What is forming? Well It would be easiest just to show you… so watch this episode. Pouring concrete brings on Anxiety, but with good builders you can have this done properly! Forming is the temporary and or permanent molds into which concrete or other similar materials are poured. This Series called “Well-Built Home” was created by Stephan Kingma and his little sister “Andrea Bravo”.
Stephan Kingma is a builder in Chilliwack and owns a company called “Monarch Developments” and Andrea Bravo is Realtor in Chilliwack and Abbotsford. They have one goal – to teach you what to look for! On this episode we are teaching the average person about Footings and Forms. Stephan shows us a two stage pour; where you pour the footings first, and that provides a solid concrete structure for your footings to sit on. Then construct ply wood walls and pour again. Once that concrete dries all the wood comes off and your just left with a nice concrete wall. Three simple things that you can actually see that are qualities in a “Well-Built Home” are that you don’t have to step over a high threshold to get in and out of your home – the doors should be knocked down to the proper height. You should also see all your services running into your foundation, through the footing and up through the top of your foundation wall. This way all your service boxes can be mounted flush on a wall so you can have a nice smooth clean look and not big awkward box built onto the side of your home. The third thing is to look for siding that runs down to your concrete and landscaping surfaces, you shouldn’t see too much exposed concrete.
Check out mymonarch.ca or andreabravo.ca to learn how to spot the signs of a “Well-Built Home”. We are not all contractors, home builders and real estate specialists, most of us don’t know the first thing about home construction, materials, processes and practices! Yet most of us end up wanting to buy a home in our lifetime. So when it comes to buying a house, this show will teach you how to tell if a house is built well. if you have a good realtor they should be well connected in the area and in most cases should be able to figure out who built the house. Once you know who built the home you can check into that builder, find out who they are, what their reputation is, talk to some previous buyers in the area and so on. Many contractors are professionals and really good at what they do, others are either inexperienced and/or willing to cut corners to get the house done quickly and make a sale. Very few builders are actually corrupt; generally they just aren’t that experienced and simply don’t know all the best practices. Well Built Home will teach you to spot the signs of a “Well-built Home” and Run from poorly built homes!
Look at the house carefully. Houses are complicated things, don’t just look at the fixtures, quartz countertops, cabinets, flooring etc… make sure the walls and floors are level and square, check the foundational walls and other unfinished areas of the home for potential warning signs of a poorly built home. It is important to spot the signs of a well built home and know how to do that before you head out to look for one. In this series we talk about residential construction and new home construction, though you can apply a lot of this to an older home as well. “Stephan Kingma” owns a company called “Monarch Developments”, he is a “Chilliwack Builder” and lives in Chilliwack. Stephan has been building for over 20 years, he also does large scale renovations and is a sought after expert in the trades. Monarch Developments is rated one of the top three builders in Chilliwack, Monarch Developments builds high end spec homes.
Monarch Developments builds their spec homes as though they are custom homes and takes great pride in the quality of their work. Monarch Developments has created the “Well-Built Home” Series alongside their realtor “Andrea Bravo” as a way to teach average people who don’t know anything about construction to spot the signs of a well built home, and hopefully avoid a housing horror story or a housing nightmare. Andrea Bravo is Stephan’s little sister and is a Realtor in Abbotsford and Chilliwack. She created the series “Well Built Home” with her brother Stephan to teach the average person how to walk through a home, and what to look for when buying a home. She grew tired of people buying homes based on pretty fixtures and quartz countertops. Andrea Bravo loves selling Real Estate and is a realtor in Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Our who goal is to teach you what to look for. Because you only get what you pay for, if you get what to look for.