Moving into a historic neighborhood can be appealing, but moving into older homes can be problematic. Sometimes, demolishing a decrepit home in order to make way for new home construction can be a great way to have the best of both worlds as well as revitalized aging communities. In this piece, we’re going to look at the necessary steps in demolishing an older house to make way for new house construction.

Weigh Your Demolition Options: Deconstruction vs Mechanical Demolition

Before you start demolishing an older home, you’ll want to consider which method of demolition will be best. You may know precisely what you want in your new home and the older home is simply taking up space as well as time in your build plan. For scenarios where time is of the essence, a complete mechanical demolition with heavy mechanical equipment may be the quickest route. If you would like to recycle much of the older house’s material or possibly reuse any elements, manual deconstruction would be best. Many actually use both of these methods in tandem — recycling and reusing what they can while then demolishing the rest of the home with heavy equipment.

Look for Contractors To Help

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re not already in the construction and demolition industry. For this reason, you will want to seek out the help of a demolition or construction contractor to help with the home’s teardown. Find a licensed and insured home construction specialist. Many of these homebuilders are also experienced in demolition but double-check by asking about similar projects they’ve completed before.

Home Inspection For Your Protection

Even though you’re tearing it down, it’s still crucial to have the home inspected for hazardous materials. Many older homes contain dangerous materials such as lead paint, asbestos, or mold. In order to stay safe and legal, you will want to deal with these before you begin your official demolition.

Get The Paperwork Squared Away

Demolishing a house requires a lot of paperwork — especially if you plan on tearing down a house in a historic area. A city website or City Hall should able to outfit you with all of the paperwork you will need to fill out and submit in order to begin demolition.

Unhooking From The Past: Disconnect All Utility Lines

The house you’d like to remove is probably hooked up to a wide array of utility lines. Whether electric, sewage, water, or gas, this home will need to be disconnected from them all before demolition is to take place. Also, don’t forget unground septic and oil tanks that may be out of use that may need to be removed. Check with the utility companies as to the best ways to disconnect these lines and cap them off in a way that is safe and legal.

Talk to the Neighbors

Demolition is a loud and messy business. Make sure that you’ve spoken with the neighbors in the houses surrounding the home you plan to demolish. Give them all of the details surrounding the demolition including what time of day demolition will take place, how loud it may get, and how long it will take. The better you communicate now, the fewer angry voicemails you’ll receive later.

Fence Off Dangerous Demolition Zones

Though your demolition contractor will already do this, make sure that potentially hazardous areas are all securely fenced off for the neighborhood’s protection. You want to make a good impression on your new neighbors. The best way is to keep them safe from your own property.

Get To Demolishing

After these bases are covered, the demolition process on your house can usually begin. Demolition usually takes anywhere from a day to a week depending on the size of the crew and the equipment used. Once the house is fully demolished, all remnants of the house should be completely removed — either by commercial refuse companies or recycling organizations. No trace should remain — not even the foundation. All that should be left is a spot of dirt where the house once stood.

Begin Building Your New Home

When you demolish a house, you’ve essentially punched an ugly hole into an otherwise beautiful neighborhood. For the sake of cost and momentum, you’ll want to start the new home construction process immediately. In order to custom-design the home of your dreams and build it out, look no further than your home construction at Perry Hood Properties. Every last detail can be altered to your liking for a house you’ll immediately want to come home to.

Deciding to move can be quite stressful. Between the mortgage and the process of moving, it can take its toll. In order to make the home building process easier, many are opting for design-build delivery services. In this process, one company manages the entire home creation process. From design-to-construction, everything is managed by a single entity. In this piece, we’re going to look at four significant advantages of the design-build delivery construction process when building a home.

1. You only have to reach out to one person.

One of the most stressful parts of building a new home is managing the people involved. Between hiring an architect to design your home to hiring a contractor to carry out their plan, simply making sure everyone is on the same page is a huge process to keep from going off the rails. With a design-build delivery process, you only need to talk to one company representative who can guide you all the way through the process. No cat herding necessary.

2. The people building your home are probably old pals.

On some builds, the designer and contractor may have never worked together before. They may be unfamiliar with each other’s work styles, preferences, and even just personality quirks. During a design-build delivery process, there’s a good chance that the designer and construction specialist have worked together on dozens, if not hundreds of projects in the past. If they can nearly finish each other’s sentences, they’ll definitely be able to finish your home efficiently — on time and on budget.

3. The entire team shares the same success criteria.

When the build process of a home is fractured amongst several different specialists, the main concern of each specialist is whatever they happened to work on. During a design-build construction process, the gauge for success is the completion of your house and your happiness. When the people building your home share the same criteria for success, this increases worker morale and leads to a better product. They’re all on the same team — Team You.

4. Your input on the project goes further.

During a traditional build, if you wanted something changed, you may have to express this point to several different specialists working on the project. Each time, your vision could become skewed or possibly not taken to heart. During design-build delivery of a new home, expressing your desires for your new home is as simple as reaching out to your contact with the company. Your input is taken seriously by the entire company and you receive the desired results.

---

If it’s time for a home upgrade, the home building specialists at Perry Hood Properties can make your dream home your actual home. Get started building your next home already.

