Sub floors, Exterior Walls, Modern day construction changes to custom home building

Modern Day Construction for custom homes Part 2

In today’s modern world of construction things are changing year to year faster than they did decade to decade in any other previous time period. In this multi part series I will traverse through an entire house starting with the foundation and working my way up to the roof and then to the finishing’s. I will explain what has changed in the last twenty years in custom home building.

One thing that you should be able to take away from this is how important it is to not just hire the right general contractor to build your custom home but how important it is to hire  one that is up on today’s building methods.

Here are some changes that have come along in the last 20 years alone;

Sub-Floors:

Twenty years ago we used solid convention lumber that was either 2x8, 2x10 or 2x12. The spans were limited by the size and strength of the wood. On top of the joists we installed ¾” plywood sometimes glued and nailed down to the joist.


Today we use wood “I” joists. They are an engineered floor joist that is constructed of pieces of wood glued and pressed together, with a 2x material on the top and the bottom. The webbing in between the 2x is made of OSB and can be cut out in large circles to accommodate plumbing and heating pipes. They also help remove the squeaks from the floor and can be spanned longer distances then conventional lumber. Because they are made from other small pieces of wood they do not require the large size of trees that conventional lumber does. The topping for the floor is now an OSB product that is specially made for being exposed to the weather and comes with 120 day weather warranty not to come apart or swell because of moisture. The OSB be is always glued down and then screwed to the joist instead of using nails. This helps eliminate squeaks and movement in the floor.

Exterior Walls:

Exterior walls twenty years ago were all assembled the same way. 2x6 framing, with 7/16” OSB on the outside. Then the house wrap was applied and your exterior finishes attached to that. The inside of the walls were batted with pink insulation and vapour barrier applied over it with acoustical caulking. A lot of times all the framing was done by installing hand nails, hand driven with a hammer.

Today we still use 2x6 framing and 7/16” OSB with house wrap on the outside. But there are a lot of other options that have gained popularity because of their energy efficiency and speed of assembly. These framed walls are put together now with air driven framing nailers that speeds up the framing process 10 fold.

The other popular options for exterior walls are;

• ICF (insulated concrete forms) are not just for the basement, they can be used for all the exterior walls. ICF walls are poured in lifts per floor. So you pour the basement first, then the first floor and then the second floor. You frame every floor as you go as a working platform.

• Stress skin panels. These are large panels that are premade and measured in a factory for your home and delivered on site. They made of a 6” foam core with a piece of 7/16” OSB glued to each side. You install them with a crane and then cut your windows and doors out later with a chainsaw or reciprocating saw.

• Instead of 7/16 OSB on the outside of your 2”x6” walls they install a 1.5” to 2” of polystyrene foam and then you’re finishing is installed on top of it.

• When vapour barrier is installed, acoustical caulking is still used, but there is a lot of tuck tape used to give the vapour barrier a better seal, especially around difficult areas and light boxes. Tuck tape is a red adhesive tape that has been engineered to stop air leakage.

• After insulation has been installed, you can install a ½” to a 1” layer of foam board that has a reflective surface on one side of it. The foam board is installed on the inside of the wall before the drywall goes on and the reflective foil is placed facing into the house. This helps the insulation value, stops air leakage and reflects the heat from the inside of the house back into the house instead of allowing it to penetrate through the wall and cool with the air from outside.

Look for Part 3 coming soon....

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

Foundations, Waterproofing, Piers, Modern day construction changes to custom home building

Modern Day Construction for custom homes Part 1

In today’s modern world of construction things are changing year to year faster than they did decade to decade in any other previous time period. In this multi part series I will traverse through an entire house starting with the foundation and working my way up to the roof and then to the finishing’s. I will explain what has changed in the last twenty years in custom home building.

One thing that you should be able to take away from this is how important it is to not just hire the right general contractor to build your custom home but how important it is to hire one that is up on today’s building methods.

Here are some changes that have come along in the last 20 years alone;

Foundation:

Twenty years ago the most common foundations were block and poured concrete walls.

Today there are numerous different types of Insulated Concrete Forms or ICF’s. ICF’s are two pieces of insulation that are held together with a plastic web, you pour concrete down between the insulation to create the wall. This gives you an instant insulated high performance foundation wall. ICF’s are sound proof, weather proof, bug and rodent proof and are actually fire proof.

Poured concrete walls are still used because of the cost savings compared to ICF’s but block walls are almost never used in custom home construction. Resent changes to building codes have made using poured concrete walls more expensive because of the amount of insulation that you are required to have on the inside of the walls.

Waterproofing:

Twenty years ago the common thing to do was to tar the outside of the foundation to damp proof it.

Today we use a stretchable waterproof membrane that has a dimple board that overlaps with a filter cloth attached to the outside of it for added protection. This makes the foundation walls completely waterproof instead of just damp proof; also this new product does not dry out after 15 to 20 years like tar does. Tar can be damaged when tree roots or stones rub against the foundation, the new dimple board that is installed over waterproof membrane acts as a guard against these natural hazards.

You are not able to install a tar layer over any ICF foundation wall. Those using membranes become the only way you can waterproof a high performance wall like an ICF.

Piers:

Twenty years ago the common thing to do was pour concrete into sauna tubes. If the pier required heavier support they either framed a plywood box and filled it with concrete or built it out of concrete block after framing and pouring a footing for it to sit on.

