Heating Your Garage and Shop

 If you are thinking about building a garage/shop or a shop one of the biggest decisions you have to decide on is how your going to heat it.

One thing that will help you with this decision is what you plan to do in that shop.

If you are planning to use it as a wood shop then you have to be careful if you install a furnace as the furnace will move dust and fumes around the building through the ductwork. Wood dust can be very dangerous as it is a fire hazard. Its not even the fact that the dust can cause problems in the furnace, its the fact that wood dust moving about at high speeds can cause static electricity which can ignite the wood dust in the air.

One of the safest and most efficient ways of heating a shop or garage is to install in-floor heating, this unit can be run off a boiler system. Tankless flash boilers are even better as they are more efficient and only make heat when they are needed.

The heat lines are installed on a layer of foam that is placed on the ground before you pour the concrete pad for the shop/garage. Once the concrete is poured over top of the heat lines then you don't have to worry about them being damaged and you can drive on top of the concrete with any kind of equipment that you desire.

When the system is installed the heating units do not take up a lot of wall space. They only really take up wall space (on an outside wall) as they require venting to the outside. 

When the system is turned on and running in the colder months you just set the temperature and forget it, once the concrete slab has been warmed up it will stay warm and radiate heat from the floor to the ceiling constantly and evenly. Heated floors will stay warm and continue to produce heat long after the heating units have turned themselves off. 

Because you are only heating the liquid that is circulated through the floor when it is needed the cost of running in-floor heating is usually much less then conventional heating units.

Warm concrete floors help to reduce fatigue as cold concrete floors are known to affect workers stamina and cause lower body pain.

So when you are planning that shop/garage think hard about how your going to heat it.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Heating Your Front Walkway

 Tired of shoveling your front steps and walkways?

Why not heat them.

Outdoor heat line kits can be installed on your front porch and walk way.

The way it works;

The electric heat lines are installed on top of a concrete pad before the finishing stone is installed. Hanging on the wall of the house is a snow sensor. When the sensor senses that it is snowing then it turns the heat cables on.

These heat cables warm up the concrete and stone around them and melt the snow as if lands, this keeps you from having to shovel snow. 

What it also does is it helps stop ice from forming on the walkway, steps and the porch. This is especially helpful in the time of year where the temperature swings from cold to warm, from snowing to raining.

The heat lines are sized for the area that you are heating and only turn on when you require it, saving you money and energy.

If you are tired of shoveling snow and slipping on ice talk to your contractor about heating your walkways.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Update Your Home With a New Covered Front Entance

Do you have a simple square box home, that looks boring when you drive up to it?

Maybe you should think about changing the look of the front.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to build a covered entrance on the front of the house that covers the front door.

You can make your entrance any style you want, it can be as fancy or simple.

A covered entrance serves many functions;

• It gives a welcoming feel to the first impression of your home to guests.
• It gives people waiting to come in the house shelter from the weather.
• It sheds water away from the front door and the front walk. This is good for the longevity of the doors,siding and walkway of the home.
• It protects people coming in and out of the home from falling snow and ice.
• It can be made so that it is a covered sitting area for outside enjoyment.
• It is a sheltered place in an age where everyone has packages delivered to their front doors.
• Its a nice place to leave a baby stroller for quickly getting the child out and going.

Front entrances can large like the one above; Or small like the one below.

When you are thinking about renovating the exterior of your home, think about the front entrance and what changing it could do to not only the curb appeal of your home but the functionality.

You won't be disappointed.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Ontario To Start Allowing New Construction To Start

Now that the Province of Ontario has announced that construction can resume next week things are going to start getting interesting and fast.

In some municipalities there are already a huge backlog of building permits that have been applied for and approved. Because of the restrictions building departments were allowed to review applications for building permits but weren't allowed to grant any permits.

Now the gun is about to go off and the race is about to begin. Residential construction is going to start in earnest. Between the fact that it has been a fairly dry spring and a lot of tradesmen have been running out of work or laid off because of all the restrictions, building will be starting and companies will be working long hours and as many days a week as possible to catch up and reclaim some of the lost revenue.

No matter where you are in Ontario if you want work done you need to start looking for your contractor NOW.

It won't matter if you are looking to Build a new custom home, renovating your cottage or even building a deck, finding a contractor that isn't going to be booked solid will become increasingly difficult if not impossible.

You have now spent the last 2 months sitting at home thinking about what you want to have done, you will need to start getting that contractor or the plans for what you want completed as soon as possible.

Something else your going to need to understand is that the cost of construction has not been reduced because of the pandemic. In fact it's actually driven the cost of a lot of the material up instead of down. A lot of manufacturing has slowed or stopped creating a short fall of material, this drives the price of the material higher and as companies continue to book farther into the future the cost of their services will go up as well.

A lot of companies including this one never stopped working through the pandemic as our permitted jobs were allowed to continue.

For people who didn't lose a lot of income during the pandemic (depending on their job) now is the time to get their construction projects finished, money is actually never been cheaper to borrow then it is right now with historically low interest rates.

