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3 Architectural Styles to Consider for Your New Home

If you’re planning to have a custom home built, you might think a floor plan is all you need. However, a floor plan can be made to look like a large number of styles. A very important part of designing a home is picking what you want its architectural style to be. There are a lot of styles to choose from, so, without further ado, here are 3 architectural styles you might want to consider.

Tudor

Tudor houses are one of the most unique and recognizable architectural styles. This is because of their exposed frame. Even if you don’t know them by name, you’ve surely seen them before. These houses are identifiable by their flat, white, exterior walls, criss-crossed with dark brown beams. These beams can be horizontal, vertical, or even diagonal, leaving a very distinct pattern across the face of each wall.

This architectural style originally originates from 15th century england. The style has evolved over the centuries, but not by a lot. They still maintain their key features.

  • Exposed framework
  • Tall, narrow windows
  • Steep roofs
  • Jettied second and third floors

These are a fantastic architectural choice and bring a touch of traditional style to many middle and upper-class neighborhoods.

Cottage-Style

Cottage-style homes are a hallmark of early 20th century, American architecture. These fantastical homes have a very grand, yet cozy feel about them. These homes are great for families, as they allow for multiple floors and best accommodate large floorplans. 

Some of their defining features include:

  • Steep roofs
  • Cross-gables
  • Casement windows with small panes
  • Brick or stucco siding
  • Arched doorways, rather than squared ones

These features come together to make a very unique design. The tall, steeply pitched roofs add a lot of angle to these homes. However, their arched doorways make entrances appear soft and inviting. 

Craftsman

Craftsman homes are fantastic choices for small floorplans. These homes originated in the early half of the 20th century. However, the style is so down-to-earth and cozy that it’s become popular once more.

These homes aren’t called craftsman homes for nothing. They feature a lot of crafted elements. For instance, if you chose any craftsman home at random, you would be likely to find in it:

  • Exposed support beams
  • Exposed rafter beams
  • Built-in shelving – often placed on either side of a fireplace
  • Built in seating – for instance, window seats
  • Low-pitched roofs with a lot of overhang on the eaves

These houses also offer the perfect environment for a covered porch. The porches that come with this style usually have steps framed by wide columns. All in all, if you’re looking for a cottage or bungalow style that feels like it belongs on the edge of the woods in a fairy tale, this is a great choice.

Hiring in Toronto

No matter what architectural styles you love, if you’re looking to build your home in Toronto, there’s an obvious choice for who to call. Heidan construction is the best home construction company in the GTA. Check out our portfolio for samples of our work. Then, give us a call and let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to setting up a consultation with you.

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Flooring Updates When Selling Your Home

If you’re planning on selling your home sometime in the near future, you should know how important it is to update old, outdated flooring before putting your home on the market. Flooring updates can make a huge difference in the offers you get on your home. Here are some things to consider about the flooring updates you may do in the near future. 

Importance of Flooring

Flooring is hugely important in how a house functions. Not only does it impact every step you take(literally), it also affects the appearance. When potential buyers come to look at the inside of your home, seeing damaged or dirty flooring is a huge turn-off. Even if they could replace the flooring for the same price they would pay in price increase for the house, should you replace it yourself, it will still make them less likely to buy the house. Seeing dirty, worn out carpet can just make people think the whole house is less quality than it really is. 

Housewide Impression

Because the flooring runs throughout the entire house, the impression it has also impacts the whole house. Even if the flooring is different in some areas, it’s likely to face the same wear and tear throughout. The carpet in the living room might be stained and trampled. The hardwood in the bedrooms, if it’s the same age, is likely to be scratched and worn out.

A Worthwhile Investment

Because flooring has such a big impact on the way your house is perceived by potential buyers, it’s worth the investment of replacement. The money you’ll spend on the new flooring is likely to allow you to raise the overall price of your home more than you spent on the flooring. As it is with most house updates, you get more out of updating than you lose.

What to Do

The question then becomes, what can you do to make your flooring more appealing to buyers? When it comes to old carpet, the answer is almost always, replace it! However, if the carpet was installed only a few years ago and is actually high quality, you may just want to hire cleaners. Taking your high quality carpet from dirty and brown to a stark white again makes a massive difference.

If you have hardwood that’s scratched and looking worse for wear, you actually don’t need to replace it. You’ll still want to invest some money in updating it, but repair is cheaper than replacement, in this case. Hiring someone to sand down the surfaces of your hardwood will give it a smooth, like-new surface again. Putting on a fresh coat of sealant will make your wooden floors look shiny and fresh once more.

