The Green Advantage
Thinking green and promoting energy conservation has been a constant at Merlin Custom Home Builders for 23 years. During the design process Merlin Custom Home Builders strives to expose our clients to the environmental implications and real world impact of the various methodologies, products and materials available for new and remodeled homes. We provide options, costs and advice for the numerous opportunities to create an energy efficient home. We have specifications for energy efficient windows, doors, ceilings, walls (including the use of insulated concrete forms
– ICF), Air-Conditioning – HVAC systems (including geothermal and various in-floor systems), lighting systems, electrical systems (including solar voltaic), hot water production and storage along with water-efficient landscaping solutions.
Building Green makes perfect sense for many reasons; whether you’re renovating your existing home, building a new custom home or developing a custom estate, the economic payback for a Green Home is identifiable and lasting.
Steve and Bart Jones are both National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), “Certified Green Professionals”. Robert Brown, Merlin Custom Home Builders’s estimator, completed the Residential Energy Service Network’s (RESNET) 40 hour class in Denver, CO, to become a trained “Energy Rater” for the Home Energy Rating System (HERS). Merlin Custom Home Builders’s commitment to green building benefits our clients’ construction budgets as well as their maintenance costs for the life of their homes.
As an active supporter of green building in Southern Nevada, Merlin Custom Home Builders has become a member of Nevada ENERGY STAR Partners’ GREEN Alliance and is currently participating in the SNHBA’s Green Building Program. These programs and alliances help members, like Merlin Custom Home Builders, move the practice of green building into the mainstream with an emphasis on energy efficiency, water and resource conservation, utilizing sustainable or recycled products, and enhancing indoor air quality.
The Professional Custom Home Builder walks a fine line. It is our job to balance a new home’s cost and construction efficiencies while customizing our home design and specifications. We work closely with our clients and their architects and designers to develop the ultimate look and feel of their new home so that it meets their needs and reflects their unique tastes.
To that end, we encourage, support and enable our homeowners to select from an increasingly diverse list of products and finishes before we begin construction. Most often, these selections are from the catalogs or websites of our trusted suppliers and feature familiar brand names with rock-solid warranties. This helps us to build efficiently and keep the budget in check.
Merlin Custom Home Builders excels in accommodating special requests from our homeowners, their architects and designers. We find out where in the world the product or system can be acquired, identify its place in the approved budget or revise the budget as advised by our homeowner.
This “customization” process is a two-way street of responsibility and respect. We rely on our homeowners to make their selections on time to avoid delays in delivery and construction.
We do our part by establishing deadlines and milestones for those decisions. We identify when materials and finishes need to be ordered so they are on the jobsite to maintain our construction schedule. Our schedule also confirms “lead-times” — the time between when a product is ordered and when the supplier can deliver it — so that we can coordinate its installation with the proper contractor.
Every missed deadline almost always results in a delay in construction … which invariably translates to additional costs. Worse, it can trigger a domino effect, affecting not just its point in the schedule, but also several others that follow. Homebuilding is a linear process, often requiring one step to be finished before another can start; a glitch can therefore ripple through the schedule, affecting tasks and deadlines that might appear unrelated.
Our homeowners are building their custom homes and our job is to make that process fun, fulfilling and affordable. Merlin Custom Home Builders’s team is trained to 1. quickly evaluate costs, define the schedule and estimate the manpower requirements; 2. communicate those details in a manner which gives our homeowners the information they need to fine-tune their homes, budgets and construction timelines.
Merlin Custom Home Builders’s ultimate goal is to deliver a satisfying experience and exceed our clients’ expectations. We coach new-home buyers to understand the building process and the critical role they play in it, and leave ample time to enable comfortable, unrushed decisions. We are here to advise, offer choices, and ultimately fulfill dreams — this is how we build homes that will stand the test of time and evoke memories that span generations.
Warm Regards,
Steve Jones & Bart Jones
Merlin Custom Home Builders
6408 S. Arville Street
Las Vegas, NV 89118
702.257.8102 – Phone