The other week, we passed by Carpenter Square on 17th Street just south of Carpenter, and saw some work happening that piqued our interest. This project, in case you don't remember, has meant the construction of eleven new homes on a long vacant lot. A second phase, with a mixed-use building and a courtyard at the corner, is currently under construction. In a neighborhood for which an unattractive architectural style is named, the handsome look of this project has been a welcome break from recent history.
The construction that caught our eye a few weeks back was not work on the corner, but on the homes that were finished earlier this year. It looked like the facades were being replaced. So we reached out to the developers to get the scoop.
According to the developers, the homes were originally sheathed with CertainTeed panels, a product that had a fundamental flaw that caused warping and cracking. The manufacturer had to deal with a class action lawsuit as a result of this defect. So those have been scrapped. The homes are now covered in a product called Viroc which doesn't have the same problems as its predecessor. It's thicker, sturdier, and in our opinion looks nicer. With over half of the homes in the development sold, perhaps the new facades will bump up interest in the coming months. And when the corner is finished, that won't hurt either.