New House Build – Questions

We’re getting to the point of no return on a new build. We’ve got one of the area’s most reputable contractors on-board. For context, we’re located in SE MN a mile from Pool 4. The land we’re building on is a 40 acre parcel of ag land that buts up to other family land. I’m not a contractor whatsoever. I have flipped a house and do some side jobs for contractors in the area when I’m not working as an Athletic Director or helping out the local lumberyard 20-30 hours a week. I’m familiar with a majority of residential and post-frame building components…but still have countless questions about the processes, product opinions, and so on. For those with knowledge or experiences related to the questions, I appreciate anything you’d share.

First, the build is a 1850 SQ ft. main floor with 3 beds 2 bath. The basement is another 1850 SQ ft. in a walkout basement with 2 beds and 1 bath. It’s got a 3 car attached garage, relatively open floorplan, 9′ ceilings up and down,with a few 10′ trays, screened porch, and what I’d consider to be an average number of windows. We plan to add to our family and value gathering space, less maintenance, and durability of products used. Now to some specific questions:

I-Joists vs Floor Trusses: I understand the pros and cons and have handled both. With 9′ ceilings in the basement would you go with one over the other regardless of cost? I can live with ceiling changes to fit in HVAC with I Beams if there’s a substantial cost savings. If it’s reasonably close, I’d go with the trusses and deal with the additional elevation into the home.

Windows: I prefer casings for the largest windows in the living area with a small fixed transom above. The better half wants mostly double hung. Does it look strange to interchange on the same level both styles? (Casing in living area, doubles in kitchen and bedrooms)

Window Brands: We’re choosing exclusively between Hayfields, Anderson, and Marvin. With my part-time extra gigs…I can get solid deals on these brands. Any major issues with any of the above? We’re going vinyl for sure.

Siding: We’re 99% on the LP Smartside train with the Diamond Kote finish. Are there any reasons to look into something else? It seems to be worth the extra costs but we’d listen to anyone with experience who thinks otherwise. Yes, our contractor does LP regularly and knows how to install it correctly.

Garage Door Sizes: The current plan is for an 18×8′ door and a 10×8′ door on the garage. We have a 17′ fiberglass fishing boat and my wife’s Jeep Grand Cherokee that will always be in there. On occasion my full size truck may be in there when not in a shed or some mowers or an atv. Are these openings standard and sufficient? We have access to pole buildings for the tritoon and some other things nearby in hopes of keeping the garage less cluttered. You can never go big enough, but the wife isn’t thrilled with much more garage as it will impact the exterior design.

Flooring: We want to use the same flooring on the entire main floor except for the bedrooms and baths. We are likely going with some sort of LVP but are open to brand suggestions. Has anyone had experience with the Adura Flooring LVPs by Mannington? We’ve got some suggestions to go that route.

Foundation: Is there any major reason to not go with ICF? Our contractor would use block, ICF, or poured. The only major con I’ve seen is the slight loss in basement SQ footage due to thickness…but I’m surely missing more details.

I’ll have more questions as things progress in the coming months. Thanks to anyone willing to share their knowledge.

I can say it really doesn’t matter what kind of floor system you use as long as it’s not spanned to the max.

If you’re gonna go to an lvp any type of deflection will be easily felt and to some extent seen.

The only thing I can answer or even give any advice on is make the garage doors as tall as possible. I would love to have 10’6″ tall (or larger) doors. You never know what you may have for “toys” in the future… But a side by side on a good trailer may not fit under a 8 foot door. I know I have an enclosed goose decoy trailer that will not go in my garage, and my hang up for getting a side by side is I would have to unload it every time to put it away and load it on a trailer to take it out.

Do you really need double-hung’s? In the 4 years since we built our new house, I can count on 1 hand the number of times we’ve even opened our single-hungs, haven’t missed the moveable upper-half at all. Don’t forget the screens, though.

HRG

Also, we recently had the top panel of our garage door replaced with one that has windows, if you don’t have other window(s) in the garage, it has made a huge difference in bringing some light in.

