Concrete insulates better than other materials, significantly lowering energy costs. Concrete walls and floors reduce noise inside and out. Homeowners also enjoy not having to deal with rot or termites, and how concrete significantly reduces allergens.
Why concrete homes?
The benefits of poured-in-place, reinforced concrete — from less maintenance to lower energy bills — make this method a popular choice for new home construction. If you’re a contractor who’s thinking about getting into building concrete homes, the following is just a sample of the many benefits that you can share with your customers.Concrete insulates better than other materials, significantly lowering energy costs. Thick concrete walls and floors reduce noise inside and outside the home, while eliminating creaks and squeaks between floors. Homeowners also enjoy not having to deal with rot or termites, and how concrete significantly reduces allergens.
Concrete homes are built to withstand wind, fire and impact, and because of this, homeowners will enjoy lower insurance costs. And, concrete homes are environmentally sound, with a long lifespan and little need for lumber.
The concrete Chateau
One of the newest concrete residences on the North Carolina scene is “The Chateau,” an English manor-style home built by Jon Rufty, president of Rufty Homes Inc. and designed by Davenport Architecture, both located in Cary, N.C.
Rufty has completed five concrete residences to date, the most recent of which is the Chateau, a three-story, 6,780-square-foot, French Country home located on 4.9 acres in Durham, N.C.
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The Chateau is located in the Hills of Rosemont subdivision, which features custom lots ranging from four to 14 acres. It was built without a buyer in line, which may seem unusual for a $2.25 million dollar home, but for Rufty, building luxury spec homes is all in a day’s work. “The reason we continue to build spec concrete homes is we truly believe that cast-in-place concrete homes create a superior quality home,” he says.
Visitors cross the four-car, concrete cobblestone motor court before entering through an oversized wooden doorway and gazing down at beautiful acid-stained concrete floors. The five-bedroom home includes extras such as a recreation room, an exercise room, an automated lighting system, a media room and a four-car garage. Rufty also installed a large pool, complete with hot tub, waterfall and two fountains, and a man-made pond with a large concrete fountain in its center.
“The home is essentially a sleek reinforced concrete cube,” Rufty says. “Concrete homes make it so that you can’t hear the footsteps on the floor above you and the china doesn’t rattle when you walk by.”
A virtually soundproof environment is just one of the bonuses associated with concrete construction, but Rufty hopes to educate the public on the vast number of benefits. Fire resistance, reduced energy consumption, healthier environment, increased durability and lower maintenance are some of the main advantages.
Part of Rufty’s success has come from working with an experienced concrete contractor. Curt Fields and his team at Tri-City Contractors are no strangers to concrete home construction and Fields says that the Chateau is his favorite home of all of his past projects.
“It is the most dynamic house I have participated in the construction of in the last 30 years,” he says.
