What Comes Standard in a Scarlett Home
Most people shopping for a new home spend a significant amount of time comparing floor plans and price, far fewer spend time comparing what’s actually inside the walls — the concrete specifications, the subfloor system, the wiring standards, the insulation values — because most builders don’t make that information easy to find.
We do. And that’s worth explaining.
Scarlett Homes has been building in Hamilton and Ancaster since 1988. Over that time, we’ve watched the new construction market change considerably: lot sizes have tightened, price pressures have intensified, and the gap between what a builder calls “standard” and what buyers actually expect has widened in ways that aren’t always obvious until you’re living in the home.
What follows is an honest look at how we build and a category-by-category breakdown of the specifications and finishes that come with every Scarlett Home, and why they matter for the long term.
Why “Standard” Is the Most Important Word in New Construction
When a builder advertises a home at a given price, that price reflects their standard package — everything else is an upgrade. The difference between builders isn’t just in what they offer as upgrades; it’s in what they don’t make you pay extra for.
At Scarlett Homes, our standard specifications are deliberate. Every detail on our standard features list was chosen because it performs over 30 or 40 years, not because it photographs well at a sales centre. We’ve learned through decades of building, and through the feedback of buyers who have come back to us for their second and third homes, that the decisions made during the framing stage matter far more than the ones made at the design table.
That said, you should be able to make both with confidence.
The Exterior: Where Quality Is Visible, and Where It Isn’t
All-Brick Construction
Every Scarlett Home is built with an all-brick exterior: genuine clay or calcite brick, not concrete alternatives, and not vinyl siding on the main body. We offer more than 20 brick colours, so the choice is yours, but the material standard is not something we vary by price point or lot location.
This matters for a straightforward reason: brick ages differently than other cladding materials. It doesn’t warp, fade, or require repainting. It manages moisture, adds thermal mass, and holds its appearance through decades of Ontario freeze-thaw cycles in ways that vinyl and fibre cement simply don’t.
We take that further with a few details that are uncommon in production construction:
Concrete window sills on every elevation. Many builders use precast on the front of the home — the street-facing side — and revert to plain brick sills on the sides and rear. We use precast throughout. If water gets behind a plain brick sill, it creates a path into the wall. Precast sills significantly reduce that risk.
Raked or tooled mortar joints on all four sides. Same principle. A properly finished mortar joint sheds water. An unfinished joint — which you’ll find on the sides and backs of many production homes — creates an absorption point. We finish every joint on every elevation.
Heavy-duty brick starter strip at the foundation wall. This “poly crete” strip sits between the top of the foundation and the first course of brick, reducing moisture wicking from the concrete into the wall above. It’s a small detail with an outsized impact on how the base of the home performs over time.
Structural Concrete That Exceeds Code
Ontario Building Code sets minimum concrete strength requirements. We exceed them, and we’re specific about it:
- Basement walls: 20 MPa concrete (the code minimum is 15 MPa)
- Porches and garage slabs: 32 MPa concrete with reinforcing steel
The practical difference: higher-strength concrete is denser, less porous, and more resistant to cracking. For a garage slab or porch — surfaces that take repeated vehicle loads and direct exposure to road salt through Ontario winters — 32 MPa holds up noticeably better over the long term.
The Structure You Never See
The framing stage is where the character of a home is determined. By the time drywall goes up, most of these decisions are permanent — and invisible. Here’s what we do differently.
Plywood roof sheathing, not OSB. Oriented strand board is the production standard because it’s less expensive. Plywood is dimensionally more stable, handles moisture exposure better during construction, and holds fasteners more reliably over time. We use plywood on every roof.
Warp-resistant, kiln-dried floor joists. Green or improperly dried lumber shrinks and twists as it dries after installation. That movement is one of the primary causes of squeaky floors. We specify kiln-dried joists — or engineered joists on longer spans — specifically to minimize that problem.
Subfloor engineered to stay quiet. We use a premium tongue-and-groove subfloor product on the main level, glued, nailed, and screwed. The joints are sanded before flooring installation to ensure a flat, level surface. That combination — the right product, installed correctly — is what separates a floor that performs quietly for 20 years from one that starts making noise within a few.
Drywall applied with both screws and nails. Screws don’t pop. Nails can, particularly as the framing settles and seasonal humidity cycles through the home. Using both reduces that risk considerably.
Steel beam and post construction in the basement. This affects how the home ages structurally — and how flexible the basement is for future finishing, because the spans are clear and the layout isn’t constrained by wood post locations.
Inside the Home: Finishes That Hold Up
Kitchen Cabinetry That’s Actually Custom
Our kitchen cabinets are built specifically for each home. That distinction matters: custom cabinetry is designed and built to fit the room, versus stock or semi-custom cabinetry that’s ordered from a catalogue and adapted as best as possible to the space.
