4618 CHURCHILL - THE LITTLE THINGS
"The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail." Charles R. Swindoll
In the age of instant gratification, it is harder to sell quality than before. We are too distracted by the shiny things that catch our eye when walking through a home, so we thought it was best to explain some of the little, hard-to-notice, details of one of our available homes.
Building a House On Oklahoma Red Dirt
The concrete slab of this home (and most Oklahoma homes) rests on red clay, great for compaction, but also known for moving under the slab during times of drought and heavy rainfall. To compensate, this slab was a monolithic pour, meaning the footing and slab were poured together, allowing the home to move as one unit. We used 4 bars of ½” rebar in the footing (twice what local building codes require) and installed expansion joints where needed in the brick/stone veneer to keep the masonry from pulling away from the home in the event of an earthquake. As a redundant precaution, fiber-mesh was also included in the slab to prevent minor, and major cracking, that can lead to future foundation and flooring issues. We enjoyed working closely with Van Eaton concrete on this build to ensure the home will be standing tall for decades to come!
Framing a House On Oklahoma Red Dirt
During the rough framing phase, we installed nearly twice as many anchor bolts as required for the exterior walls, and installed “hurricane straps” on all rafters in an effort to fortify the home during high winds. The garage doors are framed using engineered beams and heavy duty, steel straps in an effort to strengthen the weakest walls of your new home during periods of severe weather, per Moore, Ok residential building code.
Our Plumbing & Lighting Process
The plumbing in the home is installed using PEX piping and is sleeved for convenience. This will allow the future owner, in the event of a plumbing leak or failure, to repair/replace the damaged pipes without busting up the slab of your home and saving in total repair costs.
This home features whole-home LED lighting, since we all know the benefits of LED lighting, I will move on to some of the more random, quality features of our new construction homes. Each home we build has custom, built to order, vinyl windows. We tell our clients, if we plan to cut a hole in your wall, we might as well fill it with a quality, energy efficient window! This means our "basic" window includes Argon gas, low-e glass, and custom grid patterns per the owner’s personal preference! Each window is installed per manufacturer recommendations using silicone, and element proof window tape to ensure maximum energy efficiency. The Phido Group also builds our homes with insulated garage doors and garage bays! This particular home has Clopay Gallery overhead doors in a Walnut finish! No matter where we build, these doors are sure to be the envy of the neighborhood!
Waterproofing Hand-Built Showers
Another feature we love to mention, but is hard to describe, is the waterproofing we do for our hand-built showers (this home has two). Watch the video below this post, courtesy of Schluter-Kerdi, for a description of the Kerdi system used in all Phido Group homes! The majority of builders choose not to spend the time, or money, to install this system, instead hoping their showers make it the first year without a catastrophic failure, or even minor leak, inevitably leading to future, costly repairs. This product is included in every project we undertake, regardless of price point!
Additional Home Features
The front entry of this home has quite a story! Estimated to be built around 1920, and originally located in a mansion in San Antonio, Texas, this 9’ round-top door adds unique character and charm to this European inspired home. Thanks to the hard work of our trim carpenters we were able to include this door in a home usually reserved for slab doors you see on every other new home in the neighborhood.
We could speak for several more pages about the little details behind the walls, and under your feet, but we will save those for future blog posts! Moving forward we will be detailing more and more unique features that go into every one of our new homes! Until then, we ask you to remind yourself before walking into any new construction home, to focus on the items that are harder to see, but essential to the long term livability of your new home! If you aren’t sure, ask the builder, or have your Realtor inquire for you!
Mike Holmes talks about Schluter®-KERDI-BOARD--the multi-functional tile substrate and building panel. KERDI-BOARD can also be used to create bonded waterproof assemblies. It consists of an extruded polystyrene foam panel, with a special reinforcement material on both sides and fleece webbing for effective anchoring in thin-set mortar.