HRG

Alot going on here –
my $.02
1) Trusses for the trunk lines. Soffits stink.
2) Pick either Casements or Double hungs – They are 2 completely different looks
3) I’m a Marvin guy
4) LP with diamond Kote is the way to go
5) Good choice with garage door size, as long as your stuff fits
6) We put in a ton of Adura Flex fully adhered, but I put “Coretec” in my house
7) ICF is the Cats meow, However there is a learning curve for the trades

FYI – I was a Sup for a few of the nationals and CM for a few smaller Builders, got around 1000 units under my belt. If you have any specific Q’sfeel free to shoot me a PM

Don’t have much of an opinion on most, for LVP I just put in Paramount RigidCore and the installation was a breeze and turned out fantastic. Seems like good stuff but it’s also the only flooring I put in.

If doing yourself make sure to get quotes through wholesalers, they were able to beat floor centers by 50% on this stuff.

The biggest question I have is you mentioned having a very reputable contractor on board so it seems these questions should be answered by them. You are paying them for there experience and expertise. Now if I am understanding this incorrectly and you are being your own general this can end up being a mistake you wish you didn’t do.

When building on land that has not been developed make sure the building pad has the proper soils or you can run into cost overruns quickly. If you haven’t had Core samples taken for your septic (assuming), I would have them punch a couple holes in the pad area.
Also – Make sure the survey company sets your elevation as to have adequate drainage.

buckybadger wrote:

Has anyone had experience with the Adura Flooring LVPs by Mannington? We’ve got some suggestions to go that route.

Our whole upstairs level has been Adura Max for almost 2 years now. I was pretty worried how it would handle two dogs running all over the place but so far looks brand new still.

supercat wrote:

The biggest question I have is you mentioned having a very reputable contractor on board so it seems these questions should be answered by them. You are paying them for there experience and expertise. Now if I am understanding this incorrectly and you are being your own general this can end up being a mistake you wish you didn’t do.

He has and continues to answer questions. Some are more opinion based. We aren’t to the stages of dealing with things like flooring, specific windows, etc so I figured I’d throw out questions here having known some of these posters a long time.

I am not going to be the general. Had we started the build in Spring, I would’ve entertained it. When this particular builder expressed interest, I immediately chose to have him do it all as it’s the only way he operates.

As to the garage only, I would consider going with 3 10’x8′ doors instead of one double wide and a single. While the boat length you have now may fit in the single stall now, if you were to get a longer boat in the future, it may not, as usally the end single stall is shorter. And if you are planning on backing a boat into the double wide stall, you are going to regret getting that door every time your wife’s car is in the other side of the stall. My garage is 30′ deep for 2 stalls and 26′ deep for the other, and as my current boat is 22′ I use the middle stall for it. I would stay with an 8′ door height, as other than your 2 vehicles and a boat, I don’t see you putting in atv’s on a trailer and leaving your boat outside. If building a nice new house, an 8′ garage door height looks right, 10′ looks like a house connected to a pole barn. If you have other toys that need storage, build a shed, you have the acreage.

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One little thing that might be nice is to have cat6 ethernet cables run to a few places for stuff like wifi access point, TVs, and cameras if you think you’ll ever want those. Wifi and cameras can be powered via the network cable so it’s all the wiring you’ll need. In a big house a ceiling mounted wireless access point in a central location will work a lot better than in a corner of your basement where they usually end up.

I know my response was to the garage only, but I have to add another, if budget allows, you did ask, in floor heat for the lower level is golden. No more cold floors, we use our lower level daily, play pool, watch TV, reloading room, and a great entertainment area for company. We keep the thermostat set at 68, and if we have company staying over, turn it up to 70. Walk around barefoot even in the winter. Also a must have for new construction, infloor heat in your master bath, it’s simple and cheap to install and run. They just put an electric mat in the mortar under the tile. Probably about $350 to install for an average sized bath. Your wife will love you for it.

