Build Healthy, Build Smart: Expect More From Your New Home
You expect your car to perform for you—not just get you where you need to go. All the systems should deliver. No strange sounds. No hesitation in the engine. The air conditioning and heat work. The wipers wipe. Your home is the same way. You should expect more from your new home. Alvarez Construction Company gets behind this approach, so we build healthy and build smart.
How healthy is your home?
Stop and think about how much time you spend inside your home. According to BuildingGreen, the average American spends 86.9% of their time indoors. Of that total, nearly 69% is inside the home.
The air flowing through your home is estimated to be two to five times worse than what you breathe outdoors. Think about it. We’ve made such strides in creating an airtight home to prevent drafts from wasting energy. Now that some homebuilders (like Alvarez Construction Company) have succeeded, we need to pay close attention to the impact.
Indoor air quality is affected by so many factors. Household cleaning solvents, fire retardants, pressed wood, dust, pet dander, fuel used in heating and cooking, dry-cleaned clothing, paint, aerosol sprays, and even scented candles emit pollutants in the air. And you’re tracking in even more! Even if you don’t have a pet, you probably bring in pet dander from outdoors. And those little dust bunnies floating around your home are comprised of dust mites, skin cells, hair, decaying insects, lint, and various other things you’d prefer not to think about.
How do you improve indoor air quality? An air filtration system is a valuable feature to improve the IAQ. You can use portable air filtration systems that cover a limited amount of square footage, but a whole-home system is the best way to effectively cleanse the air you breathe. Every Alvarez Construction Company home has this comprehensive air filtration system and we install a MERV 16 air filter. This particular filter is the same one used in hospitals, and we recommend that our homeowners continue to use the MERV 16 when replacing the filter.
Healthy homes are also about comfort and energy efficiency. The performance level here should be so exceptional that you don’t even notice it—unless you’ve been used to paying high utility bills. A tankless water heater, as an example, will not only save you on water usage, but also delivers a more reliable flow of hot water. The tankless system doesn’t heat up water and store it, because you’re then paying for hot water you’re not using. Instead, this system heats the water on demand, so you don’t run out in the middle of a shower.
Our energy efficiency is reflected in many other ways, like insulation, 16 SEER HVAC system, and ENERGY STAR appliances. We work hard so you can take it easy.
Live smarter
Smart technology keeps getting smarter, and making our lives easier. Take the worry about wondering whether or not you locked your door and turned off the oven. With the latest advances, you can simply control it all from an app on your smartphone. Adjust the temperature on your thermostat, preheat the oven, keep an eye on your dog, and find out if you need to pick up milk on the way home from work.
We support smart home technology because it contributes to the quality of life our homes provide. Alvarez Construction Company includes many standard “smart” features:
- A smart home management hub lets you control every piece of smart technology in your home—with voice commands or on a touchscreen.
- The SmartHome security system and TruVision security camera let you see what's happening in and around your home when you're not there (or even when you are!).
- The new Whirlpool SmartRange is now standard in our new homes and lets you use voice commands to tell your oven what to do. Now, if only that worked on everyone in your home.
- Smart home technology also connects your thermal, smoke, and carbon monoxide detectors to your smartphone, sending alerts when the sensor picks up a problem or the battery is low.
Is your home performing to your standards? And is it perhaps time to raise those standards based on these advances? Let Alvarez Construction Company show you how to invest in a high-performance, affordable home that truly enhances your life. Look at our move-in ready homes, take a virtual tour of our floor plans and the communities where we build our new construction, single-family homes in and around Baton Rouge. Then talk to us about making the smart move.