The best thing for you to do if your not prepared to start this summer on a project then find the contractor that you want to use and book them for when you want the work to be done, no matter if that's 6 months from now or a year from now lock up your contractor before you don't have a choice and you end up with no one to do the work.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Residential elevators

In today's housing market with an aging population the demand for bungalows has gone through the roof, the price of bungalows has never been higher and the amount of bungalows that come on the market at it's lowest.

The demand for bungalows is obvious as people who are aging do not want to walk up and down stairs to go to bed or to the bathroom.

Well there is away to go up and down in a two story house either in your existing home or a house that you are looking to purchase, its called a residential elevator.

Residential elevators are exactly what they sound like, they are an elevator that is built into a residential house.

Residential elevators have been around for a long time, but they have typically in a large expensive custom homes, but the demand for elevators has brought on competition in the market to produce less expensive options.

Today you can put in an elevator in your home for the cost of an SUV.

They are safe, reliable and depending on your level of need big enough for anyone.

They can be luxurious or they can be a basic model that is easier on the budget.

With a little engineering an elevator can be put anywhere in home where it can freely travel from floor to floor.

An elevator will also give access to the basement which is usually a problem for the elderly even in bungalows.

How do you install an elevator?

You frame a shaft that travels from the bottom floor to the top floor. The walls can be built out of conventional lumber, the floor joist are removed in the shaft and the weight is carried in the shaft walls. A residential door is placed on each floor to allow access to the elevator.


They basically look like a closet once they are trimmed and finished.

They also will raise the value of the home as an aging population would be interested in it.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Renovating The Exterior Of A Century Home

There are a lot of old century homes in the rural area's of Ontario, the great thing about century homes is that they av survived for over a century (100 years). The bad thing is that a lot of the times because they have survived so long that people stop maintaining the old side of them and when it gets to the point that they need to be updated or repaired they don't know what to do because it seems like a daunting task.

Repairing or renovating the outside of a century home is not easy, it's not simple and its not usually cheap. The good thing though is as long as the bones of the century home are in good shape then the outside renovation should last a long time once it's completed and completed correctly.

Most century homes are brick, now brick is great if it's been kept up with, but like most century homes that need major renovations the brick gets to the point where its not worth repairing. There are a lot reasons why the brick on a century home can be compromised;

• Foundation shifting. A lot of century homes are built on stone or ruble foundations, over time these foundations shift and move. This movement can cause cracking in the brick above, cracking that isn't a cause for concern where it comes from the home becoming structurally unsound but it does make repairing the brick properly nearly impossible.
• Water penetration. If water has gotten into the brick overtime the face of the brick will start to shatter and fall off. There is no treatment for this, only replacement of the bricks if possible.
• Sandblasted. There was a trend years ago that the best way to clean brick was to sand blast them. This actually has disastrous affects on brick. It removes the skin of the brick allowing moisture in destroying the clay based brick.
• Painted brick. A lot of people wanted to change the look of the outside of a century home went and painted the brick. Once brick is painted there is no way to return the brick to its original colour.
• Stucco. Some people wanting to cover up damaged or cracked brick opted to cover the brick in stucco or parging. What happens is that the parging or stucco cracks over time because the brick behind it continues to move and shift.

So what do you do? Remove the brick? You could but at that point you are changing a large part of the house. 

What we have found is that if you can actually cover it in new siding. Cement or wood siding is the best as it has the strength to stay in place. Wood is the preferred method because unlike cement siding wood will bend allowing you to work easier on an un level surface like a century home.

There are several things that you will have to do to make sure that your siding lasts a long time on the outside of your century home;

1. House wrap. You have to install house wrap on top of the brick, this is to help with the moisture that will end up behind the siding.
2. Strapping. Wood siding requires that you strap the building. This is to help with installation and also to allow the moisture to run down the back side and out.
3. Air movement. You have to allow air movement behind the siding. The strapping helps with that but it only works if there is a way for the air to get from the bottom of the siding to the too of the siding and vice versa. Most sidings now have flashings that allow for this at the top and bottom and around windows and doors.
4. You will need to change the windows and doors if they are not new. Once you change the siding you will not want to replace the windows and doors.
5. New flashings. You will have to install new flashings around all the windows and doors and around the window sills. 
6. Caulking. This is one of the most important jobs that gets overlooked. Once you have completed the siding you have to go back around and caulk all the joints in the siding. Everywhere it attaches to windows/doors and at the corners.

The biggest thing you will need is to find the right contractor. A contractor that knows what they are doing and will properly install your siding for you.

The better your contractor the better the results you will have in the end.

Rob Abbott 

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Addition or New Custom Home

Should I add an addition or additions and renovate my home or should I tear it down and build a brand new custom home where the old one once was?

This is a question that I get asked a lot by people, especially these days with the real estate market being so tight and it becoming harder and harder to find homes/chalets/cottages. In our area we also have people deciding to retire and move permanently to the area, they have to decide if they can live in their chalet/cottage and can they make it a proper home which usually means making significant changes to it.

What this really comes down too is a matter of money.

If you can afford to build yourself a new custom home then you should do it, adding an addition to it and renovating the rest of the place should be a last resort.

