Wireless speakers built into bathroom exhaust fans, expanded keyless entry systems allowing children to use their smartphone for access and a new construction adhesive that can be applied to wet materials.
Those are just a few of the new products and trends home builders from the Baton Rouge area learned about last week during the annual National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders Show in Las Vegas. The show, held in the Las Vegas Convention Center, brought together 110,000 attendees, including at least 10 from Baton Rouge, to view products and demonstrations by about 460 exhibitors.
Carol Smith, president of the Capital Region Home Builders Association and co-owner of Harvey Smith Construction with her brother, says her biggest takeaway from the show is the trend toward moving the exhaust fan blower in the kitchen from the hood over the stove to the attic or roof, which cuts down on noise. That will be particularly helpful in outdoor kitchens that are becoming staples of new homes, Smith says.
“In all of our homes, we are installing outdoor kitchens—you can’t hardly sell a home right now without outdoor kitchens,” Smith says. “With outdoor kitchens, we normally put a TV, and you can’t hear anything” with a loud exhaust fan.
The new construction adhesive is also a product that piqued Smith’s interest because of the applications in south Louisiana, where the threat of rain is something builders are constantly monitoring and fighting.
“Water application here is huge,” Smith says.
Other trends are the continued move toward LED lighting, heated toilet seats, new hinge doorstops that apply the pressure of stopping the door on the hinges themselves instead of the doorframe, and the move toward wireless technology in a number of relevant applications.
“Everything is going wireless, so during our construction, we are not having to put in the wires we used to in each room,” Smith says.
As for the educational offerings at the show, Baton Rouge developer Craig Toups says economists told the developers that they do not expect the interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgages to rise past 5.5% this year. They also said millennials want to become homeowners like all the past generations, but they will likely do so later in life than other generations because of student loan debt.
“Some people had speculated that they’re not an ownership generation, but studies have shown that they are,” Toups says of millennials.
—Ryan Broussard
