The irony in where the Home Builders Association of Richmond’s 1998 president will be living this spring is not lost on him.
Lloyd M. Poe builds new houses using modern construction technology and materials, but he and his wife are renovating a 200-year-old house they bought in Chesterfield County, Clover Hill Plantation.
Floors creak and windows have single-pane glass, Poe said. An old house is “absolutely a different animal from new construction,” he said.
The family’s move March 1 from the Salisbury subdivision to Clover Hill Plantation is an act of love for his wife, Susan, a history buff and board member of the Chesterfield Historical Society, Poe said.
Clover Hill Plantation at Winterpock appears for the first time on tax records in 1830, Mrs. Poe said, but the property’s origins date to the 1690s.
Poe, general contractor for the renovation, said restoration includes cosmetically rebuilding 11 fireplaces, returning heart pine floors to natural color and texture, replacing 29 window panes with old glass salvaged from windows from other old properties, and replacing a shingle roof with tin.
New construction involves building 26-foot-long porches, which the house once had; installing a kitchen with modern appliances and a new master bath; and adding crown molding and wainscoting to formal areas.
A dependency also was converted to a guest house with bedroom, small kitchen and bath.
Homes built today are better than they used to be, say 20 to 30 years ago, because of building techniques and materials, said Poe, president of LifeStyle Builders & Developers Inc.
“I believe builders use better technology than ever before” and have “knowledge and availability of products they never had before,” Poe said.
For example, a house built in 1970 might have had R-19 ceiling insulation; today, ceiling insulation is at least R-32. Advances in efficient heating and cooling systems also cut operating costs.
Builders use more floor and roof trusses, which provide “a dependable product, engineered for a specific use. You have far less variables than with dimensional lumber,” he said.
Builders also have access to high-grade, engineered lumber – composite products that inch for inch will bear more weight and be more stable, he added.
Other facets of new construction that made homes today better built, according to Poe, include:
– Insulated concrete forms that offer dependability and cost effectiveness in foundations and wall systems;
– Low-maintenance products that save the homeowner time and maintenance costs, such as aluminum hand rails that don’t rust, rot or need painting. Other products in the low-maintenance category include vinyl siding and vinyl windows with insulated glass. Wood used on exteriors often is wrapped in a coated metal that does not need painting;
– New insulation techniques, such as the use of air sealant to minimize leaks of heated or air-conditioned air. Insulation blown into attics and walls offers a quieter, better-insulated house;
– High energy-efficient heating and air conditioning equipment that can reduce the operating cost by 50 percent over the cost five years ago, Poe said; and
– New construction techniques, such as eliminating outside vents in crawl spaces in favor of a heating/air conditioning vent to create a constant year-round temperature there. With this approach, a basement foundation is sealed to prevent air loss.
“The builder community is getting formally educated on new systems and products. Construction is in a continued education mode” to stay abreast of new developments in building science, Poe said. “We have to stay up on the learning curve.”
The Home Builders Association of Richmond, which has 550 builder and associate members, holds seminars in continuing education for builders. Courses also are offered through the state home builders association.
Poe has built about 300 homes in the Richmond area since opening his company here in 1990. He began building in the $80,000 to $90,000 price range; last year, his company’s average house price was $232,000.
Home building gives him an outlet for both his analytic, technical side and his creative side, Poe said.
He initially indulged his technical bent by programming computers when he was in college. After graduation, he worked for an electronics contractor and then started his own company, Audio Communications Corp., in Texas.
“Electronics had been a hobby for a long time. I took a hobby and made it a career,” Poe said.
At age 29, he took stock of what he wanted to do the rest of his life.
He had enjoyed remodeling offices for communications systems and opted for real estate.
“I had no real estate training. I had to go through all the courses, certifications, start my quest for knowledge,” Poe said.
He sold apartment projects, then moved into small-scale development in a partnership, and later was offered a job running a company that developed apartment projects in Houston, Florida and Georgia.
Then Houston’s economy was hit by oil recessions, and apartment development overheated. Poe said he realized that if he stayed in real estate, he had to leave Houston’s depressed market.
He had visited Virginia, so in 1987 he formed a partnership in Hampton to build for-sale town houses. The company, Craftmaster Homes, also built multifamily properties, Poe said.
He had not visited Richmond until he was invited to judge the Home Builders Association of Richmond’s Parade of Homes. Poe said he liked the area’s upscale housing and abundance of reasonably priced land.
“I woke up one day and thought `this is going to be another Houston,”‘ Poe said. He recalled thinking that to ride out a recessionary trend “what better place to do it than in Richmond.”
He finished his Hampton projects and in 1990 began building in Richmond.
“I love it here. The people have been very open and very kind,” Poe said.
