Behind the Walls: How Better Building Materials in New Homes Can Improve Your Life

You might not think about the materials that become your home, but high-quality building materials can make the difference between living in a beautiful, safe, energy efficient home, and a nightmare money pit.

Building a new construction home means not having to worry about the quality of your building materials ruining your home – or your life. This sounds like an overstatement, but low-quality home materials can mean myriad repairs, mold, or high energy bills. They could even put you at odds with local governments if they aren’t up to code.

You can avoid many common home renovation disasters by simply building your dream home from the start. New homes have a wide range of high quality materials behind their walls that allow them to stand the test of time, making life so much easier for the homeowner.

Here are all the ways new home building materials are more advanced than older home materials:

Structural Integrity

A well-built home has the structural integrity to stand the test of time and weather Mother Nature. The first step to ensuring you invest in a well-built home is using high-quality construction materials.
Strong and durable construction materials provide you with a stable new home that can keep you and your family safe.

New homes today are built with modern materials and technologies. That includes the best insulation, low-emissivity windows, insulated doors, programmable thermostats and outlets, and even sensors to detect water leaks. When you build new, you can rest assured that each element of your home, from the foundation to the walls to the roof, is made of brand-new, high-quality materials.

Sit back and relax in your new home with the knowledge that you won’t have to worry about fundamental structures within your house failing and putting you in danger. Nobody wants to find themselves in Gilbert Grape’s shoes with a shoddy basement causing their house to fall down!

Maintenance and Longevity

The building material behind your new home’s walls saves you money and effort over the lifetime of your home. Low-maintenance living is a major benefit to buying and building new. Not even the most dedicated DIYers want to spend their time doing costly, physically demanding repairs to their home – the fun part of DIY is making your home beautiful, not making it livable! When you don’t have a mess of home improvements going on, you can spending your time enjoying your hobbies, spending time with loved ones, or simply relaxing in your new home.

New homes have a wide range of low-maintenance materials built in from the get-go. For instance, Hardieplank siding is now a standard building material for new homes, and is much easier to keep up than traditional wood siding found on older homes.

New and modern appliances let homeowners enjoy their kitchens and bathrooms without having to worry about their hot water heater or oven going out while they’re trying to get settled in after a move.
New-home builders think long and hard about the materials they use to build their homes, so you don’t have to think about dealing with them.

Energy Efficiency

Going green in your new home starts with using high-quality building materials. Even builders who serve home shoppers looking for starter homes use a wide range of materials that make a new home far more energy efficient than a resale home.

You’ve probably seen the highly satisfying videos of people installing spray foam insulation on YouTube or TikTok. It might be satisfying to watch, but in practice, it’s a lot less fun. Resale homeowners have to spend a lot of time and money installing this feature that’s standard in new homes because a properly insulated home saves the environment, your money, and your comfort level. When you build new, your home builder will install spray foam insulation as they build the house, leaving you with a comfortable and energy efficient home, without the hassle of a major renovation.

Other great green new home materials include:

• High efficiency windows
• Fully insulated attics
• Fully insulated basements
• Energy Star rated appliances
• Energy efficient hot water heaters
• Energy efficient HVAC systems
• Green landscaping packages

The great thing about building a new home is that you can talk with your builder about how they can help you live green. Unfortunately, when you buy a used house, you’re stuck with whatever materials were used to construct the dwelling – even if those materials are 20, 30, or 40 years old.

Aesthetics

It’s no secret that high-quality building materials look better than lower-quality alternatives. If you want to live in a home that looks beautiful when you move in – and stays that way – the high-quality materials used in new construction homes can help you achieve that goal.

New home upgrade packages come with stunning options such as marble waterfall islands, luxurious lighting, and sublime soaker tubs. And thanks to great foundational materials, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on upgrades to build a beautiful home – or a ton of money keeping them looking nice. For instance, that Hardieplank siding? You won’t find yourself repainting it every couple of years. Granite countertops are much more durable than, say, that old laminate that you’ll find in many resale homes. You won’t need to place a dingy vinyl bathtub when you buy a new home with tiled tubs.

Because a new home is, by its nature, brand new, homeowners get a double whammy of benefits:

1. Their house will age well, saving them money on home repairs
2. Their house will age well, and look nicer for longer

How you feel about the aesthetics of your home is important, and effects how you enjoy life in your house. Dated details and not very nice fixtures might not seem like a big deal while you’re house hunting, but can start to get annoying when you’re trying to make someone else’s house into your home.

Sometimes, aesthetic features that give you the ick can be a warning sign of a larger underlying issue. For instance, siding on an existing house may be sagging because it’s cheap and old, or there could be rot issues. Patchy interior paint could just be from the former homeowner slapping on the cheap-o paint before walkthroughs – or it could be an early sign of mold growth. Weathered wood beams look picturesque in photos of cottages, but are a major hassle and expense to replace when it turns out they have termites.

When you build new, you don’t have to deal with any of that. You can sit back and enjoy a beautiful new home that has all the aesthetic details you dreamed of for your living space, right from the start.

Built to Code the First Time

Homeowners don’t have to worry about buying a house that doesn’t conform to federal, state, and local laws, right?

As any good lawyer will tell you, it depends.

A wide range of factors all influence local building codes. Some factors that influence local building code include:

• Federal, state, and local environmental regulations
• Federal, state, and local health regulations
• Federal, state, and local laws and regulations about building materials
• Federal, state, and local laws and regulations about building best practices
• Changing attitudes within local communities about preferred building styles
• Changing attitudes within local communities about allowed uses of private property

Given the wide range of rules that make up the building code, and the ever changing body of regulations, a completely scrupulous homeowner or realtor may be selling a house that isn’t up to code.

Given that some building codes seem frivolous, is buying a home that has some issues with complying with building code that big of a deal?

Yes.

You might not initially care that a used house has insulation that isn’t compliant with environmental regulations, until your home energy bill skyrockets because you don’t have a tight envelope around your house.

Issues with complying with health aspects of building codes can range from the way parts of the dwelling are constructed, materials used to repel moisture, and best practices for construction.

If you discover that you bought a used house that is not up to code, you may have to pay hefty fines or remove the offending house features and replace them (a costly venture). Additionally, you may not be complying with your homeowner’s insurance, and you might not be able to resell the house until the issue is resolved.

When you buy new, you don’t have to worry about your living space not being built to satisfy local codes and laws. New home builders ensure that each home they build is up to code. Their building team are all licensed professionals, and they use materials that compile with the letter of local law, and the spirit of the law that hopes to keep families safe and healthy, and the environment green and lush.

Quality materials mean that new construction homes are built better. When you choose to build new, you get to take advantage of building a home with high quality materials that allow it to stand the test of time, look beautiful, and facilitate a life you love.