Tekra Builders: Creative, High-Efficiency Homes With Beautifully Crafted Appeal

  |  September 24, 2024

Photo by Pamela Cook, PRC Photos.

Preserving a home’s historic charm while improving its energy efficiency can be a daunting task for any builder. For Tekra Builders, the recent renovation of a c.1880 Beacon home was one of the most challenging projects the team had yet faced. Like many older homes, it was drafty and poorly insulated, but it came with a legacy and character they were determined to preserve.

“The home is believed to be the childhood home of Digger Phelps, former Notre Dame basketball coach and longtime ESPN analyst, whom the street is also named after,” says Dan Arket, who co-founded Tekra Builders with his father Steve in 2017.

Tekra Builders was determined to preserve the architectural legacy of this c.1880 house–said to be the childhood home of Digger Phelps—while renovating it to contemporary high-performance standards.

Working in collaboration with architect Fabian Bedolla of FB/, the Dutchess County-based builders found creative ways to honor the home’s architectural legacy, while transforming it into a high-performance home that uses less energy for heating and cooling. According to Arket, boosting the home’s energy performance ended up requiring a gut renovation and a few outside-the-box solutions.

Photo by Pamela Cook, PRC Photos. When the homeowners decided they wanted to keep a few of the historic brick walls that would traditionally be covered up by insulation, Tekra found a solution by insulating the home’s exterior.

When the renovation revealed brick insulation or nogging between the studs, the homeowners decided they wanted to keep a few brick walls, not cover them up. Energy efficiency requires a focus on airtightness, and a typical solution might be to remove the brick and use the cavity for insulation. Instead, Tekra solved the problem—and saved the walls—by insulating from the outside.

For the home’s roof, Tekra used monopoly framing, an alternative approach to roof framing that creates a continuous air barrier and eliminates thermal bridging.

“After creating a really tight envelope of the house, we then added five inches of exterior insulation and attached our siding to that over a rainscreen,” says Arket, who brings his background in mechanical engineering and building science to every project. “We did what’s called monopoly framing, which is an alternative approach to roof framing that creates a continuous air barrier and eliminates thermal bridging. We insulated the roof with mineral wool from the inside, as well as on the outside on top of the roof sheathing.”

To enhance the home’s architectural heritage, the team also worked diligently to recreate traditional details.

Photo by Pamela Cook, PRC Photos. The basket weave pattern highlighted on the porch spandrels, railings, as well as the front walkway pays homage to one of the home’s original details.

“It’s all wood siding and trim, plus cedar decking on the exterior, as the client wanted to avoid using modern composite materials,” says Arket. “One detail you’ll notice that has been preserved is the cedar shingles on the gable ends of the house, and the basket weave pattern highlighted on the porch spandrels, railings, as well as the front walkway, which we used reclaimed brick from the chimney that was removed to create. The basketweave pattern can also be found inside with the HVAC supply grills and the marble shower wall tile.”

Photo by Pamela Cook, PRC Photos. That same basket weave pattern can be seen in the tiling for a bathroom shower wall.

“From a building science perspective high-performance homes typically tend to be more of a contemporary design,” adds Arket. “This historic home has so much character you might not even notice some of the high-performance aspects.”

Except, of course, for how comfortable and quiet the four-bedroom 2,500 square foot home is. The craftsmanship that created such comfort is evident throughout.

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