Builders cutting costs

[lylej]

New home production builders are trying to keep costs down. Here are some of their techniques: 17-foot double garage vs. more convenient 20-foot, smaller central air units, fixed windows, and 24-inch on center framing vs. 16-inch.
First-time home buyers should benefit from this.

[satxproperty]

17 foot 2 car garage??? To get out of the car do you have to climb out the sunroof? No way to open the doors. A 20 foot garage is very tight with 2 cars.

[lylej]

The builders are depending on the buyer to pay for the 'upgrade' to a 20-foot garage. Base price features are now just more basic.

[Ryocheck]

I haven't seen any of these cutbacks with my builder but our market has not been affected like the rest of the US. Garages are very important to buyers here in Anchorage, especially when it snows.

[donnalong]

Garages are very important to buyers here in Anchorage, especially when it snows.
Yesterday 06:19 AM

I would think so...

Our builders are going to more basics to keep prices down and many of these really don't hurt the quality of the home but are just unnecessary frills anyway.

There are lots of innovations that will also keep prices down without hurting quality.

In Ga and Arizona we don't want to cut air conditioning sizes.... they will just run all the time and drive power bills up.

[Puyallup Agent]

Throw in one Delorean with every home sold and the 17ft garage is no longer a problem.

[Alison Moss]

What is sad is that some of these changes like the stud placement is something that you will never notice. The smaller garage of course - but it will take a hot summer day to realize you have a small AC unit.

[lylej]

Actually Allison, the increased distance between studs allows for added insulation adding to the R-value. The house won't blow away and could be more efficient.

[satxproperty]

Actually Allison, the increased distance between studs allows for added insulation adding to the R-value. The house won't blow away and could be more efficient.

Unless they are using 2x6's instead of 2x4's the void inside the wall is the same. Our city generally won't allow exterior walls at 24 inches on center without using 2x6 instead of 2x4.

We had a builder try the 24 inch stud spacing on interior walls with 2x4's. The builder went cheap on other things too, the houses aren't holding up and long hallway walls do wobble when you shut bedroom doors.

[lylej]

Builders here are starting to frame on 20-inch centers, but not 24-inch.