New construction quality in your area

[MrSquished]

There has been and is a shit ton of development in areas around me. From high-rises to building smaller density buildings, to knocking down a home and putting up 2 condos on top of each other. They do seem to do high end finishes for the most part - but then cut corners in other places. The biggest complaint I see among renters and buyers is thin walls/floors and hearing your neighbours - this comes from folks in new luxury rental skyscrapers to those in a two unit building. I mean obviously it's easier to sell something that the renter/buyer can see when they shop around vs something you can't see, like extra drywall/insulation/sound clips in between floors - that nicer countertop and fixtures and appliances are visible and wow people, but really, I think most of them would prefer more privacy instead. It just seems a lot, though not all, of the new construction is just not up to snuff in this regard. Only time will tell how long these units last before needing maintenance...

What's the new construction quality in your area?

 

[lxskllr]

Our roads are good. No idea on housing, but you usually get what you pay for. People want big, and fancy, and that comes at the cost of quality.

 

[IronWing]

Stucco piñatas here.

A journey through the wall: paint, drywall, studs (featherboard, too cheap for proper 2x4s), sytrofoam, vapor barrier, chicken wire, stucco, paint. Notice something missing?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Can't really speak for the quality here, I think it depends really. Houses here vary a lot from older well built, to super run down, to newer and nice (and expensive) but everything inside is cheap "builder grade" stuff. Apartments are the same way, some really dingy looking places, but some of the complexes look half decent. No matter what living with shared walls is going to suck though.

As for roads, it's a dog's breakfast. So many potholes and bumps etc. People actually get damaged rims or lose entire wheels in some of the potholes here, it's bad. After all these years you'd think they would come up with a better way to surface roads that can actually last through winter. It's crazy when you consider the millions that go into a road project and it barely lasts a few years.

 

[bbhaag]

Around here it just depends on who you hire to do the job. The good contractors are always going to be more expensive but at least you know it's going to be done right. With the cost of building materials going through the roof that might change as more and more builders will be looking to cut costs somewhere.

My neighbors house recently burned down and the other day when we were talking she said that the cost to rebuild was just to prohibitive. She thought she had decent insurance but with the cost of materials these days it wasn't enough. Even prefabs like Homeway and Morton quoted her $270-290K to rebuild a modest 1500 sq.ft. home that is 3 bed/2 bath.

 

[Kaido]

Lots of Zip System around here. Green buildings everywhere!

 

[SKORPI0]

New housing within the last 10 years right in front of a house where I lived from Sept' 95-Dec 2014. I used to be able to view the train crossing across the street, but since 2010 it was no longer possible.
Ninety7Fifty on the Park - 5 story rental, destroyed that view. University of Chicago Hospital and that parking garage building next to it is about 5 years. Residences of Orland Park crossing is about 3-4 years old.

5 new houses across me were recently build, cost >500K. Old ones bulldozered to the ground and 2 story larger houses built, some old trees large removed/cut down. It was frustrating to watch.
Township requirement is about 20% of your land area must be covered in grass.

Quality wize, the rental apartments, hospital and houses look solid, Never heard or seen complaints from the renters/owners. Most of the houses next to me were built in about 2-3 months IIRC.

 

[K1052]

A lot of the older homes here (Austin) went up really cheaply in the 30s and 40s and have a host of problems, especially the pier and beam foundations. Some builders back in the day used literal tree trunk pieces for the piers. There is a whole industry of foundation work that does retrofits. The market is so hot right now people are waiving inspections on these kinds of homes not knowing if there might be tens of thousands of urgently needed foundation work lurking underneath. It's not always "they don't build them like they used to" as a good thing.

Generally it's a mix. The tract home guys out in the farther suburbs are just cranking as fast as they can with um predictable likely quality. Around here smaller developers will buy an old shitbox and demo it then put to small homes on the same lot and mostly look to do a decent job (framing looks good, well insulated/wrapped, good name brand windows, proper slopes for drainage, etc). There are about 3-4 higher end small time developers who do a lot of that work and have their own crews and reputations to maintain so that probably keeps the workmanship a bit better. Downtown its high rise city with the typical steel reinforced concrete construction, just outside of that it's a lot of four and five over ones wrapping a parking deck (ye olde Texas doughnut). A lot of the latter had problems in the freeze due to inadequate insulation and especially some who decided to run filled sprinkler mains in uninsulated stairways and corridors because hey it never gets THAT cold here...

 

[jpiniero]

a lot of four and five over ones wrapping a parking deck (ye olde Texas doughnut). A lot of the latter had problems in the freeze due to inadequate insulation and especially some who decided to run filled sprinkler mains in uninsulated stairways and corridors because hey it never gets THAT cold here...

Really crappy construction quality seems to be the norm for those 4+1 and 5+1 new construction.

 

[K1052]

Really crappy construction quality seems to be the norm for those 4+1 and 5+1 new construction.

A lot of it is not great and somehow seems to be worse on average in the south where the climate is more forgiving (until it isn't).

Also the obsession with branding everything "luxury" would be nice to see end. I'm standing in a 1980s garden apartment with a moisture problem and enough coats of paint on the walls for it to be considered load bearing. It is not luxury because you put in base level stainless appliances 5 years ago.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lots of Zip System around here. Green buildings everywhere!

On the buiiiiiiild show!

Everytime I hear Zip system I think of that youtube channel lol. It's nice to see someone take pride in proper thermal envelope of a building though, I find lot of building practices skimp a lot on that.

 

[Murloc]

here in Switzerland anything built news is ages better than old buildings, simply because they're massive concrete with better sound isolation than buildings from the 50s-60s that are where the cheaper apartments are. Sadly, the rent is much more expensive as a result.
Buildings from the 80s and 90s are probably the sweet spot. The isolation is usually already decent.

Cost-cutting leads to construction of ugly cubes with a completely flat façade, but not low-quality apartments, the land is worth too much for that.

Old buildings (like from 1500 until massive concrete started being used, including a big amount of buildings from the 1700-1800) have wooden floors so you hear everything AND any walking gets amplified, they're the worst in that regard.

 

[MrSquished]

Also the obsession with branding everything "luxury" would be nice to see end

Same shit here. I've heard more than enough complaints from folks that have moved into the relatively newer "luxury" rental skyscrapers.

They give them some amenities but skimp on the construction quality.

 

[Captante]

Pretty much all new buildings are made of cheap metal, cardboard and plastic these days, after all building with steel, concrete, stone and real solid wood IS expensive!

Seriously my current apartment is in a big old house built in 1902. The wood in the supporting beams is so dense it's extremely difficult to drill or even to hammer a nail into. Can't hear a thing through the walls either.

Conversely my buddy lives in a "Luxury" condo in Stamford on the water (for which he paid a pretty penny!) where if you concentrate you can listen in on your neighbors conversation or follow along with the show on their TV.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Luxery and rental/condo do not mix. If it was luxery there would be no neighbours nearby.

 

[Captante]

Luxery and rental/condo do not mix. If it was luxery there would be no neighbours nearby.

Or at least there would be no shared walls!

 

[BoomerD]

We basically have 3-4 builders here who build the lion's share of new houses. They SEEM to do pretty decent work. New houses take (depending on weather) 4-6 months from ground-breaking to move in. MOST are sold before the land is cleared. Each builder has 2-3 building plans they work from, so everywhere you go in town, you see some of the same houses.