After training at the Culinary Institute of America, Sam Fertik launched his own corporate catering company in Manhattan many years ago. Always an entrepreneur at heart, he served tens of thousands of meals a day to major clients like Palantir and Blue Apron.
“From this experience I learned so many valuable business lessons about scaling operations and managing teams. At the same time, I maintained my lifelong passion for drawing and building, even overseeing the creation of my company’s commercial kitchen,” Fertik says.
When the hospitality industry took a hit, Fertik embraced his love for building. The pivot sent Fertik and his family to Vermont where he hit the ground running working on renovation projects to learn what he could about innovative building methods. What he found was that no one was applying commercial-grade practices, like reinforced concrete and steel framing, to residential construction.
Rhonda Smith
Sam Fertik
He moved back to New York state and began building his own family’s home in Pound Ridge, which became a testing ground for his ideas. “This experience ultimately became the blueprint for launching Carbon Custom Builders,” he adds.
Now CEO and founder of Carbon Custom Builders since 2020, Fertik shares more about his process and projects with BUILDER below.
Being a former chef, what are some skills from the kitchen that you have applied to home building?
In both fields, success hinges on your ability to stay creative, detail-oriented, and committed to your craft. Like being a chef, being a home builder is about creating an experience—but there are key differences. As a chef, you’re creating a short-lived experience, a bite, a moment in time. It can be the most mind-blowing taste explosion, but once the meal is over, that experience is done. What I love about home building is you get to create an experience that sticks around. It adapts over time as the home’s occupants change and grow.
What is the mission of Carbon Custom Builders?
I fundamentally believe that we need to rethink the way that we build homes in the U.S. The core construction methods used in typical American homes haven’t meaningfully evolved in centuries. Our mission at Carbon Custom Builders is to set a new standard in home building through innovative construction techniques that prioritize structural strength, safety, and sustainability. Simply put, our mission is to build better.
From Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) that create airtight, super-insulated building envelopes, to steel framing that resists fire, mold, and rot, we are building homes that will last for the next 1,000 years. I think homeowners deserve homes that are intentionally designed to be healthy, resilient, and high performing from the inside out. For the biggest investment of your life, you should know exactly what’s behind the walls.
Why ICF and steel framing?
These construction methods significantly enhance a home’s resilience and predictability. A concrete core paired with steel framing creates a structure that is non-combustible, impervious to pests, and resistant to mold and rot. Compared to a typical wood-frame home, concrete and steel eliminate a lot of unknowns: no termite damage, no hidden leaks, no warped framing over time.
Our homes are also much more capable of responding to extreme weather and natural disasters. A home built with ICF and steel framing can withstand higher wind speeds, seismic loads, and even wildfires. As extreme weather becomes an unavoidable reality, we simply have to start adapting.
Jon Day Photography
What size projects do you aim to build?
Our current projects range from 7,000 to 20,000 square feet. We love working with clients who have the desire to push the envelope and create something extraordinary together.
That said, our construction principles can be applied to projects of any size. There’s no reason we couldn’t build a 500 square-foot “tiny home” using the same processes and materials that we do for a 20,000 square foot residence.
Where do you build and are there any current projects underway?
Our current construction focus is in the Northeast. We have about 15 homes in progress across Westchester, the Hudson Valley, the Hamptons, and Connecticut, and we plan to expand to South Florida within the next year.
What are two things people misunderstand about sustainable home building?
- The first misconception is that building sustainability is prohibitively more expensive. Certain elements do require a higher upfront investment, but they pay for themselves quickly through energy savings, reduced maintenance costs, and longer lifecycles.
- The second misconception is that sustainability is only about the environment. At Carbon Custom Builders, our primary driver is human health and wellbeing. We are building airtight, well-ventilated homes that enhance air quality, improve safety, and create healthier environments. The reduced carbon footprint is important, but the day-to-day impact on wellness and comfort is what really resonates with homeowners.
What separates your company from the pack?
Carbon Custom Builders is a different kind of collaborator. We are just as much a part of the design process as the architect, collaborating with all clients and partners from day one to ensure that every detail is practical and optimized for performance.
We want to share our creativity and open doors for everyone that we work with. The process of building a home with Carbon Custom Builders is a continuously iterative process in which partners work together to problem-solve in real time, optimize for constructability, and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
