Finishes are the part of the house you touch every day, and they are where a budget goes wrong most often, because the allowance in a lump-sum bid is rarely what the real selection costs. In our process you choose finishes during pre-construction, from any supplier you like, so the budget reflects your real choices. Here is how we think about what lasts.
Flooring
Solid hardwood is the floor we recommend most for a house you plan to keep. It can be refinished three or four times over its life, which means a floor laid today can be the floor your grandchildren walk on. White oak and hickory wear well. Softer woods like pine show their age, which some people love.
Engineered hardwood is a real wood veneer over a plywood core. It is more stable over radiant heat and in basements, but it can be refinished only once or twice. Choose it where moisture or radiant heat makes solid wood a risk.
Tile lasts as long as the house. Porcelain is harder than ceramic and the right choice for floors. Natural stone is beautiful and needs sealing. In a healthy home we use real tile with cement-based setting materials rather than vinyl plank, which off-gasses and cannot be repaired.
Carpet is comfortable and the shortest-lived of the options. If you want it, wool over a natural pad is the healthy version.
Kitchens
Cabinets and countertops are the largest finish expense in the house. The cabinet decision that matters most is not the door style but the box: plywood boxes with solid wood face frames can be repaired and refinished for decades. Particleboard cannot. Hardware is the second decision: full-extension drawers with soft-close slides and hinges that can be adjusted and replaced.
Counters: quartz is durable and consistent. Granite and soapstone are natural, each with its own care. Butcher block is warm and repairable and needs oiling. A farmhouse sink in fireclay or cast iron will outlast a stainless one.
Layout outlasts style. An island with real working surface on all sides, a pantry wall, and a place for the things that collect by the door will serve a family long after the backsplash is dated.
Baths
Tile to the ceiling in showers, a mortar bed or a proper waterproofing system behind it, and a solid-surface or tile floor. Fixtures with replaceable cartridges from manufacturers that will still make parts in twenty years. Ventilation sized for the room, vented outside, not into the attic.
Trim, doors, and paint
Solid wood doors and poplar or oak trim take paint well and can be repaired. Hollow doors cannot. Zero-VOC paints and natural finishes are standard in our healthy homes and available in every home.
Outside
Cedar, fiber cement, or real masonry for siding. Standing seam metal, copper, or slate over asphalt where the budget allows; a metal roof lasts two to three times as long. Stainless or hot-dip galvanized fasteners anywhere near salt air. Rot-proof trim. A deck framed in steel or pressure-treated lumber rated for ground contact, with railings that can be rebuilt without rebuilding the deck.
Landscaping in New England
Native plants need less water and survive deer and winters. Plan the hardscape, walkways, and drainage with the house, not after it, because grading is cheapest while the excavator is still on site. Plantings can be phased over years; the grading cannot.
The rule
Choose the material that can be repaired over the one that has to be replaced. It is almost always cheaper by the second decade, and it is the difference between a house that ages and a house that wears out.