Most of your questions are beyond my pay grade, but I’d make sure the garage has more than enough depth. Nothing worse than not being able to easily walk around the vehicles/boat or having to worry about backing the boat in just far enough etc.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Alot going on here –
my $.02
1) Trusses for the trunk lines. Soffits stink.
2) Pick either Casements or Double hungs – They are 2 completely different looks
3) I’m a Marvin guy
4) LP with diamond Kote is the way to go
5) Good choice with garage door size, as long as your stuff fits
6) We put in a ton of Adura Flex fully adhered, but I put “Coretec” in my house
7) ICF is the Cats meow, However there is a learning curve for the trades

FYI – I was a Sup for a few of the nationals and CM for a few smaller Builders, got around 1000 units under my belt. If you have any specific Q’sfeel free to shoot me a PM

I live in Nebraska and work for Pella Windows, so take this for what it’s worth.

Casements, double or single-hungs, whatever you decide, I would go with a wood product over a vinyl; especially in the temps you live in.

They are cheaper and no maintenance, but a good wood window, installed properly, with minimum maintenance, will far out-perform any vinyl window you can find.

I couldn’t agree more.

x2 on heated basement floor. We have it with LVT. I sleep and spend all day in the basement when I’m home. The dogs and I aren’t allowed on the hardwood floors upstairs. And the Hallmark channel is usually on tv. We have 3 zone heat. The upstairs runs way less with a warm basement. Barefoot most of the time. Mine is actually forced air around the exposed and end walls. The interior walls are 2×4 insulated, with a couple inch air space off the foundation.
On windows. I’m in my 2nd house with rotted Anderson vinyl clad wood windows. Pella has put windows in half a dozen houses in my neighbor hood this summer. Don’t know if they have good windows. Or a good salesman.
You will like 9′ ceiling in the basement. I talked a buddy into it. He has thanked me since. For pool table, ping pong, ceiling fans and an extra shelf in the storage room. Not sure if I built, I would think about 10′.

stevenoak wrote:

x2 on heated basement floor. We have it with LVT. I sleep and spend all day in the basement when I’m home. The dogs and I aren’t allowed on the hardwood floors upstairs. And the Hallmark channel is usually on tv. We have 3 zone heat. The upstairs runs way less with a warm basement. Barefoot most of the time. Mine is actually forced air around the exposed and end walls. The interior walls are 2×4 insulated, with a couple inch air space off the foundation.
On windows. I’m in my 2nd house with rotted Anderson vinyl clad wood windows. Pella has put windows in half a dozen houses in my neighbor hood this summer. Don’t know if they have good windows. Or a good salesman.
You will like 9′ ceiling in the basement. I talked a buddy into it. He has thanked me since. For pool table, ping pong, ceiling fans and an extra shelf in the storage room. Not sure if I built, I would think about 10′.

We’ve decided against 10′ ceilings and opted for 9′ up and down stairs with some 10′ trays upstairs. With 10′ ceilings, the trusses and overall exterior look of the house would change. We also didn’t want to go with the 8′ interior doors needed for 10′ ceilings. I’ve been in one house that had full 10′ ceilings without the taller doors all around…and it looked strange and awkward. With the taller doors it looks great, but shelling out substantially more for every interior door isn’t where I want to throw money.

Heated basement floors are a great idea. They’re estimated to run us ~30k for a 2 zone system. It’s definitely up for consideration. We’re waiting on one final plan tweak and the last few bids to get an idea if they’re a go or not.

10′ basement ceiling is a luxury. And it takes the right spot. Like a exposed basement on a hill side. My zone system was an after thought of the prior homeowner. Just duct diverters and 3 separate thermostats. Sure it’s not as good as separate units and duct routing. But it works well, keeps from turning the basement to a freezer when the airs on. My guess it was less than $2000. with some of that hard wiring the thermostats in finished walls.

We moved from a older home to a much newer house(95) not sure what code is but we sure appreciate all the outlets at our new joint. Good luck

buckybadger wrote:

We’re getting to the point of no return on a new build. We’ve got one of the area’s most reputable contractors on-board.

From a guy in the middle of a garage/home office build, here’s the best advice I can give you, Bucky.

DELAY!

Do NOT start the project.

Everything about the building market is effed up right now. It is a NIGHTMARE. And it will remain so for at least a year.

Materials and products are an absolute clustermuck. Prices are high, quality is GAWDAWFUL, and delivery times are like random access. Something you should be able to get tomorrow will be out of stock and put the whole project on hold by weeks or months.