Why should it be a last resort? Well if you remove the matter of money, then what you need to focus on is what you are giving up by just adding an addition;

• An addition is never as much space as you want it too be. There are many reasons for this but the main one is that you are adding more square footage to a side or sides of your current home, that basically creates two living spaces, the new addition and the old home.
• Usually when people are adding to their existing home its an older home. Older homes are a lot different in layout and the way that they used space then modern homes. Older homes are cut up with individual rooms, this makes the space harder to use and also makes the home feel smaller. Modern homes are more open with as little walls separating the rooms as possible. This gives the feeling of more space and also allows a space to be more of a flex space.
• Older homes require extensive renovations to be brought up to an energy efficiency when comparing them to newer homes. 
• No matter how you tie the new addition to the old home and rearrange the inside living space its hard to make the new addition blend in to the old home, it will never look like one continuous home, it will look like a house that had an addition added to it.
• So things in an older home are not easy to upgrade or re-furbish. Waterproofing around the outside of the home is one, to replace the waterproofing you are basically digging up the entire yard around the home.

No matter what you want to do it all does come back to money.

Renovating and adding an addition will always be cheaper then tearing it down and building a new custom home, but the the costs need to be put into context.

In today's real estate market a new home is going to be worth more money then an older home that had an addition added to it.

The renovation/addition is cheaper but is still expensive, you sacrifice a lot to save money and not as much as you think.

New custom homes are exactly what you want, in fact the new home could be smaller square footage wise but have more usable space inside. The smaller new home brings the price difference closer to the costs of renovation/additions with the added benefits that it is a modern new home.

Whatever you decide reno/addition or new custom home remember that its a lot of money not to get exactly what you want.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Additions Not As Simple As You Think

With the real estate market in the Georgian Bay area continuing to run hot with little on the market and what is for sale selling quickly, more and more people are turning to building additions onto their existing home or chalet that they already own.

This can be a good idea for resale as any improvements made to an existing home will only raise the value of the home in the eyes of potential buyers. In fact the return on these investments will usually raise the value of your home or chalet more then you will spend on the project.

But there are a lot of things that you need to understand if you want to add an addition on to your home or chalet, its sometimes not as simple as you think.

Here are some of the things that you have to be aware of when wanting to add an addition to your existing home or chalet;

1. Costs. Putting an addition onto your home is not cheap and can even be more expensive sometimes then if you were building a new home (when you look at the per sqft cost). Tying the new part of the house together with the old part can eat up a good portion of the budget depending on the design.
2. Renovations. Most people think about adding an addition and the cost but they don't realize that they will probably end up renovating a large part of the existing home because the addition changes how the home functions and its new which points out all the flaws and warn out parts of the older part of the home.If you don't put money in your budget for renovations of the existing home you will be sorry.
3. Permits. Sometimes getting a permit for an addition is not as easy as you think it is. Most townships now require extensive planning on your part as the homeowner before they will give you permission to build. These can include; surveys, engineered grading plans, engineered soil tests, septic reviews, lot coverage surveys, energy audits, a variance, storm water management plans. 
4. TimeLines. Building an addition is a lot like building a new home, the time it takes to build an addition can take almost as long as it takes to build yourself a new home. Even though its a smaller project in scale it takes the same amount of tradesmen.
5. Neighbours. People usually get along with their neighbours at some level, but put up a construction project beside someone for 6 to 9 months and the best relationships start to wear thin. Be prepared for backlash from your neighbours from the start. Also be prepared for an argument over the lot lines and the setbacks. People never understand how close you are legally allowed to build to the property line.
6. Compromise. One of the things that you will have to understand is that when you are adding an addition to an existing home you will have to make some compromises. Whether its the design, the budget, the finishing's or the timeline additions are not as cut and dry as when designing and the planning a new home.
7. Home usability. If this is your primary home or even your secondary home you as the homeowner are going to have to make sacrifices. There is now a large construction project next to were you sleep and eat, there will be times when you don't have water, or indoor toilets or electricity or heat. Can you handle living through that? Can your family?
8. Pressure.With any large construction project there are pressure put on you the homeowner from outside forces. Pressure from your neighbours about the noise and the parking, pressure from your contractor to pay bills and to make choices quickly and pressure from your own family to complete the project quickly so that everything can go back to normal.

In today's construction climate if you want to build an addition then your going to need to find a contractor early and engage them. You might have to give them a deposit months in advance just so that you can be sure that they can start your project when you want them too.

The better the contractor the more in demand they will be, that means they book up faster and earlier. Be prepared to be patient.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Designing Your Large Renovation

When you are looking for a contractor to take on a large renovation that includes kitchens, bathrooms and large parts of the actual layout of your home or chalet then its not just important to find a contractor that can do the work but they also will need to be able to help you with the overall layout and flow of the home.

What do I mean by the layout and the flow of the home? Well if you were building a new home it's something that your architect would be worried about. It's how the home actually functions for you and your family.

Now style is important when doing any renovation but its not the only thing that you have to consider. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they get so wrapped up in the style of the home that they forget about how the home is suppose to perform and function.

Whatever style you like has to be able to work within your life, that means that you shouldn't be planning renovations that don't improve the quality of your life just to fit a trend or style.

