In 2010, five homebuilders were recognized as inaugural winners of the Best Practices Research Alliance Home Quality + Performance award. This month we're featuring Wathen-Castanos Hybrid Homes in Fresno/Clovis, CA. We'll examine what makes them an Alliance award-winner, as well as winner of the EVHA Builder of the Year award and the NHQA Silver award this year. To learn more about the Home Quality + Performance awards, visit here.
Wathen-Castanos, a third-generation, single-family home builder, was no stranger to high performance homebuilding in 2008: the company has been building ENERGY STAR®-rated homes since 2001.
But the dire state of the housing market that year forced the Wathen-Castanos and president Mike Nimon to take another look at their strategy.
They could have cut quality and features in order to meet the lowest price point, but instead, they decided to look at the downturn as an opportunity to become the premier builder of high performance, energy-efficient homes in their market—while keeping costs low.
In 2009, Wathen-Castanos became Wathen-Castanos Hybrid Homes, and the company called on IBACOS to assist them in the training, implementation and support of both high performance homebuilding and quality management techniques.
Clearly, the company’s efforts have paid off: in 2011, they have won the National Housing Quality Award, the EVHA Gold award for New Moderate Climate Production Homes, and the EVHA Builder of the Year.
While they built 188 homes in 2009, the company is projected to build more than 200 in 2011 and 250 in 2012. And they continue to raise the bar for high performance homebuilding: in 2010, they built their first Zero Net Electrical home and now offer them as part of their product lineup.
Michael Dickens, co-founder of IBACOS and director of the Alliance, said, “Wathen-Castanos is a fantastic example of what builders can achieve when they really focus on quality and performance, and how, even in this market, there are opportunities to improve both that can pay off in home sales and on the bottom line.”
“The Best Practices Research Alliance and IBACOS team have allowed our company to partner and share with true industry experts and practitioners who have a bigger vision in building science,” said Mike Nimon. “This relationship has grown our awareness of practical solutions and allowed us to reach a higher level of expertise.”
Find out more about Wathen-Castanos Hybrid Homes.
Mike Nimon accepting his Quality and Performance Award at the Alliance Annual Meeting, 2010.
