What is a "Well Built" Home?

By Lisa Pickert

So what does it mean to be a "well-built" home? Most builders claim it, but we have all heard the horror stories. Well, I believe in the quality of Miranda Homes or I wouldn’t be working here. I sought out Miranda Homes because of their core value to focus on building energy efficient homes that minimize their impact on the environment. So when visitors come to our open houses, my enthusiasm probably overwhelms them. Similarly, if you’ve spent time on our website, you know that we spend the majority of our internet space describing how our homes are built and why it's important to concern yourself with that.

I encourage you to seek out verification of our claims. Miranda's technology is based on sound, tested, building science, as well as field experience. One of the best and worst aspects of the residential building industry is that it generally relies on tried and true methods that date back to the early 20th century. In some ways, the argument can be made that this makes sense – to build (pardon the pun) on an existing body of knowledge and practices. The problem with this logic is that the residential building industry is kind of stuck in early 20th century methods and practices.

There are so many ideas, methods and materials coming out of current science on how to build that are a great reference tool. One of my favorite websites for information on the latest and greatest research on how to build homes well can be found at www.buildingscience.com. At this website, you can learn about unvented crawlspaces, unvented attics and other building technology that runs counter to the typical building industry today. Miranda Homes has developed our product on new science and real world testing versus just building the way it’s always been done.


Would you want a computer today that was built the way they were in the 1960s? Heck no, you wouldn’t even have room for it in your house! Instead, you want the latest technology incorporated into your new computer purchase. Similarly, Miranda Homes incorporates the latest scientific understanding of how to build structures that will last, be energy efficient, healthy to live in and save acres of trees along the way.

Less scientific, but nonetheless invaluable, there are more websites popping up every day that draw on contemporary research on home building. One example is the Sierra Club’s green home website, http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com. There you will find excellent information on such items as the importance of air sealing your house. At Miranda Homes – the spray foam insulation that we use achieves extraordinary results in this area. Another item discussed on this website under the wood section is “Optimum Value Engineering” (OVE). At Miranda, we incorporate these concepts and much more by using steel instead of wood. Finally, on the Sierra Club Green Home website, they talk about the value of an energy audit. At Miranda homes, we achieve that through third-party verification by Earth Advantage. See our post on what it means to be Earth Advantage Certified HERE for more details.

Whether you review the hard-core building science websites or the layperson friendly websites on building well, the main thing is to do your homework and become educated on the subject of a well built home. Then, when you’re ready to build well, we hope that you’ll consider Miranda Homes!