Building Timelines (Denver, Highlands Ranch: apartments, foreclosures, hotels)

[Murmur]

Hey all,
I may be moving with my wife to the Denver area in the not-too-distant future. Looking around this forum has been helpful, and am glad I found it. Anyway, off to the question stated above:

I currently live in an unmentioned city in the south that has definite "timelines" of buildings. Specifically, the more recent buildings, while they look nice, will likely be needing major work in 5 to 10 years. Friends of ours bought a new house (as in, original owners) and had within 3 years roofing, AC, drywall, and other problems. This isn't uncommon in the area. We've been advised that buildings from the 1950s and 1960s are well built if not "pretty" and the quality goes down as you get to more recent houses.

Is that the situation in Denver as well? We've also noticed in our current city that townhouses, while aesthetically pleasing, are built like apartments here: bad walls between units allow you to know when neighbors are in the shower, using their washer, or watching the game with friends. Therefore we may be not considering townhomes because of our experiences here.

So a lot of words for a basic question: Are there specific time periods to avoid, and are there ones that are known for higher-quality construction? Thanks!

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Murmur

So a lot of words for a basic question: Are there specific time periods to avoid, and are there ones that are known for higher-quality construction? Thanks!

Pretty interesting post. I'm sure I'll learn something from others.

My ten second thought on this is buildings (homes) built in a boom might have been rushed or maybe "any available labor" was used. Maybe a Quality Engineer would have some correlation between housing start rate (building permit issue rate?) and defects.

[Murmur]

Originally Posted by Charles

Pretty interesting post. I'm sure I'll learn something from others.

My ten second thought on this is buildings (homes) built in a boom might have been rushed or maybe "any available labor" was used. Maybe a Quality Engineer would have some correlation between housing start rate (building permit issue rate?) and defects.

Interesting you would say that. That's exactly what happened here. And we got that advice (to look at 1950s and 1960s homes) from a semi-retired building inspector.

With that in mind, when has Denver experienced its booms?

[steveco.]

I'd say the booms occured in the 90s, early 80s late 70s and after that Im not quite sure but you do see many neighborhoods that have large stock of 50s and 60s style homes.

[bhcompy]

Well, DR Horton seems to have a lot of communities in the Denver area and they are a lower end builder. But Mission Viejo, who did Highlands Ranch, is a highend company. Just find out who built the home you're looking for if its relatively recent and hop on google.

[steveco.]

Mission Viejo built some of highlands ranch but sold to shea homes in the late 90's so it depends on where in highlands ranch you are looking.

[Murmur]

so what I seem to be hearding here then is that the builder is more important than the timeframe?

Can you all comment about the area surrounding the UC-Denver Anschutz Medical Campus? Ideally an area that one could walk from home to this area, or ride a bike? (note, we're fairly fit - 5 miles shouldn't be a problem).

We'd likely therefore look at the Denver proper area. we'd like to walk to things like restaurants and corner stores if that's around in that area. If not, well...I guess we wouldn't.

[denverian]

The oldest houses here in Stapleton are over 5 years old. I know people who live in the oldest homes and so far, no problems. They look the same as the new homes, just with bigger trees.

I think a big issue is siding. I see in other cities where they use really cheap looking siding that doesn't hold paint, warps, cracks, etc. My house (3 years old) is brick and Hardy board siding (very common in Denver), which is some sort of cement product made to look like wood. Anyway, it's very good and holds up well, as does the brick.

The house I grew up in was built in the mid '60s and I don't see how it was built any better than my 3 year old house. Once thing I noticed about KB Homes is that they frame their houses with 2x4s whereas my builder and most others frame them with 2x6s. I don't know if that makes a big difference or not. I suppose my walls hold more insulation.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by denverian

The oldest houses here in Stapleton are over 5 years old. I know people who live in the oldest homes and so far, no problems. They look the same as the new homes, just with bigger trees.

I think a big issue is siding. I see in other cities where they use really cheap looking siding that doesn't hold paint, warps, cracks, etc. My house (3 years old) is brick and Hardy board siding (very common in Denver), which is some sort of cement product made to look like wood. Anyway, it's very good and holds up well, as does the brick.

The house I grew up in was built in the mid '60s and I don't see how it was built any better than my 3 year old house. Once thing I noticed about KB Homes is that they frame their houses with 2x4s whereas my builder and most others frame them with 2x6s. I don't know if that makes a big difference or not. I suppose my walls hold more insulation.

you will find that Most builders will use 2X6 exterior studs spaced at 16" centers here in Colorado, this is to meet the insulation values that building departments like to see (r-19 in frame walls) all interior walls are going to be built using 2X4 with the stud spacing being the same.

The builder is defiantly going to play a roll in the quality of the home. KB is one with a very spotted history (do a goggle search on them) And I would avoid them. Town homes are another story all together. They can have wood demising walls (wall between units) they are held to fire standards though, and most likely will have two separate walls with an air gap and two sheets of fire resistant gypsum board between. Some of the higher end town homes will use a CMU (concrete block) wall between units that will defiantly deaden the sound between units. The floor boxes in town homes help to carry noise between units, and there really is no way around that part.

Do your shopping carefully, homes built in the 1800's - present have specific situations you will not find in new homes. they may require more maintenance due to the age of the home, the foundations may not be completely designed for the soils here and some may have problems (a good inspector can find foundation problems) Newer homes are defiantly designed to the code that the city has at the time of construction which now should be the 2006 IRC or 2003 UBC. Colorado has some unique soils conditions which require special types of foundations (look for the expansive soils topic) So any age really has its good points and bad points. I would search for something you like, and then have a good inspector, or if you feel like you need, a structural engineer to check it out.

[USAEconomy]

Hey Murmur,

Welcome to UCDAMC! The area surrounding this campus is undergoing a lot of change and is a great investment in my opinion. I'd love to hear other people's opinions on that score though. There are a LOT of foreclosures so you can buy a 3br 2bath brick home in walking distance of campus for $70,000 right now. Also, the Colfax strip from Peoria to I-225 is undergoing hundreds of millions of dollars in new construction, some of which is slated to open this fall. If you are interested in getting your money back when you sell (with the potential for profit) I would highly recommend looking into brick houses in Jewell Heights/Hoffman Heights neighborhood, or Morris Heights, north of campus. If you're more interested in new, higher-end construction and a "white picket fence" feel, I would recommend Stapleton, which is farther away (biking, not walking distance).

I put together a map of the new private construction going on around campus--retail, restaurants, high-end apartments, office, hotels, conference centers, non-profits, a bar, an ice skating rink, etc...
//www.city-data.com/forum/attac...sing-sheet.jpg

Goodluck & let us know what you're looking for or avoiding and we can be more specific.