Today we use preformed footing tubes. They are made out of a hardened plastic in the shape of a giant bell. They flare at the bottom to act like a footing. The advantage to this is that you can bury the whole tube without having to first fill it with concrete. This way you don’t have to worry about when the inspector is going to come around to make sure that they are at the proper depth. The old sauna tubes where made out of a paper product and would collapse if they got wet from either ground water or rain. These new “footing tubes” even have depth markings on the outside of them so that the inspector doesn’t have to pull out their tape.

Look for part 2 of Modern Day construction coming soon...

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

2012 forecast for constuction in the Collingwood, Creemore and Wasaga beach area

Residential construction forecast for the Collingwood, Creemore and Wasaga beach area for 2012

The residential construction industry is on a rollercoaster from one month to the next depending on where you live in Ontario. Places like the muskoka’s where builders have enjoyed having multi-year waiting lists are looking at a spring with no work and no leads on future work. The market has shifted away from second homes and cottages.

The only market that seems stable outside of Toronto is Home Building for Baby Boomers. What is happening is Baby Boomers living in Toronto are looking to start retiring and want to do that outside of Toronto. They are sitting on their retirement fund. House prices in Toronto have been on the rise for decades and are even know staying high. This is allowing Baby Boomers to buy property in the Collingwood area and build custom homes of all shapes and sizes. Once they are ready to retire they simply sell their home that is mortgage free and retire to Collingwood paying off the mortgage on their new home.

This is not just happening in the Collingwood, this is happening all over Ontario. Even as far north as the Sault St. Marie area builders are reporting Baby Boomers moving in and building or renovating homes to retire into.

Because of this, the market for residential construction is somewhat stable in these retirement areas. It is not growing but it is not shrinking either. Depending on the township, there is to be expected a fair bit of work for qualified and experienced contractors that have an established name. The newer contractors in the area will find it hard to get work in 2012 as was the trend in 2011. There just isn’t enough work to go around for all the “custom home builders” or those who call themselves that.

Wasaga Beach

Places such as Wasaga Beach will see the best growth in the area. Wasaga Beach’s residential construction has been steadily growing every year for the past 3 or 4 years since the credit crunch and stock market crash of 2008. Property anywhere near the water and the beach is being bought up by people looking to retire. The rising tax’s are forcing a lot of people that have owned small little cottages in Wasaga Beach for generations to sell them or tear down and rebuild with a new home. There is huge potential for growth in this area with whole streets having small cottages that are at the end of their life and need to be replaced. Property values in Wasaga Beach continue to rise year over year, prompting many to sell their family cottages instead of fixing them. Wasaga Beach has turned from the tourist area and is now actively promoting itself as a retirement community for the Baby Boomer generation. Enforcement of strict rental rules for seasonal cottages are having a serious effect on the market, pushing more families to sell their cottage as they are having trouble bringing in enough income to justify keeping it.

Clearview Township

Clearview Township will struggle in the residential construction sector like it has for the past couple of years. It seems this market will only get worse, as land prices in the township continue to rise and so does the taxes. Building and development fees are now at an all time high, to the point where it is scaring away people that want to build a new home. No effort is being made in the Township to help curve this trend and it looks like they are determined to only allow people with deep pockets into the area that can afford to pay the massive fees. The fees are so suppressive that subdivision development has all but ground to a halt. Only well established contractors seem to be able to get what little work there is in this township. The renovation market has all but dried up as well in the Clearview Township area.

Collingwood/Blue Mountain area

The Collingwood/Blue Mountain area seems to be spotty at best. Some places in the area have 2 or 3 houses being built on one street, where other areas have no building or renovating at all. A lot of this seems to have to do with the stalled real estate market. Homes in the Collingwood market have been going up year over year and still sell. 2011 was different with house prices dropping, but homeowners who were selling refused to follow the trend keeping their selling price high, thus stalling the market with a large inventory of houses coming on the market and not much selling. When the market corrects itself the renovation end of the construction industry should come back fairly well in 2012. At the moment the renovation end of things is very slow. A lot of contractors that rely on the renovation market to get them through between house builds are having trouble finding any work at all.

The prospect for growth for 2012 in the Collingwood area could be very good, there seems to be a lot of commercial work running into 2012 and more commercial projects to be started in 2012. Collingwood is looking like it could experience extreme growth in the coming decade. Most of this growth will be of Baby Boomers moving into the area, but there are also a lot of young professionals moving in to fill all the jobs that need to be done with this ever growing and aging population.

The Collingwood area trend of builders coming in from other areas to find work will continue and might even get worse in 2012 as the prospect of bigger homes and cottages is a powerful draw.

                Overall 2012 looks to be a better year than 2011 in the new home market, the renovation market still looks shaky and could go either way. There looks to be in the late winter and early spring a bump in new home starts in all areas because of the new building codes. A lot of people put in for their building permits earlier then they wanted to so that they could beat the new regulations. The new regulations will see the cost of building go up by a minimum 10% and could be as much as 30% depending on what standard you will have to raise the building too. The new building regulations take effect on January 1^st 2012 and any plans drawn in 2011 will have to go through some serious changes to meet the new code. So this should help the construction industry for the early part of the year, but with this new code it might slow down permits and applications over the whole year. After the spring it might be hard to pick up new projects in 2012.

The new codes will have a major impact on the renovation market, as the code will be a lot more restrictive and expensive for homeowners to receive permission to renovate and complete their projects. The renovation market was slower than normal going into this year and this could slow it to almost a halt. It might get the same bump that the new home starts will be getting with people getting there permits before the code change, but the 2^nd half of the year might be very difficult for renovators.

Overall it looks to be an up and down year for the residential construction industry in the Collinwood, Wasaga beach and Creemore area. Competition for new homes looks to continue to be high with everyone trying to stay busy.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.