[bebesmom]

I'm considering a new home community in Las Vegas. Do the builders all follow the traditional stick built model or are some homes made of concrete block? In general I'm wondering how the insulation may have improved since the older 1980s-1990s homes.Thanks!

[RationalExpectations]

Essentially all are stick built. Custom homes, of course, can be whatever you like. Wood-frame houses are preferred here because Las Vegas is seismically active.

Insulation is quite good. My mom's small retirement house in a 55+ community, built by Pulte, uses ground cellulose insulation and it is very energy efficient. The windows are surprisingly efficient as well.

[Code Stemi]

Originally Posted by RationalExpectations

Essentially all are stick built. Custom homes, of course, can be whatever you like. Wood-frame houses are preferred here because Las Vegas is seismically active.

Do you happen to know anything about the building codes here in relation to seismic risk, by chance?

[Dom Cobb]

Originally Posted by bebesmom

I'm considering a new home community in Las Vegas. Do the builders all follow the traditional stick built model or are some homes made of concrete block? In general I'm wondering how the insulation may have improved since the older 1980s-1990s homes.Thanks!

You can spend 300k or 1 million - all of the major developers, with the exception of toll brothers is garbage construction. Use the cheapest materials and labor that is pulled from Home Depot.

These are not homes made to last longer than 15 years.

Once you accept it and come to terms with it, you’ll be fine.

[longviewJoe]

Originally Posted by Dom Cobb

You can spend 300k or 1 million - all of the major developers, with the exception of toll brothers is garbage construction. Use the cheapest materials and labor that is pulled from Home Depot.

These are not homes made to last longer than 15 years.

Once you accept it and come to terms with it, you’ll be fine.

What do you mean by not made to last longer than 15 years? I have looked at plenty of homes in LV more than 15 years old and they need updating but are structurally fine.

[Dom Cobb]

Originally Posted by longviewJoe

What do you mean by not made to last longer than 15 years? I have looked at plenty of homes in LV more than 15 years old and they need updating but are structurally fine.

If you look at these houses being thrown up, including my own. It’s done with pre framed walls and eaves that come from a truck and assembled, which is not going to be level and looking at the wood, it falls below utility wood grade for starters.

They barely put any insulation in the walls and the house is wrapped with chicken wire before being sprayed with stucco.

Interior walls are not straight, they slap on the orange peel to hide the defects in the sheet rock and waves in the wall.

The grout is Sanded when they could use a hybrid for a little more money. Tile is the cheapest quality. The doors are hollow on the inside, unless you pay more. The windows are cheap vinyl, the concrete slap they pour for the patio has super large control joints you can drive a truck through.... I can go on.

I looked at a 300k house and 1 million dollar house here, all with roughly the same construction quality. Blue heron makes nice houses, and to a certain extent toll brothers - but you get what you pay for.

[chetchy]

Dom- You obviously have never owned a Toll Bros. home.

[movin1]

My home was built by Lennar in 2017. It seems pretty well built to me and I've had several custom homes built. It must be well insulated, my power bills are very low. I'll be very surprised (and disappointed) if it only lasts 15 years.

I could have had a 2,000 sq ft house built by Blue Heron for $600K many years ago, I met with them and asked. Wish I had done it, but it seemed like too much money for too few sq ft at the time.

[Dom Cobb]

Originally Posted by chetchy

Dom- You obviously have never owned a Toll Bros. home.

Nope, but I’ve known people who had a house from them back east. If they are not good out here as well then cross them off too.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by bebesmom

I'm considering a new home community in Las Vegas. Do the builders all follow the traditional stick built model or are some homes made of concrete block? In general I'm wondering how the insulation may have improved since the older 1980s-1990s homes.Thanks!

If you're looking for concrete block houses, you'll probably find some in the Historical Huntridge district or in the older areas of North Las Vegas.

This is not Mexico (earthquake prone) where everything is built out of concrete as CEMEX wouldn't allow anything else, just like here, the lumber companies won't have it any other way than stick-built homes. If they had their way, we'd even have wooden sidewalks.