The worst thing is suppliers don’t give a SH#T about quality or customer service. They are raking in the cash and they don’t give two craps customer satisfaction, the attitude now is that you’re lucky you got any products from us at all, so be grateful.

And then when you get what you’ve been waiting for, it’ll be busted or have flaws or bad quality.

A few examples from just my little 3 car garage with office above project:

– Bathroom vanity with integrated sink: After waiting 6 weeks for delayed delivery there was a flaw in casting for sink makes it pour water out a seam. Replacement sink took 2 weeks. Now sitting waiting for installation which the supplier will not pay for, so $800 sink under full warranty has now cost me $1200 with the 2X installation fee.

– Windows. From a major manufacturer. Custom order originally quoted to be delivered in 3 weeks. Right before the quoted delivery date we got the dreaded email. Delay. Took 9 weeks after being quoted 3.

Then we got the windows and they are damaged! Metal straps used to secure them to the pallet have bit into the window frames warping them and damaging the vinyl. All 3 custom windows are junk. We are now trying to get expedited replacements and being told 9-12 MORE weeks. Awesome customer service. I’m so glad I bought made in America.

– Garage door – Currently a 6-12 week wait for any garage door. Normally you can get any custom door you want in 2-3 weeks. Here’s hoping it gets here before winter because I ordered it in June.

– Building inspections – currently running 7 days to 4 weeks behind schedule. And don’t think that rural MN is better. With the rushing of COVID refugees into the rural parts of the state, some places where you would never expect it are having huge backlogs because there aren’t the number of inspectors out there.

– Prices for anything you can think of is now 2-10X what it was a year ago. Need a roll off dumpster? It’s 4X the cost that it was in 2020. Just one example.

The contractors have been battling a constant stream of issues with random things that normally are off-the-shelf products and are suddenly completely MIA. Just random weird stuff like suddenly 2 gang electrical boxes became impossible to get for a week. Nobody had ANY. What the —-.

Lumber prices will spike again next spring as everyone who was frozen out of the market this year due to the huge price spikes will rush into the market to try to get delayed 2021 projects done in 2022.

According to my contractor and the subs I’ve talked to, labor is a nightmare. The electrician I used says a big commercial company is serial stalking him trying to get him to join. They offered him $50k in cash as a bonus if he agrees to stay for at least 2 years.

That’s just my experience from a little garage project. I can’t imagine what’s in store for a guy building a whole house.

So basically if at all possible delay. And don’t put yourself in a position where you have to have the build done by a certain date. Whatever you do, do NOT sell your house with a plan that the new build will certainly be done by whatever date seems reasonable at the time. Whatever delay CAN go wrong and bite you in the @ss, will go wrong in spades.

Sorry for your problems/issues FG. Hope it gets better for you.

Well I’ll tell you my story.
Bought 2.5 acres in the country last summer. We live in small town WI. Well once the word got out about our purchase people started calling about our house. Debated about selling before or after the election. Every real estate agent, my cpa, F Planner, etc. no one could give solid advice because of politics and/or covid. Long story short we accepted an offer in October with closing on April 30, 2021.
Now I could not get my 1st choice in contractor because he is small outfit and was booked through 2022.
I got 4 bids on my house plan. There was a difference of $145k from the low to high!! None could start in the fall.

Well we dug the basement 05/07/21 and just finished drywall and hope to be in 10/01/21. Have had very little issues with delays or quality of materials. We did get a lumber price bump of 7k but that is the only price increase unless we upgraded some items. I know we will be over on some of our allowances on different items but that is an upgrade that the FW and I picked out. This is not a high end house. It does have everything we need on 1 floor now.

By selling last fall we got several thousand more for our house and by having to start at the worse possible time the extra money covers the extra costs rrom this spring lumber crisis.

Long story 6 weeks after starting the FW said she would never do it again. To much stress for 2 retired people!!! I did get to say “I told you so”.

That sounds terrible Grouse. I wouldn’t wish that nightmare on anyone.

I will say that this contractor has endured and kept rolling through everything. He’s extremely confident in what he does and how he does it with decades of solid results to back him up.

