Will Your Custom Home Offer These Benefits?
Five questions to ask for your future health and comfort
When building a custom home, it’s not just about great design and quality construction—it’s also about creating a healthy, comfortable environment that minimizes energy costs. But how do you know if your future home will provide these essential benefits? Ask the right questions to ensure your new home supports your well-being and your wallet.
Five Key Factors to Consider for a Healthier, More Comfortable Home
When talking to potential builders, keep these questions in mind. Here are five common aspects that homebuyers often cite as crucial to their decision-making: thermal comfort, indoor air quality, noise reduction, energy and maintenance costs, and resale value.
1. How will you ensure consistent temperatures?
Temperature consistency is critical to comfort. Many homes suffer from significant temperature fluctuations between rooms. A well-designed home should eliminate hot and cold zones and maintain a comfortable environment year-round.
Your new home should have even temperatures with no hot and cold zones. You shouldn’t feel chilled near windows in winter, and the basement (if there is one) should feel dry on a humid summer day.
Ask your builder how they will address temperature consistency, especially in areas like windows and basements. Proper insulation and modern mechanical systems can help prevent temperature imbalances.
2. How will the home provide fresh indoor air?
Indoor air quality is crucial for your health, particularly for individuals with respiratory conditions. Studies have found that some homes have airborne pollutant levels up to five times higher than the outdoor air. There’s no reason for that: today’s mechanical systems can provide a steady stream of fresh air that’s cleaner than the air outside.
Your new home should limit your risk of asthma or other respiratory conditions. If you or a family member already has such a condition, the home should limit its effects.
A custom home builder with expertise in building science can incorporate ventilation systems that ensure fresh, clean air circulation, which is vital for the health of your family.
3. Will the home ensure a good night’s sleep?
Your home should serve as a peaceful retreat from the outside world. Noise from traffic, loud music, or construction can be disruptive, impacting sleep quality.
Older buildings are porous to noise, but well-built new houses are less so. The best custom homes offer nights that are library quiet and serve as a refuge from the surrounding world.
Ask your builder how they will reduce noise pollution. Modern soundproofing techniques and materials can create a quiet, restful environment for you and your family. Insulated concrete forms (ICF) in particular may meet your sound, safety, temperature, and energy efficiency needs– ask your builder about an ICF home.
4. Where will your money go?
When you buy a home, you divide your money between two boxes.
The first box is to pay for the house—whether you use a mortgage or pay cash, these costs are fixed, steady, and predictable. If you sell the house, you get this money back, ideally with appreciation.
The second box represents ongoing costs—energy bills, roof repairs, regular maintenance and the like. Not only is this money gone for good, but these costs are subject to inflation and can end up higher than expected.
The builder should focus on minimizing long-term expenses, ensuring that your home is energy-efficient and requires minimal maintenance. A quality custom home will help keep these recurring costs low, benefiting you in the long run.
5. What will the next owner want?
What will be important to a future buyer if you decide to sell the home? Besides price,
their main concern will be the kind of life the home makes possible. What’s important to them is likely the same as what’s important to you:
- Protecting their children’s health
- Getting a good night’s sleep
- Minimizing money worries
- Feeling comfortable and secure
The benefits they want will include safety, reliability, connection, and health; to get those benefits, they will probably ask questions like those posed here.
Research has shown that homes offering these benefits sell for as much as 22% above the neighborhood’s market rate. Will your home be one of them?
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-Winsome Construction is a custom luxury home builder, crafting high-performance homes throughout Portland, Bend, the Willamette Valley, and the North Oregon Coast. We invite you to stay connected with us by subscribing to our monthly newsletter (enter your name and email below) or calling us today at 503-472-7402.
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