Here are some things to consider when you are planning a large renovation of your home or chalet;

Placement

The placement of the rooms in your home is very important. If your planning to move things around in the house make sure that you are not putting the bathrooms all the way at one end of the house, farthest away from the rooms that you use all the time. Nobody wants to miss a big part of the movie because it takes to much time to walk to the bathroom and back.

Openness

This is one of the biggest changes in houses in the last 25 years. Homes went from having designated and closed off rooms to being open and flowing from one room to the next. Kitchens should flow into the next room whether that room is the dining room or the living room. People cooking want to be able to interact with their guests and vice versa.

Flow

If you have a living room filled with couches and chairs that is hard to navigate through just to get to a main area like the kitchen then you don't have good flow. You want people to be able to move around your home in designated walk ways so that travel from one room to another is simple and obvious. That doesn't mean that you need hallways everywhere, just the opposite actually.

In new homes this is all organized by the architect as they draw the house they give you ideas of the best possible way to achieve Placement, Openness and Flow. But in an existing home that is about to undergo a serious renovation its up to the homeowner to achieve these 3 things.

But how do you as a homeowner do this? Well the simplest thing is to find a contractor that can do this for you, someone that can not only give you the high end renovation that you desire but also help you in the planning an layout of the home. A good contractor will have plenty of experience doing this for people and will already understand the basics of placement, openness and flow.

Now you can have plans created by a draftsmen or interior designer, these will help but once walls start coming down and floors are stripped there are always changes that have to happen, these changes are best handled by the contractor working with you.

Where do you find a contractor that can help you with all of this?
You just found them....

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

We don't just help people with new custom homes, we also spend a lot of time renovating peoples homes and chalets. Usually we are doing this with little too no plans from the homeowners or other design professionals. Communication is the key, the more informed choice you are able to give the homeowner the better, the more information they have from us will also help the project move along at a faster pace and have a much smoother finish.

If you are planning a large renovation project and think that we could help you with it please feel free to email us at greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Let us help you,

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

New Pools Need New Fences

Do you want to install a pool at your home?

Well you better budget for all new fencing and gates around your backyard.

When people budget for a pool they never seem to consider that their existing fencing around their backyard (which has worked so well for their kids and the dogs) is completely illegal if they install a pool.

This happens so often that when building inspectors show up to do an inspection of the pool (because if you want to put a pool in you will need a building permit) they barely look at the pool, they spend the majority of their time inspecting not only the fencing that is surrounding the yard that the pool is in but also every gate and entrance that lead to that area.

I have had building inspectors actually go off topic when they are there to inspect something else (during a new house build) just to point out that all the existing fences are illegal.

One of the major problems you will have if your fencing and/or gates are illegal is that the building inspectors will deny you the ability to fill the pool with water because of safety concerns. If you can't fill the pool with water then you actually can't finish the pool. When pool companies install your finished waterproof liner they instantly fill the pool to hold the liner down, without water they won't install the liner. Without the liner your cant use your pool.

At the beginning when you start to figure out the budget for your new pool you better remember to either talk to your current contractor or call a fence contractor about the cost of replacing your fence/gates. This could be a big ticket item depending on how much fence you are required to install and what type of fence it will be.

When you start talking about replacing fences it's not just up to you, your neighbours have a say in it as well, because depending on what side of the lot line the fence is sitting on your neighbour could own part or all of the fence. In a normal backyard in town most people have more then one neighbour, they could have up to as many as 5 different neighbours that they have to deal with. One of them could cause major problems for you if you don't get their permission in advance from them about replacing fences.

You don't want to end up not being able to finish your new pool because you didn't secure enough money or neighbours permission for your fences!

Proper planning makes proper builds.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Proper Wood Siding Installation

Air Flow is more important then you think when it comes to wood siding!

Recently I was called to a home that had siding that had some problems. The pre-painted wood siding was curling, cupping, splitting and the knots were starting to bleed through the paint.

I was shocked when the homeowner told me that the siding was only 2 years old, I had assumed that it was 10 plus years old and the damage caused to the siding was from years of weather and the southern exposure to the sun.

How could siding that is put on so many new homes start to fail so quickly on this home?

What I discovered was that there wasn't enough space at the top and the bottom of the siding to allow air to pass through it to allow the siding to breath.

That's right wood siding needs to breath.

Wood is a natural product and like every natural product there are certain things you have to do to make sure that it will last as long as it can. One of the main things that you have to do is provide proper air flow.

How do you accomplish this with wood siding that is nailed to a house wall?

Every manufacturer of wood siding will send out an installation manual with the product, your siding installer will need to at the least give it a glance. Why does a professional need to read the manual on siding that they have probably installed hundreds of times? Because every siding manufacturer has a slightly different installation method and has slightly different products to accomplish it. If your installer doesn't complete the installation exactly how the manufacturer states then you could be risking your warranty.

The reason for the exact way they require you to install the siding is to make sure that the siding lasts as long as it should.

On this particular job the installer had installed the siding without leaving enough space (they actually left no space at all) at the bottom and at the top to allow air to pass in behind the siding. To achieve this you have to leave a minimum of 1/2 of an inch gap at the bottom and also 1/2 an inch at the top. There are special flashing's that are supplied with the siding from the manufacturer to help achieve this, these flashing's limit any water, rodent or bugs from entering these gaps while letting the air to pass through as freely as possible.

