5 Archaic Features Your Suburban Home Could Do Without

Although suburban living has made the American Dream come true for many people, suburban homes also have some negative features that still continue to exist. Architects, engineers, and city planners are taking a new look at the latest building materials, floor plans, and energy efficient forms to improve the suburban home model. As technology continues to improve, some old design principles of suburban standards that have been reproduced for more than a century, and usually not that well, need to be shifted towards new building paradigms. Here are five archaic features your suburban home could definitely do without.

  1. Vernacular “cookie cutter” Forms

    One of the main critiques about the average American suburban home is its mundane floor plans and its lack of functional design. Vernacular forms should be unique to a specific region because of different climate, terrain, and local building materials but nowadays, the same floor plans are being reproduced everywhere, with no consideration for specific location or building means. To make matters worse, the same box set of façade are usually tacked onto suburban homes, which now lack originality and optimal functionality.

  2. Partial Front Cladding

    Cladding material on a home (especially the front façade) speaks great volumes on the quality of construction of the home. In general, most suburban homes need to be built inexpensively, so partial brick cladding is a popular recurring theme. There’s nothing wrong with using different materials, but partially cladding the front exterior while the rest of the house is cladding in cheaper materials makes for a fragmented look.

  3. Vinyl Flooring

    Vinyl floors are a popular option among suburban homeowners, especially in the kitchen on bathrooms. Since they are easy to install and less expensive than many other flooring options, vinyl seems to be a great solution. However, they don’t stand up well to heavy loads and can be damaged rather easily by sharp objects. The colors may also fade from exposure to sunlight. For this reason, it’s a less desirable flooring option.

  4. Standard Pitch Roof

    There has been incredible roofing improvements recently – solar panels, green roofs, and sustainable roofing shingle materials. However, the suburban standard model has yet to really explore new initiatives or forms.

  5. Shag Carpet

    Carpet throughout a home is just something that should be avoided, as carpet can lead to allergens and dust mites, which seem to proliferate especially on shag carpet. For a more healthy living environment and easier maintenance, carpet should be replaced with hardwood flooring materials. Of course, this all depends on your preferences, but carpet continues to be a standard flooring material for most suburban homes today.

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