The only time you really need to replace hardwood floors is if they’re warped from water damage or are buckling. Boards that bend beneath your feet are not safe to sand and leave. Sanding them will further thin them out and if they’re already bending, they’re dangerous to leave in.

Moving Time

If you’re selling your home, it’s probably moving time, right? Don’t settle for a cookie cutter house that was built to someone else’s tastes. Give us a call at Heidan Construction and we can build the custom home you’ve always dreamed of owning.

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Creative Home Design Ideas for Your Renovation

Planning to renovate your home soon? If you’re still in the design stages of your renovation, some more ideas never hurt. Heidan Construction, one of the leading construction companies in Toronto, is here to give you a creativity boost. Here are some creative home design ideas to consider for your upcoming renovation.

Open Concept

One of the easiest ways you can improve your home during a renovation is by moving into open concept design. A lot of older houses feel cramped and small because of how many dividing walls were used during construction. Removing some of those dividing walls is a fantastic way to increase perceived interior space. Open up your kitchen to your dining room. Take away the divider between the kitchen and living room.

Not only does removing these dividing walls make the entire space feel much larger, it makes it feel more social too. Being able to see and talk to someone who’s in the kitchen while you lounge on the couch is amazing. Sound travels much easier and the home begins to feel much more like one space than many small, separate ones.

Take Advantage of the Process

If you’re going to have your home torn apart in one place or another, now is the time to consider some of those little additions that you always wanted. Have a wall being moved outward to expand the kitchen or living room? Now is the perfect time to install a fireplace or a lovely bay window.

If your renovation is going to make its way toward expanding your bedroom or master bath, consider a dividing fireplace. Putting a fireplace in the dividing wall between your master bath and bedroom is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. You can enjoy the fire from either location without having to pay the price for two fireplaces. Plus, it really brings the two rooms together, making your room and bathroom both feel bigger. The increased light flow from one room to the other is also a bonus.

Built-In Shelving

A personal favorite is the implementation of built-in shelving. If your renovation will be moving or adjusting a wall where you have or will have a fireplace or entertainment center, consider this: imagine having shelving built into the walls on either side. You can use these shelves to line up your collection of books by the fireplace. You could use it for setting up consoles beside your TV or storing games or movies. Your imagination is the only limit.

And, no matter what kind of design you end up with for your renovated home, know you can count on Heidan Construction to give you a successful renovation. Our team of experienced builders has been renovating homes for nearly 20 years. Let us take on yours too.

Plus, if you haven’t had professional help with your renovation design, we can help with that to. Our team specializes not only in construction, but in design build. Give us a call today if you’re interested in our services and we’ll be happy to set up a consultation.

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Bring to Life the Office Building of Your Dreams

Are you ready to make your dreams of starting a business come to life? Whether you’re a first-time business owner or you’re upgrading to the next step, getting a new office is thrilling. Making it the exact building you’ve been envisioning working in for the last decade? Priceless. That’s why you should rely on Heidan Construction to build your office up right. From beginning to end, relying on our team is the best way to ensure your office buildingturns out exactly as you expect it to.

Design Build

One of the most important facets of Heidan Construction is that we do design build. What does that mean? Well, it means that, no matter what you’re building, we can help you through the process from the very beginning. Whether you want a medical office, a dental office, a commercial office, or a home, we’ve got you covered.

At the first consultation, we’ll take all of your ideas down and begin the process of designing your building. Ensuring our design is exactly what you’re looking for is a priority. After all, this is the building you’re paying for. You deserve to get exactly what you’ve asked for. After we have your building designed and blueprinted, we can bring it to life.

Unique Qualities of Office Design

The thing about office buildings is that they’re unique in their design needs. You’ll need a lot of open workspace for employees to work from. Ensuring there’s an open concept design as well as ample plugins for computers is important. Plus, employees need their workspace to be somewhere they can thrive. For some, that might mean large windows to let in lots of sunlight. For others, that might mean a controlled temperature. It’s really up to you in the end. But, because you’re catering to your workers rather than customers, you get to prioritize things that commercial buildings don’t.

Get Creative

Your design doesn’t need to be like all the rest. So many offices look exactly the same. Cut yourself loose and think creatively with us about the way you want your office to look. Help us design a building that inspires you every day that you go to work. Help us design a building that inspires your employees as well to give it their all when they come to work each day.

There are so many ways to make a space unique. Take a look at our portfolio and see how we approach unique design. We’re sure you’ll like what you see. Now, imagine what your own office building would look like if it was the next feature in our finished project spread.