These area's require special attention as they are the biggest difference between all the siding manufacturer's. Each manufacturer supplies different flashing's and a different installation method because of said flashing's.

These flashing's and the time it takes to install them usually make the difference in sub-trades prices. The sub-trade doing the installation the right way should be charging you more because they are taking the time to do it right, the one with the rock bottom prices is usually doing things as fast as possible with little regard to what is required for the warranty.

Something as simple as air-flow could destroy your expensive siding.

Hire a professional and get it done right the first time.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Now Is The Time To Start That Fall Renovation

As we close in on the end of August and the start of September (the kids finally go back to school) the clock starts to run on contractors ability to start and finish renovations before Christmas.

Why is Christmas the big goal? Because its the first thing everyone thinks of when they start a renovation or new home build, will it be done for Christmas.

If you start a renovation project after October there is a good chance that you will not get it completed before Christmas.

As you approach Christmas not only does your hired contractor become busier but so does all the sub-trades that they rely on. The electricians, the plumbers, the drywallers and the tilers all end up booked for months ahead of time.

Its hard to finish a renovation when you can't get the sub-trades to show up on time or at all.

The later you wait to start your fall renovation the greater the risk you take in not having it finished before Christmas.

With September only a week away you are already starting to run out of time.  Starting in the middle of September only gives you 3.5 months before Christmas comes. That's if you can find someone to start that fast, usually they won't be able to start until October making it less then 3 months.

Stop waiting till the kids are back to school and the house is quiet, start looking for that contractor and planning your renovation now!

Let's get these going before it's to late.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Share Your Renovation Budget With Your Contractor

 Many a time I have been called to someones home or cottage and they tell me they are in need of renovations. Sometimes the renovations are major and sometimes the renovations are minor.

One of the questions that I ask these people is what is their budget for their project. I do this to help both of us,

1. It helps tell me if you can afford the renovations that you are proposing to me
2. It lets me guide the client to things that will fit in their budget.

Sometimes people will either ignore the question or tell me that they don't want to tell me their budget.

The reasons that they don't want to share this information varies widely but it does happen more often then it should.

When you don't share your budget with your contractor you might think that you are then getting a price that isn't set off the budget that you told them, its the same mentality that people use when talking to real estate agents. They tell the real estate agents that they want to spend a 1 million dollars on a home and the real estate agent proceeds to only show you houses that are between 1 million and 1.5 million dollars and never shows them the houses under a million dollars. 

Well that is not how it works in construction. In construction most contractors don't raise and lower the price depending on the budget. Most good contractors are estimating jobs all the time and don't have the time or the patience to make up new markups and prices for every single job that comes across their desks. They have figured out the cost of doing things and they know the mark up they need to charge to make a profit and pay the bills and that's how they price jobs.

Knowing that, what you need to understand is if you tell your contractor that you have a budget for $100,000 for renovations on your kitchens, bathrooms, living room and great room and they figure out the cost is $140,000 then they give you the choice of what you want to renovate for the $100,000. They don't ask you for more money they just help you renovate what you can for your budget. Its means that you might not get your basement renovated or maybe the kitchen. They adjust to fit your budget.

Contractors will work with your budget, they will help you spend your budget with the renovations that you can afford, if you decide that you don't want to spend the entire budget then they will adjust the renovations so that you save money. Maybe they recommend a less expensive tile in the bathrooms or the deletion of some cabinets to help you lower the budget.

Every contractor wants to do more work but they also want to get paid for their work, if they allow the project to go severally over budget they then risk you not having enough money to pay the final bill, nobody wants that.

When I meet with people for renovations I spend a lot of time talking them out of things that don't fit in their budget. I'm basically talking them out of giving me work, but they have shared their budget with me and that tells me if they can afford it or not. This happens a lot with people who want additions, they have underestimated what additions cost per square feet and they have asked for too large of an addition compared to their budget. A simple shrinking of the additions helps it fit in your budget.

As a contractor I try to make my clients happy, my clients won't be happy if they end up way over budget, so if you can change their minds and adjust their thinking about what they can afford and what they really need right from the starting line then the rest of the job will go a lot smoother and at the end everyone will be happy and paid!

So when you meet with your contractor for that first renovation talk don't be afraid to tell them what your budget is, it will be beneficial for all parties. The contractor will have a budget to work from and a clear direction to lead you too get the renovations you want (and renovations you require) while keeping you within the budget that you have specified.

Rob Abbott 

Does Your Rural Property Have Access To Electricity?

If you are looking at buying property in the country to build a new custom home one thing that most people don't consider is if their is access to electricity.

That's right access to electricity. 

In rural Ontario there are still some places that do not have easy access to the electricity grid.

In fact as more and more land gets bought up for people to live on people are being forced to look at less desirable places. These places have many problems from excess ground water to conservation protected lands, these things restrict building or can outright ban it. 

These things are all easily found out when doing your do diligence from looking at maps and talking to municipal building departments, what you won't find is if there is electricity available.

