DIY Network

DIY's 2006 Best Built Home Special Grand-prize winner, Billie Bentley, moves into her grand-prize home. From "Special Presentation" episode DBBH-S

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What Is a Best Built Home?

A best built home employs innovative building techniques that contribute to a home's overall comfort, durability, energy efficiency and health and safety.

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Choosing the Site and Groundbreaking

Before a best built home can be constructed it's vital to find the perfect spot.

When looking for a place to build a home it's important to seek advice from professionals. Make sure that you consider everything, from the quality of the soil to the proximity of water, utilities and schools.

For Billie and Jesse it was important to be near nature. "You never know what you're going to see, and it's what God put here," Billie explains. "It's for us to enjoy and it's good for you."

The importance of finding the ideal location for your best built home can't be overstated.

Billie, middle with shovel, watches as the ground is broken for her dream house.

Excavation and Construction Begin

Once the site has been staked it's time for excavation, digging out what will eventually be the basement. For this unique best built home a pre-cast basement system is utilized.

Pre-cast basement walls (figure F) are brought to the job site and installed while plumbers lay initial drainage pipes for the house. The walls are poured and set in a factory before being transported to the site. The "casting" happens while the excavation of the site is taking place.

The advantage of using pre-cast walls is that they are built faster and better in the controlled environment of a factory rather than on site. The pre-cast walls are then installed over a rock sub-footer (figure G).

Figure F

Figure G

With the basement walls in place and the initial plumbing laid, steps are taken to make sure the basement stays dry and warm:

• Insulation is installed in all the footers.

• Insulation board is installed in the four-foot perimeter around the basement floor (figure H). This keeps the concrete slab from coming into contact with the cold, wet ground--ultimately keeping the basement warm and dry.

The Bentley home is designed to exceed every standard for energy efficiency. It will be completely air tight (figure I), which means the heat and air conditioning will stay inside where it belongs, and the utility bills will decrease by approximately 40 percent.

"Forty percent off of anything is great," Jesse said.

Figure H

Figure I

You Could Be the Next Winner! If you would like to know more about constructing the best built home or if you feel lucky you can enter DIY's Best Built Home sweepstakes by visiting our Best Built Home Zone.

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