Custom home builder? (Huntsville, Jackson: home builders, crawl space, construction)

[MadHaus]

Are there any custom home builders in the HSV area who've built homes featuring universal design (specifically wheelchair accessible entries, 36" wide interior doors, turnaround space in bathrooms, curbless showers, etc.)? Do any focus on indoor air quality, with whole house dehumidifiers and purifiers on high SEER 2-stage A/C systems combined with an ERV and radiant floor heat? Use closed cell spray foam insulation? Build on closed crawl spaces (foam insulated) with insulated SmartVents? Install radon ventilation fan(s)? Use Pex plumbing systems? Use Ice & Water Shield (or similar membrane) under the roof shingles or metal roof? I could go on, but you get the idea.
Any recommendations?

[Mawoods]

Don't know about all of those but Barry Phillips has built a house next to us with closed cell insulation , even in the closed crawl space. We have the closed cell insulation in our attic only. I would think that most forward thinking builders could do what you are asking. Perhaps not the mass builders but certainly some of the custom ones. With the market as it is right now I think a custom builder could do most of what you want more reasonably than ever.

[MadHaus]

Thank you, Mawoods. I looked at Barry Phillips' website and was impressed that he mentions Icynene insulation in one house's description. It's unusual, in my experience, for builders to highlight the functional stuff as well as the finishing details. That's encouraging.

Any others?

[LCTMadison]

I would imagine that you could approach any custom builder with what you desire in a home. Some of the good custom builders (just a short list from my personal experience) is

Tom Rigby (builds spec but will build to suit whatever you want)
Barry Phillips
Paul Jackson (I REALLY like him and have had two wonderful builds with him)
Ben Hovey (personal fav...I love his style, excellent quality)
Rickey Clark

Again, some of these builders do build spec homes (which are not going to have the features that you quoted ) but will build to suit whatever and however you want. All are very good quality builders and are very good to work with.

[FlyersFan]

Originally Posted by MadHaus

Are there any custom home builders in the HSV area who've built homes featuring universal design (specifically wheelchair accessible entries, 36" wide interior doors, turnaround space in bathrooms, curbless showers, etc.)? Do any focus on indoor air quality, with whole house dehumidifiers and purifiers on high SEER 2-stage A/C systems combined with an ERV and radiant floor heat? Use closed cell spray foam insulation? Build on closed crawl spaces (foam insulated) with insulated SmartVents? Install radon ventilation fan(s)? Use Pex plumbing systems? Use Ice & Water Shield (or similar membrane) under the roof shingles or metal roof? I could go on, but you get the idea.
Any recommendations?

Builders can do all you ask except install radon fans. While they are allowed to install "passive ductwork" its illegal for them to "activate" a system with an inline fan......only state licensed mitigators can do that.

[MadHaus]

I didn't know that a lic'd. radon mitigator had to be involved in an active system; thank you for that information.

As for the builders, I do appreciate the list. I wish they all had websites (I've only found websites for Barry Phillips and Paul Jackson; please let me know if there are more.) When we get closer to the time, I guess I'll need to call around to see which, if any, of these other builders actually have experience with some of the features I mentioned earlier.

One would think that a good custom builder could provide what we're looking for, but my previous experience hasn't been great. The last time we tried to do something similar, I spent far more time on site than the builder and had to attempt to teach several of his subs about the systems or products we wanted to use. Of all of the trades, the only one who wanted to learn something new was the electrician. He'd never seen plugmold installed beneath kitchen cabinets, and while he found it a pain in the neck (literally) to install he thought it was a great idea and decided to use it in his own new home. The same guy had never seen triple and quad decora switches (3 & 4 decora style switches in a single size plate) and he loved them, as did the builder's decorator. Mostly, though, we encountered a great deal of resistance to anything new or different. One sub even deliberately installed the wrong hvac system and tried to bluster his way out of trouble when he was caught. The builder had no clue, because he'd never worked with a two-stage system like we had spec'd in our contract. We were promised the moon and what was delivered fell far short.

The builder we bought our current home from had built mainly custom houses and a few high end specs, typically 5,000 - 11,000+ sq. He professed to be a former engineer and knew all the right things to say. The HI found no problems, and having used him before we were confident that he knew his stuff. Unfortunately, there were many problems and we've spent more on repairs than our first two houses cost. We've learned that just because a builder has a good reputation and builds $1MM - $2MM+ houses that doesn't mean things have been done well (or even to code.)

We'd like for this next house to be our last, and will spend at least a year researching our options before we begin building in or near Huntsville. Thanks for your help.

[cornutt]

I can give you a name to avoid if you send me a PM.

[Marc45002]

Any feedback on Castle Construction?

thanks,

marc