Lakefront Estates

At Lakefront Estates, New Homes Construction Company uses some cutting edge, simple, affordable techniques to super insulate our lakefront homes and save homeowners thousands of dollars in utility bills. 

“We focus on energy efficiency,” the builder/developer, Walt Dickson says.  “We start with standard construction, 2X6 exterior stud walls where necessary, R19 in them, stuffed perfectly, Tyvek over OSB on the exterior, and then stone and maintenance free vinyl or hardiplank siding.   THE KEY is 8 full cases of caulk per home we use inside our walls, Dickson says. 

We caulk everything, OSB joints, green plate to floor, studs to OSB, where studs are doubled and T’s and corners, we fill them with R11 batting and then caulk every single joint. 

We also caulk all holes in stud walls and floors where plumbing, electrical wiring, alarms, cable TV, DSL and phone wire penetrates, and also around all outlet boxes, central vacuum, HVAC, and any other penetrations.”

This continuous sealing with plain old painter caulk allows moisture to wick out of the house, while eliminating outside air from penetrating into the home.  Our goal is to completely eliminate all draft, no matter how miniscule. 

Another insulation method we use is where ceilings are batted with R38 insulation on hip roofs, they also blow and additional R13 to fill in any cracks and crevices between batts, and cover the edge of the roof trusses.

All windows and doors are stuffed, foamed and caulked to prevent draft, and basements are backfilled with 2” gravel all the way to the ground surface, providing natural insulation and eliminating the need of batt insulation inside the basement block or concrete walls which can draw condensation from high humidity around lakefront homes.  These homes also use R38 blown ceiling insulation, fiberglass exterior doors, insulated garage doors; and the soffits are continuously vented with blockers all the way to ridge vents to improve air flow in the trussed areas.  All windows are sealed with flashing tape around the exterior.

All HVAC ductwork is metal, double wrapped to prevent condensation. 

During construction, all HVAC floor vents are sealed to eliminate dust accumulation in ductwork.

“These simple but detailed insulation methods really work to save our homeowners lots of dollars every year forever”, Dickson says.  “It works and our customers love us for it!”