Hire Heidan

If you want great results on your, you need to hire Heidan for your next Toronto office building construction project. We have the experience and the professionalism to get the job done right. Give us a call to book a consultation today. If you have any questions, we’ll be happy to clear things up for you.

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Construction Company Red Flags to Watch Out For: Part 2

Heidan Construction, a leading company construction company in Toronto, is here to let you in on construction company red flags. There are a lot of businesses out there with a less than ideal track record. We want to inform you on how to tell who’s the real deal and who’s a bad idea. In Part 1, we covered why bad communication and a lack of portfolio are bad signs in a construction company. Here are some more things to look out for.

No Respect for Your Needs

When you go in for an initial consultation with your construction company, there are a lot of things you should be looking for. Feeling like you’re being heard is a huge deal. There is almost nothing more important than feeling like you’re being listened to when working with a construction team.

Having a house built or renovated is a massive and expensive undertaking. When putting forward that much money, you need to know you can trust the people you’re paying. Don’t settle for a team that:

  • Talks over you when you try to explain your needs.
  • Tries to tell you that you don’t want something that you’re sure you do, unless they have code-based reasons for depriving you.
  • Doesn’t understand basic construction concepts. If you know more than them, without notable amounts of construction experience, that’s a bad sign. 
  • Is unwilling to change their design. If you work with a design build team and they create a design that you feel isn’t what you want, they should be willing to change it. You’re not paying your design build team to build whatever they want.

Weird Fees

When you hire a construction team, there shouldn’t be any weird side fees for their work. One way a company can scam you out of extra money is by tacking on unnecessary and substandard fees for things like certain pieces of equipment. If you’re hiring a team and see a fee that you’re unsure about, give us a call and we’ll let you know if that’s a normal fee for the practice.

Lack of Respectable Behavior

Something you should keep an eye out for is a construction team that isn’t respectable in their appearance and behavior. This is one of the biggest construction company red flags. Even in a hard work industry like construction, team members should be dressed for the job and on their best behavior. Construction sites aren’t a playground.

While it’s fairly normal for a team of friends to joke around with each other here and there. However, crude jokes, alcohol, and reckless behavior on a job-site is a huge red flag. If you’re looking for someone to get injured on your property, this is a great way to achieve that. Don’t settle for dangerous, juvenile behavior. Instead, hire professionals who have pride in themselves and their work.

If you’re looking for a consultation for your next renovation or building project in Toronto, give us a call. Heidan Construction has the experience and professionalism that you need.

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Construction Company Red Flags to Watch Out For: Part 1

When it comes time to upgrade your home – or even build a new one – you’ll need to hire trusted professionals. Unfortunately, there are a lot of construction companies that just aren’t worth their salt. Leading construction specialists in Toronto, Heidan Construction, wants to let you know what to watch out for. Here are some construction company red flags you should keep an eye out for. If you see any of these bad signs, you might want to check with other companies before hiring.

Bad Communication

A big red flag to look out for in any industry is bad communication. This can come in many forms.

  • No one at the phone. If you call for the first time, during business hours, and get an answering machine, that’s not ideal. While some businesses do take most client information through the answering machine to screen calls, it’s not the best business practice. It shows a lack of enthusiasm with client dealings and it makes communication harder for prospective clients.
  • Slow response times. If you’ve called to get a consultation and left a voicemail you should get a prompt response time. Within 24 hours, you should have been called back with a follow-up to schedule your consultation. More than 48 hours is a bad sign.
  • Telephone pinball. If the phone gets answered by a different person every time and they have no way of finding you and your needs in their records, that’s a bad sign. You shouldn’t need to take ten minutes filling in each new person on what’s already happened. This speaks of a disorganized office. If a team can’t even keep your consultation plans together, how will they complete a complicated construction job successfully?

No Portfolio

Every successful construction company will be happy to show off their successful projects. Even if they don’t have it readily available online, they should be able to show you a portfolio upon request.

The majority of quality construction companies will keep photos of their work right on their website. After all, if they have successful work, why wouldn’t they want to put it up for prospective clients to see? After all, seeing someone’s finished work is what creates most business.

If the company you’re considering has no record of their work online and they’re trying to tell you they’re experienced, find someone else. While there’s nothing sketchy about a new business having a little less record of their work, they wouldn’t lie about being a new business. A dishonest company is one you should avoid having any dealings with.

If you want to know more construction company red flags to look out for, check out part 2. However, if you’re looking for a consultation now, give us a call at Heidan Construction. We look forward to hearing from you.