The team at Daher Construction is excited to share the progress of this custom home builder project about 45 minutes outside of Springfield, Missouri. As the general contractor, we are quickly transforming an empty lot in the Ozarks into a dream home that will be enjoyed for generations to come. Follow our progress here. This new home is going to look amazing!
In custom home building, a general contractor’s project management skills are the secret ingredient
When taking on a large project like a custom home, you need a general contractor to organize all the puzzle pieces. An incredible amount of planning needs to happen on the front end of the process.
Every home-building job requires the scheduling of many experts:
- Lots of material vendors with different lead times
- Excavators
- Concrete companies
- Framers
- Plumbers
- Electricians
- Heating-and-air conditioning technicians
- Flooring experts
- Marble dealers
- Windows and glass experts
- Brick craftsmen
- Trim and door experts
- Roofing, siding, and gutter companies
- And other top-notch home-building experts
These craftsmen must be scheduled well in advance and do their work in a specific order. For example, you can’t have the framers show up before the concrete is poured and dry. You can’t have the flooring installed while the plumbers are still laying pipe. As the general contractor, we have to make sure that they all show up, in the correct order, on the correct day.
New home construction starts with excellent home design
We worked closely with J L Thompson Design in Branson, Missouri, to create this custom home design. This home was designed with the homeowners’ needs and wants in mind.
The single-story structure is 3,292 square feet – including about 1,800 square feet of living space, plus 900 square feet of garage and 600 square feet of covered patio space.
From the ground up
We started the groundwork with site excavation. The crawlspace and footers were dug out, and the ground for the garage was prepared. A concrete pump truck poured the footers and foundation.
The front and back patio were actually poured at a later date – after the house was framed – because the patio is poured against the rim joist of the floor.
Crawl space received a layer of gravel and a vapor barrier – plus a sump pump system just in case.
According to the US Department of Energy, exposed dirt floors in crawl spaces allow ground vapor and soil gases to enter the space. A properly sealed, moisture-protected, and insulated crawlspace will increase comfort, save on energy costs, improve the home’s durability, and reduce the entry of moisture, radon, and other potential irritants into the home.
Many people retrofit a home with a vapor barrier after it’s been built. But we’re including it from the beginning.
There are cinderblocks around the outside of the foundation to hold the decorative brick exterior the home will receive later.
And drain tile goes around the outside, so any water that seeps near the foundation will travel away from the home through a French drain system.
Better walls and floors = a better custom home construction
It’s essential to use the best materials on a custom home building project.
After the trusses and other framing materials were delivered, our amazing subcontractors framed the entire subfloor in one day. It’s one big floor that covers the entire home.
We chose Trus Joist® TJI® engineered floor joists. These high-performance joists resist warping, twisting, and shrinking, which can lead to squeaky floors.
The subfloor is AdvanTech®, and it has a wax coating, so it can resist a little moisture.
The walls were framed the next day. We chose spray foam insulation for the exterior walls, which creates an envelope to stop air infiltration. We also added blown insulation in the attic.
The green stuff covering the outside of the exterior walls is called ZIP System® wall sheathing and taping. Not everybody uses that. Once we frame the house, then we add this special exterior sheeting and tape the seams. It’s totally waterproof! Once the doors and windows are put in, and you use the ZIP System, you don’t have to worry about anything getting wet. That Zipwall system can keep the house dry for up to two years, even without siding.
A lot of builders still use OSB for the exterior walls to make it cheaper. I don’t believe in that – I believe in using top-notch materials.
Then the brick or siding covers the Zipwall system.
We also covered the garage floor to protect the concrete while we installed the sheetrock and paint. That way, we don’t have to worry about hurting the new floor.
A high-quality custom home building, inside and out
Then we moved on to the interior framing and the fireplace.
We chose Andersen’s A-series casement windows.
Custom home builder with quality you can see
Like this job site in Buffalo, Missouri, we always keep a neat and clean job site. You don’t see a bunch of junk lying around. And we only hire clean-cut employees and subcontractors.
We aim to provide high-quality custom home construction, on time, on budget, and with fewer headaches.
Are you thinking about building your custom dream home? Before you choose an architect, building materials, or even a piece of land, give us a call. We can set the entire project on the right path.
