Homes is ceiling height.

So many of us grew up in a home with 8 foot ceilings, but what is today’s standard?  

According to a survey by the National Association of Homebuilders, nearly 92% of consumers want nine-foot or higher ceilings on the first floor and almost 40% want similar ceiling heights on the second floor.

Sometime between 1995 and 2004, nine-foot ceilings replaced eight-foot ceilings as 

the most common ceiling height in single family homes. 

In today’s world, an eight foot ceiling gives the sense that each room is much tighter & cramped with less light. For tall folks like me (6’4”), the 9 foot ceiling just "feels" a lot better, less claustrophobic.  Unlike the houses with 8 foot ceiling, the extra foot is more scaled to for today’s full-size human. 

Open up that floor plan!

Carbon Custom Homes recommends the 9 foot ceilings for the main floor and we have built homes with cathedral ceilings at 18 foot high. Not only does it make the house appear larger but it also gives you the ability to install can lights or install solid core 8 foot doors which is a bigger bang for the buck. Just be prepared for higher heating and cooling cost if you decide to build a home with ceilings that are 10 feet or above.   

A nine foot ceiling is a good investment for you as a homeowner wanting the space to feel open yet cozy, for increasing light through the windows, deeper porches and customized ceilings.  

This will give the house a much larger scale and raising the ceiling height from eight to nine feet creates an additional 12% more space per room, allowing the builder to customize ceilings. They can drop a ceiling; install a tray ceiling or coffered ceiling for a specific room.

Plus, the higher ceilings allow a much better view and better sun light into a room, introducing more natural light, saving on energy that was used for artificial lighting. Even tall windows can't compensate. 

Aside from the positive psychological factors, the 9 foot ceilings sell faster and for more money giving you a better return in your investment and the incremental cost to heat or cool this space is not significant.

www.carbonhomesllc.com

It Takes a Team

It takes a team

A team of trades to build your home

Ever drive through a new community and watch the activity during home construction?

One of two things will be obvious, the congestion of trucks and vehicles up and down the main road, dumpster in driveways as well as mud and debris on both sides of the street from all of the construction traffic will make it look somewhat chaotic.

Or,…. you are drawn in to the actual building of each project. The orchestration of each worker applying their specific trade on the house. You see the construction flowing from foundation to framing and brick masons moving ahead of sheathing crew which is followed by siding crew.

It is a team effort with constant communication between project foreman and each trade throughout installation to final inspection. 

Nothing is more pleasing to thebuilder or potential home buyer than seeing teamwork during the construction of a new home. Experienced crews and a clean job site are daily requirements for professional builders that set expectations for their team.

For the project to be successful, you need experienced trades who work well together and communicate throughout entire process. Each phase of new home construction depends on logistics. Time management for each worker throughout the entire process for custom home building and controlling activity each day spent on job site is key.

Making sure that all materials are dropped the morning of that first day of that trade’s installation schedule. Monitoring conditions and adjusting on “the fly.”

It is the project foreman’s main purpose to manage the entire process of building a custom home. His/her experience and ability to foresee any and all issues that can or may arise during the timeframe.

It all comes down to the flow of each job.

From project scheduling for each trade to material drop off through each inspection to the final walk through. The project flows as smoothly as the communication.

And, if the team works as a team, the house will become a beautiful home that we can all be proud of.