12 Feb What’s In Your Walls?

High performing, durable wall assemblies: Double 2×4 framing carefully air sealed and filled with dense packed cellulose provides high-performing, noise-blocking, long-lasting walls. All our new construction walls are built to this level of performance.

My accountant is a man of long experience.  We were recently discussing the rise in construction costs and he marveled at where they were headed.  “For that kind of money,” he quipped, “you better make sure those granite countertops are perfect.” His advice continued.  “People don’t care what’s in their walls but they sure do care about what their countertops look like.”

I smiled politely but internally I boiled with disagreement.  Of course, we want our countertops to look perfect, but we also care deeply about what is inside our walls, and we want our clients to care, too.  While it is true enough that no one sees the details inside a wall, it is these very details that determine important characteristics of a house. When a builder pays attention to the details inside a wall, the home will be warmer and less drafty; it will be a quieter home, better isolated from noises outside.  It will have cleaner, less toxic smelling air; and it will be more durable, with no moisture, mold and rot issues over time. As anyone who has followed programs on HGTV and the like well knows, countertop fashions change over time, sometimes quite quickly. Rooms get painted and floors get refinished or replaced.  People change house finishes much like they change their clothes. This is normal and the cost and complexity of doing so are manageable. But the details inside of walls are not easily redone. The work is invasive and expensive the second time around. Doing it is not like changing clothes, but more like transplanting an organ.

Organ Transplant: Repairing a poorly designed and constructed wall is difficult and expensive. This wall section comes from an architect-designed, custom built home, but little thought was given to what was in the walls. The consequences were catastrophic for the homeowner down the road.

At Decumanus Green, we advise our clients to carefully consider what they put inside their walls.  We specialize in intelligently designed wall assemblies constructed by carpenters who know what it takes to build walls that perform at the highest level for years to come.