A Custom Home: The American Dream
A custom home is the dream of every American - to own a home of your own, designed and built with your needs in mind. Today's green, high performance custom homes, unlike mass produced homes,has much to offer the family who are lucky enough to own one. The technology advances available for today's custom homeowner is nothing short of phenomenal, and the benefits to the homeowner are incredible.
Green, sustainable homes of today and the future subscribe to a set of whole-house design principles that make them more comfortable, healthier, safer, and with a smaller carbon foot print, not to mention they are available for preferential mortgage rates in most markets if they conform to the requirements of the lender. Couple this with lower utility bills, the personal satisfaction that it is the "right thing to do," and because of their greater durability and increased efficiency, they have a higher resale value.
With a whole-house view, let's look at all this science and technology blends to create the home of the future . . . today.
The unseen mechanics that make today's custom home are unlike those of even 10 short years ago. The traditional central heating and air conditioning systems of the past created heat or cooled the air. Today's technology, such as geothermal heat pumps transfer heat from a thermal mass in the winter, and transfer cooling from the same thermal mass in the summer.
Window glass technology has advanced by magnitudes. The original glass for windows and doors was manufactured by simply pouring molten glass over a flat surface within a form, allowed to cool, and trimmed to size. The thickness varied and it took on the visible characteristics of the surface upon which it was poured. Today's glass is a far different product. It comes in varying thicknesses, sometimes as two panes with an inert gas between them for insulation, and today's glass can even be produced with a coating to make it easier to clean.
A high performance home can be sealed against heat loss or air intrusion with a sheet of synthetic material made from flash spun, high-density, polyethylene fibers. The seal can be accurately tested, leaks isolated and easily repaired. Homeowners today can choose from many different insulation materials from spun fiberglass to bio-based spay foams with fantastic comfort properties.
Decks are frequently constructed from a manufactured material made from recycled plastic bags, bottles, and scrap aluminum shavings that will outlast the wood of traditional decks, and it doesn’t stop there. The use of micro laminates allows room sizes to increase without the use of steal structural members and at a fraction of the weight, and weight equals cost. Roofing materials are phenomenal and image concrete that weights a fraction of that in traditional use, but with tensile strengths that rival steal.
A green, custom built, high performance home is simply more comfortable, safer, cheaper to operate, and more environmentally sound than one constructed with traditional materials and technologies.
At Palatella Saros, we turn your dreams into the reality of a custom built, high performance home.
