Elevated Design Build - Fort Collins, Colorado

Kierann T.

Dave Kaplan and his team are amazing. They built our dream timber frame home exactly to our specifications and struck the perfect balance between guiding and letting us take the lead on some things. My civil engineer husband desired to be heavily involved and Dave was more than accommodating. Dave’s passion for building timber frame is evident - I drove by one time during the build and he was out there himself helping with the work with a big smile on his face. His team wove in some nice touches like a “frame raising” party that solidified lifelong memories of building our house for us and our kids. We would 200% choose them if we ever built another house - but the finished product is so perfect for us we can’t fathom ever needing another house.

Mike T.

As a independent Residential Energy-Star Home Rater, I have recently worked with Dave Kaplan to certify his custom home projects for the Energy-Star program.

Dave called me early in the process to perform a number of on-site inspections and provide some guidance to his crews. As a result, the implementation was as good as Dave's design.

Elevated Design utilizes; advanced framing, extensive air-sealing, high R-value insulation, fully insulated flooring & concrete slabs, premium windows / doors, and well-designed and installed high-efficiency heating / cooling systems. Last but not least, he utilizes third-party verification to hold the sub-contractors accountable.

All that I can say is that Dave is one of the rare home builders in Northern Colorado that really gets it when it comes to buildings that perform as well as they are beautiful. You really get what you pay for with this company and I look forward to our next project.

On a final note, his most recent home scored a "54" on the HERS rating, meaning that the home uses 46% less energy than a home built to the building-code bare minimum. That's impressive.

Ken A. P. S.

We came to Elevated Design Build after serious soul-searching and failure of a prior home design effort. Dave and his crew were able to help us reconceive our dream home and make it real.

Our original dream home called for a timber frame with strawbale infill. As we went back to the design table, we feared giving up one or the other of those two components. Fortunately, through Dave's and his team's vision, expertise, and attention, we were able to retain both timber frame and straw bale construction elements in our final design and building plan.

Strawbale building is fairly labor-intensive; a successful Strawbale Building Workshop was part of the critical pathway for building our home. With 35+ strawbale building enthusiasts registered to spend a full week in July onsite learning and applying the technology and techniques, we had no wiggle room in that aspect of our timeline. That, along with a short building season in far northern Colorado, necessitated a rapid ramp up of excavation, foundation, and framing as soon as weather broke in the spring. Our Strawbale Building Workshop was scheduled for the second full week in July and, due to seriously inclement weather, the foundation was not poured until the last weekend in May. Dave and his team worked tirelessly and EFFICIENTLY, managing themselves and several subcontractors in order for us to achieve building status to host the workshop, leveraging the benefit of all those workshop-volunteers' efforts. The entire crew worked LONG days and weekends for several weeks knowing how critically dependent our project was on the successful completion of that workshop. And SUCCESSFUL it was! All bales were in place, ready to receive the scratch coat of plaster by mid-July. ALL because of Dave's vision and commitment to us and our vision.

We have had the advantage of living on site throughout the build. As such, we were able to work closely with the Elevated crew to trouble-shoot and solve problems, along with answering any questions and making detailed design decisions, as they arose.

The carpenters have been awesome, each lending input and suggestions based on their own backgrounds and experience; our home's beauty and functionality benefitted greatly from their informal input and suggestions. If we reached a point of indecision or uncertainty, they provided options and suggestions for us to weigh in our decision-making. We can honestly point to specific places in which each team member contributed to the overall outcome of our house.

We've all heard horror stories of people expressing their frustrations and berating their home builders. As we've told so many friends, family, and acquaintances, that simply hasn't been the case working with Elevated Design Build. While your particular building plans may not appear to be an exact match for Dave and his crew, we cannot encourage highly enough that you CONSIDER engaging Elevated Design Build and explore your dream-home design and construction possibilities with them.

Thanks, Dave and all your crew, for helping us actualize our dream!

Adam H.

Elevated created a stunning wedding arbor for our special day. It was crafted with care and designed in such a way that we were able to easily construct it at the venue and then deconstruct and reconstruct it at our home for its final installation. The craftsmanship was first-rate, and working with them was easy and fun! Highly recommend!

Matt S.

Overall it was great working with Dave and his team of professionals. They did really good work and exceeded our expectations. We now have a beautiful outdoor living space and the work Dave’s team did just added to it. We had a vision and Dave made it possible. Thanks for the great work and I highly recommend Elevated Design for your wood working projects.

Jim C.

Dave is a master craftsman that builds, restores, and designs homes. He drew on those experiences to help guide us through the design process. My wife is a spatial thinker and I am analytical; Dave easily navigated between our comments and ideas to produce a design that pleased us both. We completed the design almost exclusively via the internet, meeting only once midway through the process. The final product was not fancy sheet-rock and stucco, rather it was open and balanced, elegant and simple. The design exceeded our expectations. It was a pleasure to meet and to work with such a talent as Dave and his team. Pam and Jim

roger D.

Elevated designed and built our mountain home using timber framing and structural insulated panels (SIPs). The process was easy working with Dave. He anticipated so many details and steered us in directions that were huge improvements on our ideas. We couldn't be happier with the results. His crew are perfectionists and take great pride in the fit and finish. The woodwork is magnificent, and the house is so tight that it hardly takes anything to heat it. The entire crew was very pleasant to work with, and they kept to schedule and worked diligently until the job was done. We are planning an addition soon, and will definitely return to Elevated to get the job done right.

Adrian F.

I had the pleasure of working with Dave and the crew at Elevated Design Build on two separate projects starting in October of 2019. At every step, Dave and every member of the team were professional, courteous and remarkable, exceeding all of my expectations.

The first project was a backyard, covered porch/patio. I have a small house and unremarkable yard, but wanted to add usable, functional, beautiful outdoor living space to make the most of the ample opportunities to hangout outside.

Going into the project, I have some rough ideas, but mostly I was looking to work with an artist and a timber craftsman. Dave stood in the yard, sketched a bit, took out his tape and then made the magic happen. He considered every detail from sun shadow to season shade angles to the importance of a ceiling fan for keeping bugs down.

Within a week I had a computer rendering, some shadow simulations and a plan. Then a proposal, and then a meeting to talk about how to get the ball rolling. Each step had honest conversations about budget, where to spend smart money and how to add subtle details.

In the end, I have a gorgeous, high-quality addition to my outdoor living space that I use every day and smile now just thinking about it. Every craftsman that worked on my project paid attention to every detail, nuance and step knowing it was work to them but it was a dream project to me. I could not be more satisfied with the final product.

The positive experience with this large patio project prompted a smaller one working on a timberframe feature around my woodstove hearth. It was a fraction of the scale of the patio, but the same art and care ran through every stage of this project too. Ballpark ideas to start, then honing in, smooth planning and execution.

Every detail of the process covered with extreme focus, care and professionalism in addition to artistic flare and outstanding craftsmanship. Excellent experience, highly recommended.