Now the easiest way to tell if there is electricity at the road is to look for power lines and poles. Now even if you don't see power lines and poles there is a chance that the power is buried underground, but in rural Ontario almost nowhere do they actually put the power underground. That usually only happens in a more settled area with denser populations.

To find out where the nearest power supply is you will need to drive in every direction from the property until you can find the nearest electrical poles. This will help you identify how far the power will have to be extended.

Doing this is called a line extension. 

A line extension is not free and in a lot of cases the cost is very high. You have to pay for the entire line extension project even if you are putting it past other properties that will benefit from you extending the electrical grid. 

That's right the electrical supplier is under no obligation to help cover the costs of bringing you power. Its entirely on your shoulders.

How do you find the costs out? You have to call the electrical supplier and engage them in a line extension layout. This will cost you money, they will then be able to give you an accurate cost estimate on how much the poles will cost and also how much the tree cutting will cost also.

What do you do about it?

Well before you start the planning and building process you need to engage a general contractor and hire him to build your custom home. Your general contractor can then get you the costing for the electricity and advise you if you should pay for the installation of it or look into other alternatives.

What are the alternatives?

Well one alternative is to sell the property and move on to a property that doesn't require a line extension for you to have electricity. But a lot of people don't have that option.

The other alternative is to go off the grid with solar and or wind.

There are pro's and con's to going off the grid. I won't get into them here, but having an off the grid house is not as simple as most people believe it to be. 

They most reliable source of energy is to be hooked to the power grid.

So when you start looking for that perfect place in the country to build your dream custom home stop and look around for the electricity supply, if you have doubts then call a contractor, it might just save you more money then the cost of the electricity.

Rob

Village Builders Inc. 

Install A Drain Water Heat Recovery Unit In Your Custom Home

Planning to build a new home in the Collingwood area? Then you will need to budget for a drain water heat recovery unit.

What is a drain water heat recovery unit?

It is basically a copper pipe that is installed in the main plumbing drain/stack that comes from your showers. The copper pipe is installed vertically and has copper tubing wrapped around it. The reason for the tubing wrapping around it is so you can connect the incoming water lines from the city water.

You then run the water lines from the other end of the tubing to your hotwater tank.

The way it works is as follows;

When you turn on your shower the hot water runs down the drain and down the plumbing stack that is now copper. The copper absorbs the heat from the hot waste water that is flowing through it and heats up. The copper tubing that is wrapped around the copper drain also heats up.

Since you have turned on the hot water for a shower that hot water starts to be removed from the hot water tank to flow to the shower, the hot water tank then starts to allow new water to be added so that it can warm it up to keep the tank full. That water flows from the municipal lines outside and is usually cold. But as the new cold water runs into the building it now runs around the heated copper pipe warming that water up.

When the new water now arrives to the hot water tank it isn't cold anymore, its actually quiet warm. The water has now been pre-heated before it entered the hot water tank.

What is the benefit of this?

Pre-heating the water that goes into the hot water tank allows the hot water tank to use less energy to keep your water to the desired temperature, this means that you save money on gas/electricity for not having to heat as much water.

It also means that you shorten the time that it takes to make hot water. So if you have a lot of people needing to tank showers then you shouldn't have to worry as much about running out of water because the water that enters the hot water tank is already warmed to a certain point.

Eventually this drain system pays for itself with the money it saves you on your energy bills.

When you are planning your new custom home ask your contractor about a drain water heat recovery unit.

Rob
Village Builders Inc.

Heat Your New Home With Electricity

When you are planning to build a new custom home in the country where there is no access to Natural Gas for heating is Propane the only option and is it the best option?

This question I hear a lot these days as more and more people want to build a new place in the country away from natural gas lines.

The question is a good one, most people think that because you can't get natural gas you just switch to propane because their both gases and their probably the same costs to heat homes. Well that is a major misconception.

Propane is far more expensive then natural gas when you are comparing costs of heating your home. What makes natural gas so cheap is that it is delivered underground through lines that are permanently placed in the ground. Propane has to be delivered in a truck to your own personal tank every time that you need to have it filled. Basically the delivery fee of propane is a lot higher then natural gas and because there are so many more users of natural gas it helps keep the cost in check.

Natural gas also has a pretty consistent cost, the average price goes up and down year to year but the change is slow, propane on the other hand can swing wildly from season to season. In the past couple of years we have seen propane costs double during the winter when people need it the most and then come back to normal in the summer when it isn't.  Depending on when you fill your propane tank will determine how much you will end up paying for your heating fuel.

Most people don't think that there really is a cost effective alternative but there is and it is heating with electricity.

Now I'm not telling you to build a brand new custom home and then install baseboard heaters in it. Electric heat has actually come along way in the past couple of decades and because of the dramatic increase in the electricity rates in Ontario they have been forced to come up with more efficient options for electricity.

There are two main ways to heat in the country with electricity;

1. Geothermal. Geothermal is a wonderful way to heat your home. Its very consistent and its actually a very simple system. Geothermal is glycol filled lines that are installed deep in the ground. Glycol is basically a fancy name for alcohol. These lines absorb the heat from the ground and then transport that heat to your furnace. The furnace squeezes it through a radiator inside your furnace while air is blow across it. That air is warmed to your desired temperature and transported throughout the house in the duct work. The system works in reverse in the warm summer months to provide the house with air conditioning.

