Aspen, Colorado is a beautiful mountain town in Colorado, with access to the popular Aspen Snowmass ski resort. The town itself offers stunning vistas, year-round outdoor adventure activities, and high-end entertainment, shopping, and dining.
Whether you dream of a ski house to be your home base for the winter, a resort-like house that serves as a family retreat, or simply a comfortable and spacious place to call home full-time, Aspen is a lovely choice.
What to Ask Your Aspen Custom Home Builder
When building a custom home in a mountain town like Aspen, you’ll want to ensure your home meets your goals, suits your environment, and is built to withstand the weather and terrain. Especially when land in Aspen comes with a price tag of $1M+, you want to feel confident your builder has the specific expertise to make your dream home a reality.
Here are three important factors you should ask your builder about when considering a custom home in Aspen, CO:
What is adjusting for siting?
There are many different experts involved in the design, site development, layout, and build of your home. An architect is responsible for the design, while a surveyor will clearly stake out the boundaries before any digging and pouring occurs.
Ultimately, the responsibility of ensuring everything is constructed perfectly falls to the builder. This includes “siting,” which is the practice of carefully evaluating the placement and orientation of the home so it’s in the best possible position. In addition to ensuring that your home captures the best views, this is also important for energy efficiency and preventative maintenance. A properly-sited home will take into account the sun’s path, typical wind patterns, water flow, and more.
What is high-tolerance framing and why do I need it?
Mountain homes are often subject to severe weather, like short but heavy rains that blow through on summer evenings or the heavy loads of snow that pile up in the winter. Your home needs to have exceptional structural integrity to be strong and sturdy for decades.
One way we achieve this is through high-tolerance framing. High-tolerance framing refers to the allowable deviations from the measurements in the framing of your home. A typical framing tolerance is ¼” for ten feet of vertical height. High tolerance framing means we adhere to a much smaller deviation, down to the sixteenths of an inch.
This ensures your building is square and true, which provides the best possible support for your home.
How do I make my home compliment its surroundings?
There are many ways to make your custom home in Aspen, CO look and feel like a natural part of the environment and community.
You can take inspiration from nature and choose a rustic design that invites nature to be a part of your home. You can also lean into modern trends, and select an angular home that reflects the lines of the mountains against the sky.
You can also meet somewhere in the middle, with a contemporary design that captures your unique style, while still maximizing the beautiful surroundings of your custom home.
Top 5 Custom Home Builders in Aspen
A great custom builder will be able to help you design your dream home — one that meets your requirements, exceeds your expectations, and compliments the natural beauty of a place like Aspen. These builders all have extensive experience building custom in a mountain town:
RA Nelson
With a focus on sustainable design, RA Nelson has been operating in the Roaring Fork Valley for nearly 50 years. In addition to custom homes, this team also has experience in recreational areas, commercial construction, affordable housing, and educational facilities. RA Nelson is experienced in mountain communities and resort-like settings, with project locations across Colorado including locations like Vail, Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, Cordillera, Aspen, Snowmass, Buttermilk, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Telluride.
In addition, RA Nelson is employee-owned and has a strong commitment to strengthening their community through volunteering and financial support for local charitable organizations.
Learn more about RA Nelson here.
Maley Building Corporation
We’ve been serving the Roaring Fork Community for decades. Our philosophy is simple: superior workmanship, professional integrity, and focused attention result in exceptional outcomes for our customers. Our network of close relationships among architects, designers, surveyors, and realtors enables us to provide a seamless, comprehensive experience for our clients.
We build for the beautiful landscape we have here in Aspen, CO. Whether that means a modern home with striking juxtaposition against that natural backdrop, a rustic farm, designed to seamlessly blend in with well-preserved ranches, or a contemporary home full of light and comfort, we know how to build a custom home that matches the vision you’ve been dreaming of.
Get in touch for a consultation about our custom building services.
Schaeffer Hyde
For hyper-local expertise, Shaeffer-Hyde has been servicing the Roaring Fork Valley since 1979, with a specific focus on Vail and Aspen. They specialize in luxury custom builds, and integrate innovative technology into their building process to make results efficient and cost-effective for their customers. This includes a four-step process to align with customers expectations, develop a plan, build, and deliver custom results.
Their portfolio includes everything from modern homes to rustic ranches, showcasing the versatility of their expertise.
Learn more about Schaeffer Hyde here.
SH Built
With a mission of elevating the custom build process, SH Built specializes in homes that offer a sense of harmony — whether it’s a ski chalet, mountaintop residence, or river home. The residences they build center around the natural environment and capture their customer’s style.
They offer a technology-enabled process, using construction management software to ensure transparency and clear communication with their clients throughout their custom home build in Aspen, CO.
Learn more about SH Built here.
Why Build a Custom Home in Aspen?
Aspen provides the best of both worlds — stunning natural beauty as well as world-class culture and entertainment in the same spot. Aspen is attractive to visitors and residents alike due to its perfect balance. It’s a true western town, with working ranches, farms, and a rural feel. However, it also hosts film festivals, luxury experiences, and other urban amenities, making it the perfect destination for those who want an “off-the-beaten path” location with the conveniences of a bustling town center.
And for outdoor enthusiasts, you can’t beat the activities and sports offered in the Rocky Mountains. Skiing, rafting, camping, hiking, biking, horseback riding and more are all easily accessible, making Aspen an ideal place for active lifestyles.
Learn more about moving to Aspen and building a custom home — get in touch with Maley Building Corporation today.
