JSG Associates

Serving the community of Rockwall, Texas

Exterior Features and Other Basics

JSG Foundations: Second to None
Most custom builders use engineered foundations. We exceed the engineers' requirements. We start by laying out the outline of the home and flagging where each pier is to be drilled. Piers are located at every beam intersection, including the perimeter - dozens of them throughout the foundation.
	Piers are drilled to stable soil, as deep as 29 feet, and 2 pieces of steel are placed down the center in each pier as reinforcement required by city codes. We know of some builders who cheat by using only one piece of steel. After all, who’s going to know?
Interior beams are dug in a checkerboard pattern and around the perimeter of the home. All beams are 30 inches deep, which exceeds engineering requirements. A cushion of sand is added on top of the soil. Additional piers and steel reinforcement is added under fireplaces.
Post tension cables are criss-crossed throughout the slab and in each beam. Cables are placed closer than engineering requirements for an even stronger slab. Cables are tightened once concrete cures and hardens. Protrusions like bay windows, and corners are reinforced with extra steel for added strength.
	A moisture barrier is placed over the entire foundation. As the concrete is poured it fills the beams and raises the finished floor to a thickness of 5 inches.

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Acme Brick

Since 1891, The Best Thing to Have Around Your House

Your home is one of your most important investments - its exterior should protect your investment for a lifetime. Since Acme Bricks are made from fine earth clays that are hard-fired in computer-controlled kilns at temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees, you can be absolutely confident that Acme Brick will outlast your mortgage.

There are many other bricks on the market of inferior quality at a lesser cost. Typical ingredients include cement, sand, limestone, and synthetic color pigments. The artificial coloring is either added to the body or used as a surface coating and will fade and change over time while exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Some bricks of high sand content will actually disintegrate with the action of rainwater washing over their surface.

Each Acme Brick is manufactured to exceed quality standards established by all building codes and demanded by our most quality conscious customers. Your complete satisfaction with Acme Brick is our primary objective. Acme guarantees that their brick will endure sub-freezing cold, will withstand blistering heat, and will remain beautiful for 100 years. That’s why every JSG Custom Home is surrounded with Acme Brick - it is simply the best brick on the market, bar none.

Brand Recognition

Homebuyers look for names that they trust. The Acme name represents more than a century of making quality brick that exceed the standards of all building codes. The Acme Brick name, stamped into the ends of their brick at random, is your assurance of quality. Still think all brick are alike? If resale value is important to you, simply look at a few homes in older neighborhoods that used cheaper brick and compare it to any home built in the last 100 years using Acme Brick.

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Ever Wonder What’s Behind the Brick?
		At JSG we use solid plywood sheathing behind the brick on all exterior walls and genuine cedar plank siding on dormers and areas that most builders use man made siding materials. The reason? As you might have guessed, plywood sheathing securing the framing costs a little more but gives superior results. The sheets of plywood yields a stiffer, stronger, more stable wall system.
Next time you drive through a neighborhood under construction notice the homes that only have wood sheathing on the corners for “wind bracing”. What you are looking at is the minimum required for strength by city codes. The builder saves about $5 per sheet by using cheaper materials instead of wood sheathing on the rest of the house. It begs the question; where else is the builder cutting corners to save $5 off the cost?

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Floors and Ceilings

For stronger floors and straighter ceilings, you need a Solid Start.

For years 2x12s and plywood sheathing were the standard for the construction of second story flooring. Trouble is, solid sawn lumber is not uniform or dimensionally stable. This means they are not straight and tend to twist, split, and shrink causing ripples and squeaky floors that show up long after the home is complete. Then came a dramatic improvement; engineered I-joists and premium Top Notch Tongue & Groove flooring. The Solid Start system is the strongest, most stable floor available. Which is why JSG Associates uses this system in every 2-story home we build, it’s the best!

