Barden Building Products Blog Archive

If you’re on the fence about building with Barden and our network of Independent Dealers, or opting to build the traditional (stick built) way, then this guide is for you.

We’ve put together some of the considerations that Barden home owners express as being the more “hidden” or not immediately apparent aspects of opting for panelized construction.

Whether you’re building the home of your dreams for your family or building a downsized home to spend the rest of your life in, the house you’re creating will serve as a perfect, unique space for your interests, tastes, and lifestyles.

So, why trust anyone but you to design it?

After all, no one can envision how you’ll live in your home and design features to suit your needs better than you. There are so many subtleties in home design that you hold close to your heart, why risk these being lost in translation?

Luckily, with the help of a team of building experts and your Independent Dealer, you can feel equipped and empowered to be hands-on with designing your own home. 

We’ve spoken to many homeowners who are grateful they were heavily involved in designing their own home, and acting as their own architect and voice throughout the process. In this article, we’re going to explore some of the reasons why they cherished the experience, and made the choice to do so.

Panel building, or panelized home construction, can seem like a complicated method to those who are unfamiliar with it. 

But the truth is, when compared to modular or stick building, there are many aspects of the process where panelized construction simplifies the process for the homeowner.

If this article is the first place you’re hearing about panel building, it might be helpful to visit some of our past blogs where we explain the concept in detail:

• Behind the Scenes of Panelized Construction
• 5 Reasons Why Panelized Home Construction Makes the Best New Builds
• The 6 Steps to Custom Home Building with Panelized Construction

If you feel comfortable with your understanding of the basis of panelized building, let’s hop into the areas where it helps to simplify necessary build processes.

When it comes to designing a custom home, it can be easy to get caught up in the fun details: picking out the floor plan you like, furnishing the inside, mastering the landscaping.

But it’s even more important to put ample time, energy, and thought into structural elements of your home, such as house sheathing options, that are not only more functional for your home -- but impossible to change later. 

Make sure not to gloss quickly over the house sheathing options that are presented to you, and think carefully about what is best for your build. We’ve outlined the key considerations here to keep in mind when selecting the ideal exterior sheathing.

Downsizing a home means something different for everyone. 

Whether you’re moving locations to better suit your empty nest, seeking a more accessible home, or looking to build a home that has dedicated spaces for hobbies and interests -- the process of downsizing marks an exciting new chapter.

We’ve put together this guide to help answer questions we hear from people building their downsized dream home and aid in making the process go smoothly.

Congratulations on deciding to build your own home! One of the first decisions to make is when to build.

Unless you live in a part of the country where homes can be built year-round, you are not alone on that question. 

Before you can narrow down the “when” question, it can be helpful to figure out how you will build your home. There are several options, which can each impact your timing question:

• Stick Build: A team of construction workers descends on your building lot, supplies are delivered, and your custom home is assembled from the ground up. With a stick build, you have to be concerned about weather factors, labor availability factors, and possible cost overruns. 
  
  
• Modular Build: In this method, entire pieces are constructed in a factory environment, and then shipped to the building lot for final assembly. This is more of an assembly line process that does not allow for as much customization as a stick built home or a panel built home.
  
  
• Panel Built: With this home construction method, wooden walls and roof trusses are assembled in a factory and then shipped to the job site in segments. Houses are totally customized, and engineered efficiently.

Most people only build a custom home once in their lives. Because of this, unfortunately some prospective homeowners are blinded by unexpected costs that they failed to budget for before building begins.

We put together this guide to help homeowners expect the unexpected, and account for every aspect of home building that might arise.

Unfortunately, it seems as though “accessible home” has become a buzzword in the home building community with many  misconceptions surrounding the true meaning of universal design and home accessibility.

To some, accessible home design simply means adding a wheelchair ramp. While this is one facet of universal, accessible design -- there is so much more to uncover. When we fail to account for other facets of accessible building when discussing the concept, we leave out many people who can benefit from universal design.

We aim to get to the heart of home accessibility, what it means, who benefits from it, and how to build it in this article.

The most common question we get from prospective new homeowners is, “This sounds great, but how do I pay for it all?”

Barden Building products has a great relationship with Prime Lending. This partnership helps us to reach our goal of being a dedicated, single point of contact for our customers during their building process.

Panel built homes are easily described as a hybrid between the traditional, “stick building” method of new home creation and modular building. This hybrid quality of panel built homes often breeds comparisons between it, and other methods of building.

Panel building combines all the customization options of stick building with the efficiency and speed of modular building -- while bringing an important new element to the table, too: quality.

It’s not uncommon for prospective new homeowners to be searching for the pros and cons of panel built homes to help them decide if it’s the right method for them, so that’s what we’ve outlined today.