LED lights have become increasingly popular in recent years. Those who are environmentally conscious like how efficient they are — using, on average, just $1.83 a year to power, as opposed to incandescent bulbs that cost about $10.95 a year to power. Others simply like their astounding 10-15 year lifespan. LEDs are becoming the obvious choice in new home construction and retrofits in remodeling. Still, one of the past misconceptions about LEDs has been that they give off harsh, sterile light. Innovations in LED technology have increased the brightnesses and “color temperatures” of LEDs for commercial or residential use. In this piece, we’re going to talk about selecting the ideal LED color temperature for each room in your home.

LED Color Temperatures for High Productivity Areas

There are spaces in your home where you need to remain productive, focused, and have an eye for detail. Places like the kitchen, a home office, and the bathroom are places where work or personal maintenance is performed. In the kitchen, being able to properly determine the freshness of ingredients and observe how items are cooking is crucial. In a home office, you want to avoid the distractions of home life and remain focused on the task at hand. In the bathroom, you want to make sure that your makeup is absolutely perfect or that you did not miss any spots shaving.  In these high-performance areas, home builders and lighting experts usually recommend a colder LED color temperature and increased brightness level. The recommended LED color rating for areas of productivity in the house is usually about 3,000-5,000 Kelvin with a brightness of about 3,000-6,000 lumens.

Relaxation LED Color Temperature Areas

On the flip side of the LED color temperature scale, there are areas in your home where relaxation is the goal. The living room is going to be the most multi-functional room in the house with activities ranging from entertaining, reading, or watching movies with the family. Though often connected to your kitchen, your dining room should have a completely different feel from it — relaxing, calm, and pleasant. When it comes to your bedroom, relaxation and sleep are the room’s primary purposes. Many health professionals recommend removing sources of harsh light from bedrooms and even limiting screen time in the bedroom to promote rest. In these relaxing places, lighting experts recommend a softer light having an LED color temperature of about 2,000-3,000 Kelvin and LED brightness of about 2,000-4,000 lumens.

---

If you’re looking to build a new home with details, such as LED lighting, to your exact specifications, look no further than home professionals Perry Hood Properties. Our team of property experts can help you craft a home you’ll love spending time in for decades, if not generations, to come. Building your dream home has never been this simple.

Whether you’re designing a new home from the bottom up or you’re remodeling an existing kitchen, you’re going to be forced with the difficult decision of picking what materials you want in your kitchen. These materials should be affordable, stylish, and capable of taking a beating. In this piece, we’re going to look at some of the pros and cons of granite countertops versus quartz countertops.

What Are Granite Countertops?

Even if you couldn’t point out granite countertops from other materials in a countertop materials lineup, you probably already know that granite countertops are all the rage right now. These countertops are made from cut granite: a 100% natural stone that brings a glimmering sophistication to any kitchen. Granite started out as an expensive luxury imported from Italy. With increased demand came an increased supply of more variants of granite from places like Brazil and India. The manufacturing process has become much more mechanized in recent years, making granite more affordable than ever before.

What Are Quartz Countertops?

Unless you’ve been staying on top of kitchen materials trends, you’re probably unaware of just how popular quartz is becoming — giving granite a run for its money. Unlike granite, quartz countertops are not completely natural slabs of stone in your house. Quartz in countertop form is a manufactured material — usually about 95% actual quartz and 5% a bonding agent such as a polymer resin or some other material. Different types of quartz may be used in making a single product. Styles vary from single colors to whatever you can dream up.

Which Countertop Looks Better?

If you’re going after granite or quartz, you’re likely also wanting something that looks great — or else you would have just gone with stainless steel commercial-grade kitchen counters. Being that granite is completely natural, the pros and cons of granite are that no two pieces of granite are identical. This can be great if you’re looking for a unique look in your kitchen, but a negative if you’re looking to replicate an exact look you saw elsewhere. Quartz, on the other hand, is extremely customizable in appearance. Choose from most colors, design patterns, and more.

Which Countertop is More Durable?

While you wouldn’t imagine that a natural stone would require much maintenance, granite countertops actually do. Most granite countertops have a seal that helps keep the stone from absorbing liquids or being overly worn and stained by kitchen elements. However, this seal has maintenance requirements of its own that should be taken into consideration when buying a granite countertop. Quartz countertops, on the other hand, don’t require much maintenance aside from being cleaned. Because they are a solid surface (meaning there isn’t a surface layer to the countertop — the entire material is the surface), they don’t require surface resealing. With that being said, because granite is a completely natural stone, it tends to hold up better to excessive heat than quartz countertops in the long run.

Which Countertop is More Affordable?

According to Home Advisor, the cost of installed granite or quartz countertops are fairly similar. The main costs associated with granite is the quarrying process as well as the shipping and shaping of the material. Quartz is a mined stone as well, but because it is engineered into its final form, shipping isn’t as nearly as an ordeal. Overall, depending on the style and size of the kitchen, granite or quartz countertops can run homeowners anywhere from $1,000-$5,000 installed.

---

If you’re in the process of dreaming up your ideal home, your friends at Perry Hood Properties can definitely help. See our wide variety of home designs for custom builds or existing homes with the only thing missing being you and your happy family.