Our New Construction

Our approach to new construction:

  • Traditional materials and detailing — Brick, copper, slate, mahogany, stone, to name a few.
  • Advocacy.  Our focus is quality and longevity.  Long lasting materials were discovered long ago.
  • We love to build beautiful spaces, and we are fascinated with interesting architecture.  Our projects are complete with interior millwork, a range of flooring choices, traditional plasters and finishes, et. al.  
  • Examples of our favorite new designs can be found in Russell Versaci’s book ‘Creating a New Old House’.

    Unique features included in our construction:

    • Stone or brick foundations.
    • No particle board or OSB. 
    • Custom built millwork, including furniture style kitchen cabinetry.  Our standard is inset door cabinetry, which fits so much better in an old house.  
    • Solid doors.  
    • Copper gutters and traditional flashings.
    • Roofing in tile, slate, metal, wood shakes.  We will not use asphalt.  It simply doesn’t last long enough, and ends up in the landfill at least 3 times / century.  
    • Detailed hardware designs, including period options.
    • Traditional paints such as lime washes or linseed oil based paints are available.
    • Rot resistant exterior millwork.  No finger joints ever!  We use sapele, mahogany, white oak, walnut, and Accoya, among others.  
    • Custom window designs.

    Our craftsmanship values:

     At Vintage, we learn from every restoration and preservation project.  This knowledge about materials and methods that have made old structures successful also makes our new construction unique.  We emulate historic homes in our new work; If you hire us, we will use these proven techniques.  We will not use vinyl siding or asphalt, nor synthetic stucco.  Humans know how to build structures that can last for 1000 years, and this is our passion.  We want to create longevity in our work, with architecturally pleasing proportions.  Architecture matters; check out the book The Architecture of Happiness”.

     

    Our past experience working to preserve and renovate old homes has given us this unique practical knowledge on which old building methods were successful and which failed.  We learn from the mistakes and successes of our predecessors; incorporating the successful methods into our custom homes.  We are fortunate to be working on the successes of our predecessors; the oldest house we have worked on extensively was built in 1742.  

     

    The success of materials and building methods is usually related to water.  Here in Virginia we have aggressive decay conditions in our sub tropical climate.  Our Virginia bacteria, fungi, and insects are always looking for food, and if a home is built in a manner that creates wet conditions, then the home becomes a food source.  If a home is correctly built high and dry, with wood maintaining 15% moisture content or less, then the wood is not (usually) a food source.  

     

    Read more about each of the homes pictured below

    Vintage has a workshop in Winchester, Virginia where we make custom trim, doors, windows, and any other millwork necessary to support our projects.  We do all of this to control quality, and to sweat the details.  Please see our capabilities page to see more of what we do. 

    Feel free to email me or call to discuss.  

    Read more of  Why Old Houses Last Longer Than New Houses.

    Our Statement of Quality


    If you select Vintage Building, you’ll get craftsmen unmatched for the superior result we are able to provide.  Meticulous and steadfast, we are unwavering in quality.