It’s in the Engineering

Louisiana Pacific 14 inch I-joists are structurally engineered to be uniform in strength, stiffness, size and weight. Pound for pound they have greater load-carrying capacity than the old solid sawn lumber. In contrast to the old dimensional lumber, L.P. 14 inch I-joists resist shrinking, twisting, splitting, and crowning. They start straighter and stay straighter. Glue bonds hold fast and engineered joists allow for long lengths of smooth floors without ripples or squeaks that inevitably develop with the old solid sawn lumber systems. If a new 2 story home you are considering isn’t built with 14 inch engineered I-joists, you will be reminded of it for years to come.

Top Notch: The Perfect Companion

Top Notch is Louisiana-Pacific’s patented tongue-and-groove flooring.

The exclusive Top Notch Tongue and Groove design is subject to less weather-related construction problems like expansion, contraction, swelling, buckling, warping, and delamination than traditional flooring panels. Top Notch panels are an excellent base for applying underlayment or finish flooring materials. Tongue-and-groove edges are self-spacing and 1&1/8 inch Top Notch exceeds installation specifications.Combined with 14 inch engineered joists, the 1&1/8 inch panel meets APA Code Plus requirements for high performance floor systems.

The preferred Solid Start floor system with 14 inch engineered I-joists and the 1&1/8 inch Top Notch Tongue & Groove panel is stronger and more rigid than the old traditional floor panel. In fact, this system is 80% stiffer than the old sawn lumber floor, so it has a much more solid feel, is much stronger and much more stable.

So ask yourself this question: why don’t all builders use this superior system of flooring? The answer is simple, the old sawn lumber systems are cheaper, and the problems don’t show up till long after closing.

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Full Perimeter Rain Guttering A luxury, yes, but also a necessity included on every JSG Custom Home.
	Maintaining your home’s foundation is the first priority in protecting your investment. Not having rain gutters invites trouble by making it harder to manage the water flowing off your roof. This causes uneven ground moisture content, the number one cause of soil upheaval and the resulting foundation problems.
Rain gutters collect the water pouring off your roof and channels it harmlessly out to your yard, preventing it from over-saturating the soil around your foundation. Without guttering water pools around your foundation.
	If you object to the look of guttering on your front elevation we offer the choice of these handsome, round pewter color downspouts that compliment the architecture of your home. Whatever home you decide to buy, insist on full perimeter rain guttering. It’s another subtle place builders will try to shave costs.

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Energy Efficiency
High efficiency heating & air conditioning from a name everyone knows, Fridgidaire. High efficiency coils means we use units that have a SEER rating of 13.
	Multiple units means your system doesn’t work overtime to keep your home at a constant temperature, even during the hot Texas summer.
Thermal insulation rated to R-50 in the attic provides a thick blanket of protection that exceeds insulation requirements.

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“Hurry With Your Shower, We’re Running Out of Hot Water”

Has that sentence ever been uttered around your house? You won’t hear it again in a JSG Custom Home. Every home we build that is 3000 square feet or larger comes equipped with your choice of 2 hot water systems. After all, it’s the 21st century, we have the technology to keep our customers in hot water.

All Water Heaters Are NOT Created Equal!!

Dual 75 gallon Rheem rapid recovery high efficiency gas water heaters delivers 162 gallons of hot water in the first hour. This saves on energy bills and assures you’ll have plenty of hot water when you need it.

If you’re tired of having to time the clothes wash around showering times, or rushing through your shower to “save hot water for the next person” insist on dual Rheem water heaters.

As of July 1, 2003, all residential water heaters must meet the new requirements of the American National Standards Institute. The Rheem Guardian System™ exceeds the new standard to provide maintenance free protection.

Or, choose the system that delivers an endless supply of hot water...

The Rinnai Continuum

If you have a large family, multiple baths, a spa tub, you may want an endless supply of hot water. The Rinnai system doesn’t store a tank of hot water and wait till it’s needed. Instead, it heats the water as you use it, at the temperature setting you decide,and it delivers 8.5 gallons of hot water per minute continuously, endlessly, until you turn the faucet off. This means you are not paying to heat a tank of water all day long while you’re at work, at night while you are sleeping, or for a week while you are on vacation. You heat the water using energy efficient gas only while you are using it. Then it stops and waits till you need hot water again.

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