The Surprising Secret of a High-End Custom Home Builder

David Barnes considers every last detail.

Maybe that explains why the home builder’s project pipeline is filled for the next three years. Barnes owns and operates Barnes Construction, a custom home builder in the Hampton Roads area. All homes are built to the owner’s and architect’s specifications, with prices starting at $2 million on up to $10 million or more.

It’s easy to spot examples of Barnes’ take-no-chances approach. Take sheathing. He only specs insulated panels that resist air and water. Nails? You guessed it: strictly stainless steel.

Porthole Lesson

A Barnes’ homeowner walk-through is a teaching moment. For Barnes, it’s an opportunity to reinforce the exceptional care, value, and quality his team has delivered to the homeowner. For the owner, it’s clear proof of his or her wise investment in superior materials and workmanship.

Take something as simple as a porthole window for the shower area. Barnes says, “We take and bend a circle of cellular PVC for the window jam and then CNC the window circle, using 1×4 PVC. We use rubber trim for the back band most of the time. It works great. Never a worry about warping or rot.”

Curves, circles, and arches figure prominently in his home construction. “The architect I usually work with loves to draw them,” he says. “We do a lot of curved roofs. That means we cut cellular PVC sheets on the jobsite or CNC them offsite. We also have our own heat blankets for heat forming PVC, like we do for porthole windows.” The ability to heat-bend cellular PVC is a value-added characteristic that helps enhance design without sacrificing durability.

Secret Sauce

For Barnes, cellular PVC trim and sheet is a key ingredient to his oceanfront homes. You might call it his secret sauce for the way it indemnifies himself from rot, warping, splitting, delaminating, or swelling. To illustrate, he tells a story, “I’m currently building a $2.5 to 3 million home on the ocean. The home next door is an ICF house, very durable for the coast. That house has fiber cement cladding and wood trim. I can’t believe they used wood. Beach sand has already blasted the finish off. It’s only a couple years old and already the wood is laid bare and starting to rot.”

Top Choice

Of course, not just any cellular PVC product will do. Take one-piece skirt boards. He’s shopped around and selected AZEK Skirt Board. He cites several reasons why:

1. Installation. The AZEK skirt board is a three-in-one product. There’s no need to install a separate starter strip, skirt board, and flashing.
2. Size. “It comes in 5/4 x 6, 5/4 x 8, and 5/4 x 10. That’s a real benefit for us,” he says. “AZEK skirt boards also come in 18-foot lengths, so there are fewer joints.”
3. Constructability. “The boards aren’t brittle. They don’t break like some. Plus, they cut easy and are very millable. We like to route shiplaps joints,” he says.
4. Density. “We’ve tried a lot of PVC products,” he explains. “There’s a lot less shrinkage with AZEK. The density is different.”

Barnes knows everything depends on his reputation. “Consider the overall project. If you can add more value by selecting a premium product over a secondary one for a minimal difference, why wouldn’t you?” Barnes has the project pipeline to prove it.

To learn more about one-piece skirting boards for your next project, visit AZEKexteriors.com.