Remodelers Showcase and The Santa Fe Home Show

It may not feel like it yet, but Spring is around the corner!

If you are thinking about making changes to your home in the coming year, you will want to start planning now.  One thing that can help is the Santa Fe Area Home Builder’s sponsored event: The Santa Fe Home Show.  Another great resource is the companion magazine/resource guide: The Haciendas Magazine – Home & Remodeling issue.  The magazine features local remodeling contractor’s projects with a description of the project and before and after photos. In addition to the magazine the Builders create a portfolio for the project including plans, descriptions and photos.  This portfolio is entered in The Remodelers Showcase.  Awards are given for projects that are considered “Excellent”.  These portfolios are available for viewing at The Santa Fe Home Show on April 5th and 6th, 2014 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.  Madera Builders will be submitting a whole house remodel that we completed this year.  So, keep watching here to see photos of the project.  In the meantime, check out past year’s projects at The Haciendas Magazine web page and enjoy the photos below of various projects we are working on.

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New photos of Parade Home

Fall is here and the sunsets are coming early.  One evening, we had Katie Johnson, take a few more exterior shots of the home we had in the Parade back in August.  They turned out great.

Courtyard Entrance

Entry Courtyard Water Feature

View from the Entry

Outdoor Living at its finest.

The Home was featured in in the current issue of Trend Magazine.  They are on stands now, so pick one up or go to their website to see the issue online. You’ll find us on page 236.

Madera Builders would like to thank everyone who visited during the SFAHBA Haciendas – A Parade of Homes.  We had great traffic during the Parade of Homes and we hope you were able to visit.  If not, Madera Builders is now using the house as a model home, so if you would like to see our work, just give us a call.   Our new phone number is 505-983-8417.  We would be happy to show you this beautiful home.

Mark your calendars for the Santa Fe Home Show coming up this spring on April 5th & 6th at the Santa Fe Convention Center.  The Spring issue of Haciendas Magazine will also have the Remodeler’s Showcase which we plan to enter. The portfolio for that entry will be available for viewing at the Santa Fe Home Show. Stay tuned for more on the Santa Fe Home Show and Remodeler’s Showcase in upcoming posts.

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Parade of Homes Twilight Tour

Here we are beginning the last weekend of the Haciendas – A Parade of Homes, a Santa Fe Tradition for over 20 years.  So far the Parade has been a great success as we have had steady traffic and the opportunity to show the home to many people.  Our Award Gala was Tuesday and it was fun to see so many friends and colleagues ready to celebrate the successes in finishing 14 beautiful homes.

8 Deer Circle Master Bedroom

Madera Builders, LLC was awarded “Best Master Suite” in our price category.  In the Green Awards Category we were awarded for our Water Efficiency.  For more information on the Parade and a list of winners, go to Haciendas Magazine.

If this post isn’t reaching you too late, please stop by our house at 8 Deer Circle tonight, August 16th, between 4 and 9 PM.  The Twilight Tour is free so you can visit without having to purchase a ticket.  Or, if you can’t come tonight, come see our “Best Master Suite”,

8 Deer Circle Living Room

the fabulous kitchen and the open “window walls” that allow the space to spill out onto the covered portal.  The view of the mountains is fantastic any time of day!

The Parade is open Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm.  Hope to see you there!

8 Deer Circle Hallway

8 Deer Circle Kitchen

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Custom Green Home Construction-Santa Fe and Las Campanas

This house was highlighted in our website blog several weeks ago when we detailed the installation process for the roof insulation. We realize that most consumers are not interested in the actual processes of green building and energy saving procedures, but are more interested in the actual practical benefits of these building practices. Knowing this, we emphasize the advantages our clients can expect when living in one of our homes. Our modern framing techniques helps reduce the gradual heat loss common in many houses that have “air leaks” prevalent with standard framed houses. By tightening up the framing envelope of the home, along with advanced insulating techniques, our homes will have lower energy costs for heating and cooling. We frame the house using principles of “thermal bypass framing”. This involves isolating each living area of the house with framing so that cold air cannot pass between the walls of each area from the outside. Then these areas are insulated with closed cell foam insulation to keep cold air from entering and warm air from escaping. The exteriors walls are double framed to a thickness of 10″ to 12″ to allow for more wall insulation. The framing members are staggered so that there is not a direct connection between the inside warm walls and the outside cold. These advanced building practices really become apparent when the cold New Mexico early spring winds start to blow. Nothing sucks heat out of a house like strong cold winds. Our well insulated homes feel noticeably more comfortable than a traditional framed house. The elimination of even a small amount of cold air though a house makes an enormous difference in the comfort level of a home during the dead of winter. Once the house is mostly completed, we have what is called a “blower door test” done. This test basically tries to suck the air house of the sealed house to see how much pressure is needed to pull outside air into the closed up house. This gives us an idea of any air leaking around windows and doors. We then can adjust thresholds and weather stripping to seal the house even tighter.
Our next blog post will cover the final stages of the finishing process detailing the choices we make with cabinets, flooring, counters and wall finishes.

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Santa Fe Style Roof Insulation

Building a new house is the best time to make sure your roof is well insulated. Much of the heat generated in your house is lost through the roof — therefore in order to get the best energy efficiency and R-values from your structure, efficient roof insulation should be a key part of your planning. High R-values are also important in qualifying for sustainable building certifications such as HERSor the National Green Building Program. Gaining these ‘certs’ can qualify you for tax credits and other financial benefits. It is also good for the long term value of the house and the environment.

In Santa Fe and the Southwest where many of the roofs are flat, we at Madera Builders – along with our partners – have developed a unique process to accomplish this in an efficient and economical manner, illustrated below:

This first photo illustrates the trusses and structure of the pocket roof space into which the loose fill fiberglass insulation will be blown in.


This photo illustrates fiberglass getting blown into the space. In Santa Fe, our ‘pueblo style’ aesthetic for homes and buildings with flat roofs necessitates an insulating solution such as this pocket roof. This technique is often employed elsewhere to insulate attics. We prefer our method as it allows us to cater to the aesthetic tastes of our region and clientele while saving on materials that might have been used to frame out an entire attic.


The insulation must remain dry to preserve the integrity and R-values.


We blow the insulation in 22” thick to get us to our desired R-value — the county inspector and the framers are close behind to give their stamps and then ‘dry in’ the roof. It takes much coordination, but we find the heat retention performance is well worth the effort.

The roof is then coated with a tar-based Brai roofing system. Once the decking is laid the roof is welded together with a torch to waterproof it.


The final step is to finish out the skylights and lay a granulated protective UV barrier over the Brai roof. This finished roof will keep the inhabitants dry and warm for many years to come in our high desert climate, where we see hot dry summers and cold snowy winters.


We hope this post was informative. Please stay tuned for more educational blogs and videos as we try to help educate everyone interested in our building processes. Please contact us if you have questions about planning your next project or have questions on installing this kind of roof.

Thanks,
Gerry Barber and Madera Builders.

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New Taos Homes

I decided it was time to post a blog on my website. Madera Buiders has just re-structured our subdivision in Taos, named” Haciendas at Seco Creek”, to increase our lots from 1 acre to approximately 4.5 acres each. We have 3 lots left in this subdivision on Blueberry Hill Rd. Each lot has a stunning view of Taos Mountain as well as overlooking a lower greenbelt area to the Northwest. We also have one lot left in the Las Campanas subdivision in Santa Fe. This is a large lot in Estates II that has a stunning view of the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

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