The result is better use of layout, better proportion, and a finished product that reads as designed rather than assembled. We offer a wide range of colours and door styles, so the aesthetic is yours — but the construction quality is consistent across every home we build.
Bathrooms: Details That Live With You
A bathroom finish looks the same on day one regardless of how well it’s built. What varies is how it holds up.
All Scarlett Homes include pressure-balanced shower valves throughout — valves that maintain a consistent water temperature when pressure drops elsewhere in the system. It’s a safety feature as much as a comfort one, and it’s standard in every bathroom, not just the primary ensuite.
We use decorative metal trim where painted walls meet tile, which eliminates exposed caulk edges — an approach that’s both cleaner visually and more durable than standard drywall-to-tile transitions. Underneath the tile in all ceramic and shower areas, we install wire mesh and a cement layer that prevents cracking and water infiltration behind the tile over time. The tile looks the same on day one either way. The performance difference shows up years later.
Flooring With a Structural Foundation
Premium 12″ x 24″ ceramic and porcelain tile is standard in the foyer, main hall, kitchen, dinette, all bathrooms, and the laundry room. Carpeted areas receive a premium 10mm underpad with your choice of a quality Canadian-made carpet — 36 oz. nylon or 40 oz. polyester. These are specifications that affect how the flooring looks and feels ten years from now, not just on move-in day.
Electrical and Plumbing: The Infrastructure Behind the Walls
200-amp copper wiring throughout. Copper, not aluminum. A 200-amp panel is standard — not an upgrade — which gives you meaningful headroom for EV chargers, additional appliances, and future basement development. Every bedroom has a ceiling light fixture. Exterior outlets are provided at both front and rear. Two central vacuum rough-ins are included, as are two security wire rough-ins for future alarm system installation.
PEX plumbing throughout. PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) has replaced copper as the material of choice in quality residential construction for good reason: it’s flexible, highly resistant to corrosion, and performs well through the freeze-thaw conditions common in Canadian climates. We use it throughout — not just in select runs.
Energy Efficiency: Beyond Minimum Code
Every Scarlett Home is built to outperform Ontario Building Code’s energy requirements, not merely meet them. The difference shows up in monthly operating costs and year-round comfort.
Our standard insulation values: R-18.5 in exterior walls, R-32 in ceilings, R-12 in the basement. Every home includes a heat recovery ventilator (HRV), which continuously circulates fresh air through the home while recovering heat from exhaust air — a meaningful improvement in indoor air quality and heating efficiency through a Canadian winter.
Heating ductwork is sized and positioned for central air conditioning, so that addition is a clean, straightforward installation rather than a retrofit. Sufficient ducts are extended to the basement so the lower level is comfortable year-round — not an afterthought.
Ceiling Heights and Design
Nine-foot ceilings are standard on the main floor. Eight feet on the second floor. Seven-and-a-half in the basement. Where the plan allows, vaulted and cathedral ceilings are available, as are cold cellars.
We offer over 20 stock floor plans across open-concept and traditional layouts — bungalows, bungalow-lofts, and two-storey designs — and minor structural modifications are available at no additional cost. If you have something more specific in mind, custom plan design is available for those whose needs fall outside what our standard plans can accommodate.
The Warranty Behind Every Home
Scarlett Homes has held the Ontario New Home Warranty Program’s Service Excellence rating since the company was founded. That recognition is awarded based entirely on homeowner satisfaction surveys — it cannot be purchased, and it cannot be self-reported. It’s the most straightforward measure of how a builder treats its buyers after closing day.
Every Scarlett Home is protected by a full Tarion warranty:
- 1 year — workmanship and materials
- 2 years — plumbing, electrical, heating, windows, doors, exterior cladding, and water penetration
- 7 years — major structural defects
We’re transparent about what’s covered and how to access it. You can reach our customer service team directly at any point during your warranty period, and our online warranty request system means you’re never left navigating a general inquiry line.
What This Means for Your Decision
Comparing new construction homes on price per square foot is a reasonable starting point. But price per square foot doesn’t tell you what the concrete in the garage slab is rated at, whether the roof sheathing is plywood or OSB, how the mortar joints on the side elevation were finished, or what the subfloor is engineered to do.
Those details are unglamorous. They don’t show well at a presentation centre. But they are what determines how a home performs five, fifteen, and twenty-five years from now — and they are what separates a home that ages well from one that doesn’t.
At Scarlett Homes, these aren’t selling points. They’re just how we build.
We’d be glad to walk you through our current communities, show you what our standard finishes look like in person, and help you find a plan that works for your family and your budget.
