The methods and materials behind the houses other builders turn down.
People call what we do modern, or high end, or custom. What it actually is: a short list of structural and finish methods most residential crews never learn, done under one fixed-price contract by a general contractor who takes responsibility for the whole thing.
Half our builds have something in them that had not been done in the area before. A floor with nothing under it. A kit A-frame turned into a 3,500 square foot three-story house on a bluff. Stair treads poured in concrete and lit one step at a time. A restaurant where every light and speaker disappears into the wood. The list below is what those jobs are made of, and which house each one came from.
A floor or room with nothing under it. The load travels back through steel to supports you don't see, so the engineering has to be right and the crew has to build exactly what the engineer drew. We built a whole upper floor this way in Janesville, carried on engineered steel V-posts, so the great room and a 12-foot round window could hang out over the Rock River.
Built: The Cantilever House, Janesville
The roof is the wall, so every window, door and header is structural, and the whole thing has to carry Wisconsin snow. We build them on kit shells like Avrame, customized to the plan, and on steep sites where the lower level has to be dug, drained and retained before the first roof panel goes up. Our Beloit A-frame is 3,500 sq ft over three stories on a river bluff.
Built: The A-Frame, Beloit
Japanese charred cedar siding. The surface is burned, brushed and oiled, which makes it resist rot and insects without paint and lets it age to a deep black. It's unforgiving to install because every board shows. The Janesville house is wrapped in it.
Built: The Cantilever House, Janesville
Brazilian hardwood dense enough to skip stain and sit outside in Wisconsin weather for decades. We used it for all the siding and a two-level deck on the Beloit A-frame. It's heavy, it dulls blades, and it needs stainless fasteners and pre-drilling. Worth it.
Built: The A-Frame, Beloit
Countertops, sinks, stair treads, cast for the house they're going into. In Janesville we poured an 11-foot waterfall island, floating bathroom sinks, and every stair tread in the house. The treads alone took more than 300 man hours to cast, scribe, set and light. Concrete done well is a trade of its own, and we carry it in house.
Built: The Cantilever House, Janesville
A hand-troweled cement finish a few millimeters thick that goes over almost anything and reads as one seamless surface. We've done showers, a range hood and a one-of-a-kind soaking tub in it. There are no grout lines to hide behind, so the prep and the troweling have to be perfect.
Built: Both the Janesville and Beloit houses
A mineral paint that leaves soft movement in the wall instead of a flat coat. It's how both the Janesville and Beloit houses get that calm, matte look that photographs so well, and it pairs with concrete and microcement because it's the same family of material.
Built: Both the Janesville and Beloit houses
LED runs set into channels routed in the wood, wiring routered into the back of the members, speakers flush in the millwork at the spots the acoustic plan calls for. You see light and hear sound and can't find the source. Nakama in Milwaukee was built this way, to a laser, with weeks of planning before demo so every trade landed on the same line.
Built: Nakama, Milwaukee
River bluffs, ravines, lots other builders walk away from. The work is in the dirt: excavation, drainage, retaining, and a foundation that fits the hill instead of flattening it. Both the Janesville and Beloit houses sit on the Rock River bluff.
Built: Janesville and Beloit
Yes. We built one in Janesville with the entire upper floor cantilevered on engineered steel V-posts. It takes a structural engineer, a steel sub and a crew that builds to the drawing. We handle all three under one contract.
Yes. Our Beloit A-frame is a 3,500 sq ft, three-story Avrame kit structure customized to the owners and built into a steep bluff on the Rock River, finished in Cumaru hardwood, lime wash and microcement.
Yes, all four, and we've put them in the same house. See the Janesville cantilever house: shou sugi ban siding, lime wash walls, microcement showers and tub, poured concrete island, sinks and stair treads.
That's most of what we do. If the house you want has something in it nobody in your area has built, send us the drawings or the idea and we'll tell you what it takes and what it costs.
Licensed structural engineers we've worked with on past jobs, or your architect's engineer if you have one. On the Janesville house it was CEED Civil Engineering; on the Beloit A-frame the kit manufacturer, Avrame, engineered the structure.
Send the idea or the drawings. We'll tell you what it takes and give you a range.