Working on the side with the lumberyard and some of the local contractors has given me a pretty good idea of what is easy or difficult to get. Prices are at roughly $550 per 1000 board feet of lumber. I believe last week I could buy a unit of 8′ studs for $3.56 a piece. Lumber itself is not going to break the bank on our build nor do I think we’re ever seeing $2 studs again. Costs right now are highest in steel products, with long wait times for windows, appliances, and furniture most notably. My biggest worry without a doubt is with subcontractors labor and backlog of work… most notably concrete in our area.

So far the biggest frustrations have come at the hands of the small township and county here. I’ve met people at their private residences to get signatures to keep things moving, and even that isn’t always enough.

One small thing my builder talked me into that didn’t cost much. We insulated some interior walls. The laundry, and media room. Laundry was off the dinning room. I could have bib overalls in the drier. And not hear it from the dinner table. Will add all the interior doors were solid core. Let me have the surround sound up one click. Before fw said turn it down, it’s too loud. Just make sure you have all your wiring you want in the walls.

buckybadger wrote:

I will say that this contractor has endured and kept rolling through everything. He’s extremely confident in what he does and how he does it with decades of solid results to back him up.

To be clear, I’m not having a contractor issue. The contractor and subs have all been terrific.

The issues are 100% down to materials, which no contractor can work over, around, or through right now. You just can’t GET stuff and the stuff you get is bad quality and beat to hell when you do get it.

Quality control is almost nonexistent even from alleged “quality” brands. Customer service is zero. Wait times for any customer orders are 2-10X longer than normal. Delivery quotes mean nothing, it is commonplace to get a delivery date and then have it delayed right before your product was supposed to arrive. Shipping costs have skyrocketed.

As a side project, Mrs. Grouse was looking at new countertops and appliances for the kitchen. Get this:

Wait times for appliances that have to be ordered are currently 12 to 14 MONTHS out on several brands was what she was told by the dealer. That is correct. MONTHS, not weeks. They said this is a reliable estimate, the delivery dates given at order are basically fake because of production overload so after waiting for months you will get a delay notice extending delivery time.

I ordered a garage door for the new build back in June, the delivery date is September 9. Now I see delivery times have increased to about 3 months on the same door if ordered today.

The good news for me is this is a detached garage, not my house or living space. Just saying now is going to be a very, very difficult time to go forward and try to complete a project in any reasonable time scale.

With the last string of 90s. And my favorite fishing spots about dried up. Or the waters so warm fish may not survive catch and release. I decided to knock out the last few projects around the house. 22 can lights in the basement, to replace fluorescent and other fixtures with LED. Pretty smooth, although 14/2 was $55 for 50′. 250′ was $120 and 1000′ roll was $517. Not sure why 1000′ cost $37 more than 4-250′ rolls. Must be a convenience thing. Boxed up a bunch of stuff to donate and a swap meet next month. Looked at the 32″ shower door. Decided it looked easier to replace than clean 30 years of hard water scale. Menards and Lowes nothing in stock, and said almost everything came up. Unavailable to order. Guess I’ll get out the CLR, and see what next year brings. Hoping my garage builder shows up soon. 2x4s that were $12.50 2 months ago, are $5.25. OSB has dropped to $25 from $50 or $60. Saw some decent 2x4x8 today for $3.94 About to pre buy the lumber. Before the next tornado, windstorm, hail storm or world wide disaster.

Musky Ed wrote:

I know my response was to the garage only, but I have to add another, if budget allows, you did ask, in floor heat for the lower level is golden. No more cold floors, we use our lower level daily, play pool, watch TV, reloading room, and a great entertainment area for company. We keep the thermostat set at 68, and if we have company staying over, turn it up to 70. Walk around barefoot even in the winter. Also a must have for new construction, infloor heat in your master bath, it’s simple and cheap to install and run. They just put an electric mat in the mortar under the tile. Probably about $350 to install for an average sized bath. Your wife will love you for it.

X3

Heated floors in the basement is one of the best features of our house. Will also take a lot of stress off your furnace not having to run nearly as often

Pella clad windows are not a bad window at all. What used to be 3 week lead is 3 month as of 2 weeks ago. I’ve installed several of them for a complete unit replacement for customers. I am replacing my own as well with them.