Constructing for a greener future: Asher Custom Homes blends timeless design and modern efficiency
Based in Durango, Colorado, Asher Custom Homes (Asher) is an award-winning design-build firm offering timeless residential design and construction throughout Southwest Colorado. Passionate about making its clients’ visions come to life, its professional team creates truly custom homes tailored to each lifestyle through exquisite craftsmanship while keeping budget in mind. However, Asher’s premium services do not stop there. The company strives to make the entire homebuilding process an inspiring and stress-free experience, fostering lasting relationships with its customers. Every step of the way, Asher ensures that each project exceeds the expectations of its clients and is delivered on schedule. Edward Asher, who serves as Owner and President of the company, provides us with an overview of its history.
“My wife and I purchased the company from the previous owner right before the onset of the pandemic. As part of our rebranding process, we consulted
marketing experts who suggested using a personalized name for our business. They emphasized that homebuilding is a highly personal experience, and clients are drawn to building relationships with the people behind the company. Hence, we named the company Asher Custom Homes, incorporating my name to help establish a partnership with our clients.
“Since acquiring the business in 2019, we have more than doubled our revenue and size while branching out in different directions. We have always been and will remain a custom home building company at our core, but we have diversified a little bit to encompass new areas. We now build hangars at our local airport and even own a cabinet shop, where we personally handle all cabinet builds in-house,” he informs.
Luxury development
Through these strategic expansions, Asher is able to serve a broader clientele while staying true to its roots in custom home building. With that, Edward tells us more about the company’s upcoming project in the Turks and Caicos. “Pending approval, we are set to take on a massive development encompassing a Six Senses resort, featuring a hotel, a golf course, restaurants, retail areas, and holiday homes such as cabins and villas. Our role in this project involves building the homes, while other parties handle the commercial aspects. In line with Six Senses’ environmentally conscious philosophy, we will construct the houses to be eco-friendly and with a minimal carbon footprint. To do so, we will be engineering the houses in a way that promotes air drafting, thereby maintaining a cool temperature through a natural breezeway. By creating this natural movement of air, the houses’ electricity usage for cooling purposes will be significantly reduced. Additionally, we are considering the installation of solar panels on the roofs of certain villas, although that remains undecided at the moment as we are still working on the final plans,” he adds.
Innovative perspectives
As sustainability becomes a more important and pressing issue every day in the global community, Asher is doing its part by incorporating eco-friendly elements into its homes. “People increasingly recognize that our already limited resources are dwindling, and my wife Holly and I are dedicated to introducing innovative perspectives to homebuilding. Fundamental construction techniques have remained largely unchanged for centuries, though we now place a greater emphasis on limiting the waste of natural resources because we understand that conserving them is crucial to reducing expenses. The pandemic has also accelerated this mindset shift, as it became mandatory to build panelized houses and factories for remote work. It really jumpstarted the initiative to adopt remote fabrication, where more components of a house are built elsewhere, which is much more efficient.
“For our panelized homes, we are working with a company based in Canada. Contrary to popular belief regarding prefabricated homes, we can produce plans to panelize and create components for any home shape. This production approach has several advantages, including faster construction times because the homes are built in factories where everything is perfectly level, resulting in greater accuracy and efficiency. Moreover, the company we partner with utilizes a computer layout to determine its lumber requirements and optimize lumber usage. By embracing this approach, we significantly reduce our resource usage as we maximize the utility of the lumber, ultimately optimizing the use of the wood log. Additionally, we often use glued components, such as laminated strand lumber (LSL) and laminated veneer lumber (LVL), which are fabricated using hydraulic presses and adhesives. This process repurposes the scraps created during manufacturing by transforming them back into usable lumber for homebuilding, resulting in stronger houses.”
Increasing efficiencies
In addition to its sustainable initiatives, Asher’s panelized and prefabricated homes are also a gamechanger in terms of efficiency and cost. “Building the entire frame of a panelized house with a three-person team using a crane only takes two or three weeks, whereas with traditional building methods, it would require three-to-four months. However, it’s important to note that panelizing a single house does not immediately result in cost savings, as we still need to buy lumber and pay for assembly. The real cost savings from panelizing homes become apparent when building multiple homes simultaneously, as opposed to constructing each home individually. For example, by panelizing ten houses at once, we can take advantage of bulk pricing for materials like lumber, which is more cost-effective than purchasing just enough supplies for a single house at a time. In turn, the repetition of this streamlined process leads to greater efficiencies and allows for the mass production of houses, resulting in additional savings over time,” Edward concludes.
With its sustainable building practices and diverse capabilities, Asher is set to continue expertly delivering unique projects and homes well into the future.