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3. Building Trends, Quincy style

Building Trends, Quincy style

What's popular with our customers today?

If the most common question we get is "How's business?" - and it is the most asked - the second most asked item is this: folks want to know about trends in the building business.  As builders in the Quincy, IL area doing a variety of projects, we get to see a lot, meet a lot of different people and can keep up with what's going on in the area.  Below are a couple of themes that seem to be popular right now:

Outdoor Spaces Many of our customers are creating or enclosing covered porches with window systems, so that they can enjoy the use of that space for more months of the year.  Adding a 3 seasons enclosed room might open up a space for use to entertain, no matter the rain or wind, during 7 or 8 months of the year in our part of the world.  Some people are adding these rooms onto their homes - because they love where they live, but they would just like a little more room to relax or visit with friends and family.  More and more we find that porches, patios and sunrooms are not an afterthought to the home, but important elements of layout and design from the beginning.

Energy Efficiency  Of course, the concept of Green Building is getting a lot of play in the media these days.  That concept is quite broad.  For most all of our customers, though, the reality of improving the energy efficiency of their home is more focused, and can be talked about in terms of actual savings.  We are helping our new home customers with better and better air sealing of the new construction being built.  We see that there is more interest in energy efficient appliances and products, in everything from dishwashers all the way down to light bulbs.  And let's not forget a "trend" that has never died - adding insulation to the attic space of an older home can often help save dramatically on heating and cooling costs.

Low maintenance products As many of us find that we have less and less free time available, we have less and less desire to continually sand, paint or caulk exterior elements on our homes.   Both our custom home buyers and our remodeling clients are always looking at ways to have a beautiful product - but one that also is low in maintenance.  Manufacturers are responding to this demand with an increasing array of great looking products that are lower in maintenance than the traditional product they replace.  Composite decking, better window exteriors and decorative fiberglass columns are just a few of these types of products that we see in use more and more.

There's always something new out there.  We'll keep our eyes and ears open - and we'll let you know!  Thanks for reading.