2. Air to Air heat pumps. This is pretty close to the same design as the geothermal heating and cooling, the difference is that it makes the heat and cooling from the outside air beside your home. There are many different types of heat pumps, depending on the efficiency will determine how well the heat pump works in extreme cold temperatures. This system is also less costly to install then geothermal.

Both systems don't just make heat from the air and ground they also make air conditioning for the warm summer months and they do it at a much more efficient rate then a normal air conditioner that you get with a propane furnace.

Geothermal heating has an added benefit that it provides free hotwater into your hotwater tank the more air conditioning that you use. That means that you actually use less energy in the summer running the air conditioning in your home then if you didn't run it at all, that's because it takes more energy to make hotwater then it does to create air conditioning.

There are other ways to help limit the cost of your heating system when using electricity. Adding more insulation into your new home when you are building will make it easier to heat your home and if you add solar panels you can offset the electricity that you use to heat and cool.

So when you talk to your contractor about building your new custom home talk to them about the heating system, talk to them about heating with electricity.

Rob
Village Builders Inc.

It's Half Load Season

It's half load season!

That's right that time of year where spring has started to arrive and construction starts to run up against the rules of weight on trucks on municipal roads.

What is half loads? It is a limit to the amount a large truck can have on each axle.Usually it is 5 tonnes per axle.

What does this mean to you? It means that if you want lumber delivered, concrete delivered or anything else that is heavy and is delivered to you then you might not be able to get it because the truck carrying it with the load on it is heavier then 5 tonnes per axle.

That doesn't mean that you can't get concrete or lumber delivered it means that you can't get as much of it as at once as you normally would. The problem arises because of the cost to ship it to you is the same, the company has to pay the person driving the truck, there's still the same amount of fuel burned in the truck and the same wear and tear on the truck. The only thing is that there isn't as much product on the delivery.

So the cost to get you that product is the same but there's not as much product on the truck, that means that when you want 8 cubic metres of concrete delivered to you house and the cost is usually 150 dollars a meter then the cost should be $1200. But with the load restrictions they can only bring you 2 cubic metres per truck, that means that they will need 4 extra trucks. So then the cost will go up, lets say that you are still paying the 150 a metre but because they have to send you more truck they have to charge you a surcharge of 75 dollars a metre. All of a sudden you are paying 1800 for the same amount of concrete.

Now you can simply wait for the load restrictions to be lifted and a lot of people do, but sometimes the load restrictions can last a lot longer then you think.

What determines how long the load restrictions last? It is up to the road superintendent. Every municipality has one and they will decide on their own. It has to do with how thawed the ground is, how wet the weather is, what the weather looks like going forward and what shape the actual roads are in.

When do they start? The half loads usually start now on March 1st and are scheduled to come off at the end of April/start of May. That doesn't mean that they will. A lot of times the restrictions are kept on for longer until the road supervisor is satisfied that its safe to start running heavy trucks over the road.

The longest time that I have ever seen them stay on is until June the 6th. That's right June the 6th. That is a long time to wait for your construction project to keep moving forward.

One other thing you need to remember is that if you wait until the half loads are off then you are going to try and get trades and product when everyone else is attempting to do it. The two weeks after the half loads come off are the busiest time of the year for a lot of companies. Delays are guaranteed.

So when scheduling work to be completed on your home or when you are wanting to start building a new custom home remember about the half loads, they could delay your project months.

Rob
Village Builders Inc.

Proper Water Management Around Your New Custom Home

When you are planning to build a new custom home or put an addition on an existing home something that a lot of people don't think about is the finished grade that will be around the home.

I have seen a lot of homes that are either built into hills or in area's that have water runoff that didn't think about the grading and ended up with water problems after construction was finished.

What makes it worse is that these water problems only show up at certain times of the year. Usually when there is a large snow melt, or an extremely heavy rain storm.

Now some people can live with a little water penetration into there garage or basement or crawlspace once a year or once every two years when you have some freak weather. But what if the weather becomes more freakish all the time. Well with climate change the weather has been changing and becoming more freakish every season, we are breaking records every year for extreme weather and it only looks like its going to get worse not better. That means that the little bit of moisture or water penetration that you handle with a dehumidifier starts to become a constant wet area.

When something becomes a constant wet area then you start to get mold issues, you get wood starting to rot, you get water freezing because of the extreme temperature changes, when water freezes inside concrete or concrete block you have structural damage that starts to happen. Concrete will crack and start to crumble. The more that happens the more water is able to get in and the more damage occurs.

Overtime you don't have a moisture issue you have a major water damage problem. That will cost you a significant amount of money to rehabilitate. A lot of times insurance will not cover these problems.

All of this because you didn't spend enough time considering how the home can best shed water. Now a lot of people do the simple thing like not going deep in the ground with their lower levels, that's a good start but if your house is on any type of grade then water will hit the foundation of your home like water hitting a dam in a river. The water when it is stopped starts to spread out until it finds a path of least resistance, sometimes that's into your home.

