Adapt or die changing with modern custom home building

“It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

That quote holds a lot of meaning for me in life and in the construction industry as a whole. As a general contractor the easiest thing to do is to do nothing different and keep doing the same thing over and over again because they worked on the last job. The problem with this is that eventually you will be left behind in the antiquated way you do things; by the time your able to educate yourself and catch up you have already been killed by your competition.

In our Company Village Builders we are always investigating new ways to do things, whether they cost more or they save money we always are exploring new and inventive ways to do things.

I had a comment on my blog that claimed that the old way of waterproofing houses before waterproof membranes was good enough for the old houses and thus it should be good enough for today’s modern houses. What he failed to take into consideration is that modern houses have changed so much with limiting the air flow into the home that any moisture penetration into your home will not dry in a normal time and will result overtime in rot, mildew and possibly mold. Old homes used their basements as foundations to hold up the walls of the home and maybe also as root cellars. Modern homes use their basements as livable space and as such need to be protected like the upstairs of your home is protected.

The construction of residential homes has changed more in the last 2 decades then it changed in the previous 5 decades before it. Most of the changes that have happened are in areas of the home that cannot be seen when the house is finished. They are in the foundations, the walls and the attic spaces. Also the heating, plumbing and lighting have been changing at an almost break neck pace compared to the rest of the home.

My clients are asking for more and more new and innovative things in their homes and with every new thing that is installed it has a chain effect on the rest of the home. If you don’t know how it affects the rest of the performance of the home then you will be returning to the home to answer questions and possibly warranty repairs at a later date. You must keep a head of the changing technology and how it affects the rest of the home.

Some new technologies do not work well with others or with older existing technology or trade practices and if you don’t take the time to do the research then you can end up with parts of the home that are compromised.

Adapt or die, the only way to do that in the residential construction industry is to learn, educate yourself and teach your employee’s and sub-trades the better way.

Make sure that when you are looking for a contractor to build your home that they understand modern building methods and how one affects the other.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.