HOMES BUILT BETTER ‘THAN THEY USED TO ...’
Having represented the home building industry in Regina for the past several years, I have heard it said a number of times that “they don’t build homes like they used to.”
Speaking with a friend who recently toured through some of the beautiful show homes in Regina’s new neighbourhoods, he made the following comment: “The new homes are beautiful, but once you get past the “wow” factor and down to the craftsmanship, they just don’t build them like they used to.”
It is a common misperception, and one to which the answer is this: “You are absolutely right. Not only is the craftsmanship not what it used to be, neither is the building technology, materials or systems. That’s because they are, in fact, all significantly better.”
New homes built in Regina and area today are vastly superior to the homes of the past. Why can a claim like that be made? Because home building has evolved so much over the past decades. New homes reflect not only the latest styles, but due to continued research and development in the industry, new homes reflect the latest advances made in building products, materials and systems. Homes reflect the technology of the day and today’s homes reflect the many advances of the industry to date.
Consider these few examples of advancements.
Regarding home wiring, the old ‘knob and tube’ method of wiring a home has been replaced with insulted copper wire, circuit breakers and logically defined circuits. No longer on Sunday morning breakfast will a breaker cut power because you are cooking toast, brewing coffee and scrambling eggs while baking something in the oven all at the same time. That’s because we now have separate circuits for the refrigerator, stove and eat-in areas of the kitchen.
With respect to safety, when we are near a water source, ground fault interrupters protect us from getting zapped. When we sleep at night we are protected by Arc-Fault preventers. In a rare event of a fire, smoke detectors are hard wired on all levels of the home and are interconnected, so that there is no chance of the alarm failing due to dead batteries. Carbon monoxide detectors provide additional safety in the unlikely chance that the myriad safety features on the modern furnace fail.
Today’s new high efficiency furnaces burn cleanly on natural gas with a sealed combustion chamber, which means no more leakage of unburned fuel into the home. There are no more chimneys to be maintained and the small amount of exhaust the furnace produces is dissipated into the outside compared to older homes with mid- efficient furnaces that allow a certain percentage to leak back into the home.
Even the fireplace has drastically changed. In the old days, the problem with wood burning fire places is they would draw the air from inside the home. Air still circulated though the home because in the past, homes were not very tightly sealed. In today’s new very airtight homes, technological advancements in fireplaces draw air from the outside, use natural gas or efficiently use electricity, while making dramatic visual statements in the home.
New home insulation values have skyrocketed. New technology is used in bat insulation which uses materials that today contain a considerable amount of recycled glass. Insulated spray foam technology, also is made from a high percentage of recycled content. Basement slabs now have options to insulate that were not available even a few decades ago. Insulated concrete forms are an option for high quality construction that provides high insulation values. Whichever insulation technology is chosen, the ability to enjoy a high R value in energy efficiency in a newly built home has never been greater.
Modern engineering has made significant improvements in new home building technology. Wood for housing no longer comes from old growth forests, and with these advances, wooden beams and trusses are straighter, stronger and better designed than ever before. In addition, concrete foundations are stronger, and less likely to fail compared to those poured in the past.
Resale homes most certainly have their own charm and do constitute a bulk of the home buying market, but unless you are buying a home with comprehensive modern renovations, you are buying yesterday’s building materials, systems and technology. It’s true. We don’t build them like we used to. That’s because we build them much better!