Most people shopping for a new home spend hours on floor plans and only minutes on the features sheet. That ratio should probably flip. The features sheet, which some builders call a spec sheet or a standards list, decides what actually gets installed once a plan is chosen. It reads like a long receipt of shingles, cabinets, outlets and faucets. Because it looks so plain, buyers tend to skim it.
Builders who publish their standards in the open give buyers a real head start. Out of Bowling Green, Missouri, G&K Construction posts its complete list of standard home features online. The list runs from architectural shingles and soft close cabinetry down to the exact dollar allowances for countertops, flooring and lighting. Gary and Kimberly Zappala started the company in 2016. It builds custom homes and subdivision houses and also takes on remodeling, roofing and siding work across Lincoln, Warren, St. Charles and St. Louis counties.
Whoever you build with, stop treating the sheet as a single list. It mixes several different kinds of promises, and each kind needs its own level of scrutiny. Once you can tell them apart, the document starts answering questions you didn’t know to ask.
The Lines That Mean Exactly What They Say
Some entries leave no room for interpretation. Examples include “steel reinforced concrete footings,” “subfloor glued and nailed,” “engineered trusses” and “water shutoff valves under all sinks.” These are the best lines on any sheet because they are specific enough to verify.
Your job with these lines is mostly clerical. Make sure the features sheet is attached to your purchase contract as an exhibit, so these lines carry legal weight rather than marketing weight. Then confirm them in person. Take phone photos of the foundation coating before backfill, the subfloor before flooring goes down and the plumbing before drywall. Those pictures cost nothing, and they become priceless if a question comes up five years later.
Two Small Words That Can Move a Wall
“Per plan” appears all over most spec sheets, and it carries more weight than its size suggests. It means the feature depends on which floor plan you pick. If your plan isn’t the one the builder had in mind when writing that line, the feature may not appear at all.
Before signing, pin down these items in writing for your specific plan.
- Basement drainage. Ask whether the basement gets a sump pit and drain system. A poured basement in eastern Missouri’s wet springs without one is a gamble most owners regret.
- Egress window. Find out whether one is included. That single window decides whether basement space can ever legally become a bedroom.
- Trim and ceilings. Ask which rooms receive crown molding, tray or coffered ceilings and extra can lights.
- Garage and outlets. Confirm how many garage doors, openers and exterior outlets your chosen layout actually carries.
An Allowance Is a Budget in Disguise
Allowances are where most budgets drift. An allowance is a placeholder amount the builder sets aside for something you will choose later, such as countertops, flooring, plumbing fixtures or a lighting package. Spend under it and you may see a credit. Go over it and you pay the difference.
The math adds up quickly. Say the sheet allows $45 per square foot for granite, and your kitchen and baths need about 55 square feet. Fall in love with a $65 slab and you’ve added $1,100 before anyone mentions edge profiles. Raise a $4.25 flooring allowance to a $5.50 product across 1,600 square feet and that’s another $2,000.
Read what each allowance covers, not just its size. An appliance allowance might cover a range, microwave and dishwasher and nothing else, which leaves the refrigerator, washer and dryer to you. A lighting allowance of a few thousand dollars sounds generous until you price two island pendants and a dining room fixture. Also ask whether each figure covers materials only or materials plus installation. The best move is a showroom visit before you sign, so you can see what the allowance really buys.
Behind the Drywall Where the Numbers Matter Most
The energy lines are easy to skim and expensive to change later. A common pairing in the region is 2×4 walls on 16 inch centers, with a thin layer of spray foam topped by blown cellulose, rated around R17. That goes under an R49 ceiling. Both are respectable numbers, and you can compare them against the new home insulation recommendations from Oak Ridge National Laboratory for your ZIP code. If you plan to stay for decades, ask what it costs to upgrade to 2×6 exterior walls or to push the attic toward R60 while the house is still framing.
Cooling and electrical lines deserve the same attention. A 14 SEER air conditioner sits close to the federal efficiency floor for northern states after the 2023 rating change. That makes it a fair question whether a higher efficiency unit or a heat pump pencils out for you. A 200 amp panel handles most homes comfortably, but if an electric vehicle is in your future, ask about a dedicated circuit now. Running wire through open studs costs far less than fishing it through finished walls. Windows often appear on sheets by color and style alone, so request the U-factor, the number that actually tells you how well a window holds heat.
Builder’s Discretion and the Small Print at the Bottom
Some lines hand the decision back to the builder. “Sodded lawn at builder’s discretion, remaining areas seeded and strawed” is a typical example, and so is an irrigation system offered on the same terms. Ask exactly how much of your yard will get sod. That gap between a finished lawn and straw over seed shapes your first summer in the house.
Then read the footnotes. Phrases like “specifications subject to change” and “the right to substitute materials of equal or greater value” are standard. Supply swings make them reasonable. Still, ask the builder to notify you in writing before any substitution, and agree on who decides what counts as equal.
The Things That Never Make It Onto the Page
The most important items on a features sheet are sometimes the ones that aren’t there. Lot clearing, grading, the length of the driveway and utility tap fees are often priced separately. On rural acreage in Lincoln or Pike County, a well and septic system can rival a full kitchen upgrade in cost. A long gravel or concrete drive to a hillside home site adds up the same way. Window coverings, decks, fences and basement finishing usually sit outside the standard package too. A “full rough-in bathroom” in the basement means pipes stubbed through the slab, not a working bathroom.
None of this means a builder is hiding anything. The sheet describes a house, while these costs belong to the land and to your later choices. They still come out of the same checking account, so price them before you fall for a lot.
Reading the Warranty Line Like an Owner
Many sheets close with a line such as “one year builder warranty plus extended third party 2-10 structural warranty.” The builder’s year covers workmanship and materials, the stuff of sticking doors and nail pops. A third party 2-10 plan typically adds two years of coverage on systems like plumbing, electrical and ductwork. It then carries ten years of protection against major structural defects, as the policy narrowly defines them. Hairline drywall cracks and minor concrete shrinkage usually fall outside that definition, so read the booklet before you need it.
Keep that booklet with your copy of the features sheet and your construction photos. Together they form the record of what your home was promised to be. At the final walkthrough, read the sheet line by line one more time and match every promise against what’s in front of you.
