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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All these people post about build quality etc etc. What are you guys comparing too?  If all builders are building almost at the same quality, what's the difference?  Some people with homes built in the early 2000s on here claiming the quality of their homes are better but who cares, this is the quality of homes being built these days.  It is what it is.  I never understood this. [/quote]

Most people are spectacularly unqualified to judge the quality of construction.

What posters here usually mean when they talk about quality is how expensive were the finish materials. Flooring can be fifty cents a square foot or it can be five hundred dollars. A sink faucet can be twenty bucks or it can be two thousand. You can spend $300 on a refrigerator or $30,000. The same is true of windows, doors, wall finishes, decks even landscaping. None of these things affect the quality of construction -- but boy do they affect the price. [/quote]

I’m a Class A contractor/custom builder.  Windows are an element  of 
quality construction.  Builder grade windows on a typical home can cost as little as $15k or
$100k, depending on mfg and product line.  Windows are not “finishes” although they may look
the same from afar.   Quality construction is all about the building infrastructure itself - from the 
foundation, insulation, framing, hvac, plumbing (copper vs cpvc), roofing, hvac,  building envelope enclosure, windows/doors, 
exterior cladding (brick, stone, hardi, vinyl, etc), sub flooring, sheathing, site grading, driveway material, septic system.  
Most everything else referred as “finishes” or the shiny stuff as we like to call it is just cosmetic and the homeowner WILL 
be replacing regardless of how much they initially spent to upgrade.  The finishes don’t extend life of the structure, make it easier to 
Maintain or reduce cost of ownership.

[/quote]

I would argue that quality is all about execution. It doesn't matter what your roof material is if it leaks. Same with plumbing. Poorly installed expensive materials are going to cause problems, and nothing on that list installs itself. You can build a high-quality house with inexpensive materials, it will function but it won't be flashy. Similarly you can build a low-quality house with expensive materials.

In the manufacturing world "quality" means doing what you set out to do. An inexpensive product can be high-quality if every unit is uniform and as-specified. I've heard brewers say that Budweiser is the highest-quality beer in the world, every bottle tastes exactly the same. [/quote]

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