Constructing a home from the ground up is no small undertaking, and there are so many details to remember throughout the process. The last thing you want is to finish up a portion of your home only to have to start over because you missed an important feature. Here are a few common mistakes made by new home builders that you should avoid.
Not Selecting Your Lot Thoughtfully
The land you choose for your home will influence many other aspects of your building considerations, as well as your satisfaction with your lifestyle once you have settled in. Before you proceed any further with your plans, you should ensure that utility lines such as water, electricity, and gas can be connected to the space. The more remote the location, the harder this may become, because the local infrastructure is less developed there. You should also think about what the area is like around the lot in terms of neighborhood, proximity to places like your job and the grocery store, and resale value. These may not seem to make that much a difference when you see a cheap lot in a less ideal location, but they will come back to affect you when you live there.
Overlooking Your Air Ducts
The way that your air ducts are set up can easily lead to a lot of energy and money wasted in your home. This could be attributed to either design inefficiency in general or ducts placed in areas of the home that don’t have insulation and don’t need heating and cooling. For example, a duct that leads into a crawlspace or garage would cause the HVAC system to work harder to change the temperature in the home. The air blown into the unconditioned places essentially diffuses into the outside environment. As a result, you need to get the right HVAC contractor who will be able to create a duct system that is closed off from the outdoors and does its job correctly.
Forgetting to Waterproof Your Basement
If your home plan includes a basement area, you should take measures to ensure that water from the surrounding ground does not seep inside. Constant moisture below your home can lead to structural issues and the growth of mold. Stop these problems from arising by grading the area and waterproofing your basement and foundation. Grading raises the ground around your home so that water naturally moves away from it. Waterproofing seals up the structure and can also actively dispel water that might gather around the basement through the work of a sump pump.
If you are building a new home and need basement waterproofing in Chicago, IL, to make sure that it remains sturdy against the elements for years to come, call The Real Seal today. We’re so confident that we’ll be able to keep your basement completely dry that we’ll come back and fix any problem, at no cost to you, that persists after we’ve completed a job.
