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Willis Sinclair Homes Standards
(A Partial List)
There are many good residential contractors here in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Why should you choose Willis Sinclair Homes to build your home? That is a fair question.
Materials
Most homes today are built with quality components as required by code. Willis Sinclair Homes materials often exceed the building code requirements.
Many architects and engineers call for homes to be built on individual piers. That works well until there is seismic activity. We always tie all piers together with a significant footer. It is not uncommon for our foundation systems to have more than 100 tons of concrete and steel in them. Your house deserves a solid foundation, not the code minimum.
A continuous footer for one of our homes.
Our subfloors are all water resistant plywood. We don’t use any OSB flooring. We also don’t just use plywood flooring. No matter how fast we work, the subfloor is going to get wet. Plywood often delaminates and has to be replaced. Water resistant plywood like we use exclusively is not damaged by occasional rain or heavy dew.
All of our outside walls are framed with 2 x 6 or larger lumber. We don’t use 2 x 4 for any exterior walls. Code allows it; Willis Sinclair Homes doesn’t. You need solid walls with plenty of insulation in your home.
Our walls are sheathed with plywood. We could use OSB, but there is a reason OSB costs less than plywood: it does not work as well. We use 5/8" plywood on our roofs to make sure they stay flat. Code does not require 5/8" plywood on the roof, but we do.
Our houses are wrapped with a premium Dow Weathermate Plus house wrap. It is much better (and more expensive) than typical house wraps. Weathermate Plus blocks water from getting to your house and allows moisture from your house to escape. Both of those are good things. On the roof, we install a heavy Ice and Water shield to the sheathing. This is basically like the old roll roofing used years ago. It is good enough to make the roof watertight before we install the roofing material. It gives an excellent second line of defense for your roof. It also makes the house dry far ahead of roofing materials.
Ice & Water Shield being installed.
Not only is the coastal Lowcountry a seismic area, but also a hurricane prone area. Again, Willis Sinclair Homes takes extra effort to insure your home will be secure when storms and ground movement come.
We run threaded steel rods from the top plate of your home to the foundation – dozens of them. They are beside every window or door. They are in the corners. They are every few feet along solid walls. It is not uncommon to use over 100 rods in one of our homes.
When your home is tied to a massive foundation with over 100 steel rods (either 1/2" or 5/8" in diameter) it is solid. Since each rod has approximately a two ton hold down rating, 100 rods would provide about 400,000 pounds of hold down force.
The alternative to hold down rods is sheet metal straps that are nailed to framing. They look remarkably like a big steel band aid. That surely is just a coincidence.
Steel tie down rods on either side of a window.
The building code requires 5/8" thick sheet rock on garage ceilings if there is a finished room above it. The code allows 1/2" thick sheet rock on the walls and even the ceiling of garages if no finished room is above the garage. Willis Sinclair Homes always installs 5/8" thick fire rated sheet rock on the ceilings and walls of every garage we build, providing a one hour buffer against garage fires.
Sometimes materials stored in garages or automobiles themselves could catch on fire. We want occupants to have every chance to leave the home if such a disaster should occur. The extra cost is well worth the peace of mind for us.
Windows and exterior doors are another place where Willis Sinclair Homes insists on going the second mile. We specify premium products from well known suppliers such as Marvin, Kolbe, Pella and WeatherShield.
We install windows and doors with aluminum cladding on the exterior for a maintenance free finish. The color is baked on, so it does not need painting.
The inside can be either painted or stained as the owner wishes. The windows and doors are very solid because of their DP and impact ratings. Doors we use have multi point latching systems.
You can be sure that Willis Sinclair Homes will use materials in your house that they would use in their own homes. It will often exceed the code.
Pricing
Even as Willis Sinclair Homes grows we remain frugal. We constantly check prices and get competitive bids. Our people want to know we are getting the best value for the money when we are building your house. We do have favorite subcontractors and vendors, but we make sure they remain very competitive.
Workmanship
Good materials at good prices is only part of the story. We also insist work be done very well or redone until it is done well. Our supervisors are picky and demand quality work. We don’t allow excuses, cover ups or patches. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right.
Documentation
We keep records – lots of them. We take notes. We write things down. We want to know exactly what you want in your house and we don’t trust our memory. During the construction process, we will typically send or receive over a thousand emails. We will also make or receive a thousand telephone calls. Over a thousand photos of your home wil be taken during construction. Many of those will be posted on our web site. Why does all of this matter to you? It matters because we are paying attention to your project. We make sure things are done as you want them done. We make sure things fit. We minimize bad surprised. In the end, we want you to recommend us to your friends.
Waranty
When we complete your project, we don’t run and hide. We are available to take care of anything that need addressing. Willis Sinclair Homes wants you to be completely happy with your home and will work very hard to achieve that.
Is Willis Sinclair Homes the only company to have these standards? We are sure there are some that have a few of these standards and maybe even someone who exceeds one or two. However, we believe that we provide the best combination of standards, service and value of anyone in our market.
We very much want you to have the best possible house for the best possible price.
Call (843) 846 - 2500