Project Update: Rural New Home Construction in Orange County

Over the past few months, we’ve enjoyed working with a new client on a new home build in Orange County. New construction is a much different animal compared to home renovations. We’ve completed a few new home construction projects over the years, and this one, like all projects of this magnitude, came with several challenges.

New Construction in Rural Area Comes With Unique Challenges

Many may assume that building in rural areas may be simpler regarding zoning and local municipalities. With this new build, we found this not to be the case. For this project, we were working on a project where family land was involved. This family land just happened to be in the protected Eno River watershed, which created many challenges.

Because a local watershed protected the property, only a certain percentage of the lot could be built on, which needed to include any impervious surfaces (house, deck, paved, or gravel driveway). This forced us to be very creative, using a unique geotextile fabric and a particular type of stone that was not considered to be impervious. In the end, we were able to meet the client’s needs in terms of the size of the house and all of the necessary restrictions based on the location.

Below are interior and exterior views of our plans for this project. Feel free to click on each image for an expanded view.

As Construction Costs Rose, We Worked Hard to Stay Within the Client’s Budget

Over the past few years, we’ve worked extremely hard to constrain rising construction costs as much as possible. This is especially key with new construction projects. We knew early on that our client had a set budget, so we worked to choose finishes and decrease material waste to help stay within budget.

Various Technological Advancements in the Building Process Make for Smoother Installation

 Because we designed this home from the ground up, thanks to our in-house draftsman, we were able to utilize a few different technological advancements that sped up the building process. A few of these included:

• Prefabricated Trusses – If you trust your building plans, you can have prefabricated trusses built offsite that make roofing a new structure much easier than traditional framing. Once the plans were submitted, the trusses were built and delivered within a few weeks, allowing us to install them within a very short time. This allowed us to get a roof installed much faster than if we were using a traditional framing crew.
• Engineered I-Joists – The lumber you purchase from a big box store or even a lumber yard is often not completely straight nor can they span as far. This can cause imperfections when you are installing your floor system. Because of this, we elected to use engineered i-joists for the floor framing system in this new home. As long as the joists are installed correctly, you know that you have a flat floor system without any dips or bows, which are common with other floor systems. Also, similarly to the roof trusses, the system goes in much quicker with little to no waste. 

Below are some additional pictures from the early phases of this project. Feel free to click on each image for an expanded view.

Prince & Sons Excited to Unveil the Finished Home Once Complete

 While this new home in Hillsborough is not quite complete, we’re eager to show off some finished pictures once it is done. This project has been unique, and we think it is an excellent example of how you can build a new home in today’s construction climate while still sticking to a budget. If you’re interested in new construction, don’t hesitate to contact the Prince & Sons team today by phone at 919-383-0888.