Having a home built, much like any other purchase requires that you compare one builder to another as well as one product used in building the home to another.
If you have never built before, we understand how daunting this must be. So, instead of going into a mountain of details, it might be helpful to simply know some highlights of how a True Built Home differs from a manufactured or mobile home and from other on your lot home builders. If those differences are interesting enough, and you prefer our floor plans to others then we hope this assists you in making your decision on ordering a True Built Home.
Let’s start with the outside and work to the inside of the home:
- We use a 30-year composite roofing from one of the three major manufactures in our state. We have three suppliers to choose from simply because of our branch locations. We can upgrade to a metal roof as well.
- We use #2 Hem-Fir lumber, never utility-grade (click here for definition), and can upgrade to Doug Fir. We use a 92 5/8 stud which gives you a true 8ft ceiling. We can upgrade to a 9ft ceiling if you prefer.
- We offer cement lap siding standard on our homes, while other builders offer it as an upgrade. Some use vinyl siding as standard or Louisianan Pacific T-1-11 and you upgrade from there. We feel that Cemplank, concrete, cedar grooved offers the best of both durability, fire resistance, ease of care.
- We wrap our vinyl lifetime guarantee windows with white wood, mostly for decorative purposes and offer as an upgrade, additional window treatments for more ascetic purposes. Also, we do not charge extra for screens.
- Our foundations are never an area where we cut corners as some builders have. Our footings and foundation have two continuous #4 horizontal bars.
- Our homes east of the mountains get enclosed soffits, and gutters as an upgrade, and our homes west of the mountain get gutters while the enclosed soffits are an upgrade.
- We use fiberglass, not metal, front doors to avoid dings and rust. We have three upgrades to our front door and can have them painted or stained.
Moving inside.
- Our homes always come with more utilized spaces for storage using the leading wire shelving from Schultz. Their shelving has 30% more metal than their competitors and comes with Freedomrail®.
- Our cabinets are birch in four stains. Our master bathroom and kitchen cabinets come with 36”, never the 32” vanities. Some builders install shorter cabinets to save on cost.
- We offer three light packages, satin, bronze, oil rubbed, all standard. You have the option of can lights instead of in certain areas if you prefer. Our kitchens and covered porches come with standard can lights. Each plan may vary as to quantity.
- Countertops are High Definition laminate with lots of patterns and colors to choose from. You can upgrade to slab granite, quartz or tile.
- Our flooring is carpet in living areas and vinyl in wet areas of home (bathrooms, kitchen, laundry/utility room). Our carpets are the best among our competitors hands down with an 8lb pad, and a 7 year tread retention warranty. We do offer carpet upgrades for a modest amount. We feel strongly that if it involves moving or touching you just give it attention and quality. Carpets are one of those areas.
- Faucets: we never use plastic faucets. Faucets are perhaps pound for pound the most expensive items in a home and some builders elect simply to go cheap. Nothing is worse than a brand new home with leaking faucets. We offer Chrome faucets in our standard package; there are also upgrades to oil-rubbed bronze.
- We found that the photo-finish trim simply was not doing justice to the home itself. Plastic is a wonderful material, just not for trim doors siding and the vast majority of our clients concur. So, we’ve teamed up with our trim and door company to provide, as a standard feature, solid real wood trim (hemlock) stained to match the cabinets. Other builders still offer photo finish finger jointed (plastic coating) trim as a way of trimming their costs. In addition, our standard door package are a painted 2,3,4,5,6 panel configuration with 5 Sherwin Williams colors to choose from.
- Lastly, our garages come with standard garage door opener, are wired for more than 1 plug, and a man door.
When asked “why are our homes a bit more money”, we point out that what you are getting for that money makes a True Built Home dollar for dollar the BEST value among home builders in Washington and Oregon. We want to distinguish ourselves from other on your lot builders and we feel that the best distinction of our company is not only our plans/designs, but also our interior and exterior standard features. These set us apart and above other on your lot builders in the Pacific Northwest. And if you are considering replacing a mobile or manufactured home on your site, we invite you to come visit us and see the difference. You will notice it immediately why True Built Home is a great way to a great home!