Now the simple thing to do is to slope all the area's away from the home, except that if your are on any kind of grade the water can build up enough force that it will travel up the slope and stay against the foundation. The other factor that most people do not consider is that in the spring when you have had a lot of snow fall over the winter, that snow falls off the roof, then the snow can build up freezing and creating a dam near the house. This dam will hold water against the foundation until it penetrates it.

How do you stop this? You need not just positive grade away from the home but you need large sections where the snow can spread out away from the home, weepers in the ground to help take the melt water away from the home. One other thing that you can do is design the roof of the home so that it sheds most of it's water away from the higher grade, this eliminates the snow from piling up on the uphill side. This can be achieved by turning the pitch of the roof, adding dormers or building a different type of roof like a low slope roof that slopes to the downhill side.

This type of thing though must be thought about before your new build or addition starts to be constructed, it goes back to the planning stage with your architect. Doing these types of things will ensure that you don't have a lot of problems later with water and a lot of clean up bills.

Rob
Village Builders Inc.

Spring Construction Season Has Arrived

The sun is shining, birds are signing and soon the framing guns will be ringing. That's right it's the official start to construction!

Now construction never actually stops anymore in this area but this time of the year is when most people start thinking about their own construction projects.

Whether you are thinking about building a;

• New House
• An addition to your home or cottage
• Renovating your home or cottage
• Adding or repairing decks or porches
• Building a treehouse for the little ones
• Adding bathrooms
• New kitchens

Or a combination of any of the above, if you are planning on any of these then you best get started with your plans and budgeting soon. Because soon all the contractors that you are interested in talking too might be either booked up for the rest of the summer or so busy quoting other projects that they can't quote yours in a timely manner.

To avoid this you need to make sure that you start the process early and focus on what you really want in a contractor. You need to find someone that you can work with, someone that doesn't just know what you are doing but also works well with you the homeowner. Because depending on the size and scope of the project you could end up working with this person for a while and if you don't get a long then your project will not be enjoyable.

One thing to remember about the spring is that the real estate market really picks up, with the increase in home sales comes the increase in demand for contractors to help repair, renovate or add to homes that have just recently been purchased. These projects usually come about quickly and start just as fast. They can take a contractor in the spring from being available to completely booked for most of the spring and summer. The hotter the real estate market the worse this problem becomes. 

In a lot of cases contractors can find themselves booked all the way until next year with the work they pick up in the spring from people buying and selling real estate.

All of these market forces can affect your efforts to get your project priced and completed, that's why the number one thing I tell people is to start early and keep at it until you find what you need to get your project completed.

If you have a project that you are wanting completed this spring/summer send us an email at info@villagebuilders.ca and lets see if we can help.

Rob 

Village Builders Inc. 

Lack Of Homes Pushes People To Build New Custom Homes In Collingwood Area

If you are looking to move up to the Collingwood/Thornbury/Town of The Blue Mountains area and you just started looking at real estate, you might be disappointed at the utter lack of houses that are for sale in the area.

This is because there are simply not enough homes in the area for the amount of people that want to move here. There is also not a lot of people that are moving out of the area to go somewhere else. There has been enough development in infrastructure that people of all ages can now live here.

This has created a scenario that has seen the price of homes rise and the demand for those homes rise as well. Supply and demand in action.

What is a person to do if they can't find a house that properly suits their needs?

You could always build yourself a new house.

That's right you could build a new custom home for yourself. There are still pieces of property inside and outside of town that you can buy and build a new house on.

How do you get started?

1. Look on the real estate listings for a home that will suit your family, if you can't find anything there then you might need to build a new home.
2. Once you have decided on building a new home you will need to figure out what your budget is, remember that a new custom home might cost you a little more then buying a used home, but its a brand new home not something some else has already used.
3. Start looking around through the real estate listings for the perfect piece of property to build a new custom home on, this is were real estate agents really come in handy. Remember that the cost of your lot will come out of the new home budget.
4. Find yourself an architect/builder. Why do I say both? Because you need at least one of them, an architect can find you a builder, but also a builder can find you an architect. They both can advise you on how much building a new home will cost and what you can afford.
5. Once you have both then you can plan your new home and budget for it.This might take longer then you think as architects are fairly busy these days, every time you change the drawings or adjust something in the plan you extend the design time that it takes to get the plan completed.
6. Secure your financing. If you don't have the luxury of having all the money already to build your new home then you will need to take your plans and the budget that your builder has given you to a financial institution for funds. Do not make the mistake of taking less money then what your builder has budgeted. Thinking that you will com under budget is a mistake. You might come under budget in your build but if you don't then there will be a point in the build where you run out of money and the build will come to a stop until you can secure more funding.
7. Get your permits. This might take sometime depending on how many different organizations will be involved (municipal building department, conservation authority, escarpment committee).
8. Build your new home.

It sounds easy and its not actually very hard it just takes some time and patience. Remember one thing about building a new custom home, in the end it might cost you more then a re-sale home but as soon as your new home is completed its probably worth more then what you paid to have it built.

This entire process will go smoother with the right companies, find the right ones for each step and the process will be a lot smoother and less stressful.

If your moving to the area and want to build a custom home send us an email and let us help.

Rob

Village Builders Inc.