01 / Black Forest Road · five miles south of Lead, South Dakota
Custom homes and timber frames built for the Black Hills.
Horstmann Homes is a family owned builder based in the high country south of Lead, between Terry Peak and Deer Mountain. We design and build houses from the ground up, on land that never sits level, for winters that show up early and stay late.
On site · Black Hills region, South Dakota
New construction · Timber framing · Custom home design
Black Hills region · Rural and hillside lots · New construction only
02 / The practice
Almost every house we've built came from a neighbor's recommendation. We'd like the next one to come the same way.
Horstmann Homes is a family owned, locally owned new construction company based about five miles south of Lead, South Dakota. We work with homeowners across the northern Black Hills on custom home design, timber framing, and ground up builds. New construction is all we do, and we think that shows in the work.
We're small on purpose. You'll know the people on your site, you'll get a straight answer when you call, and the parts nobody ever sees again, flashing, framing, the way water leaves a building, get the same attention as the parts everybody does.
Family owned
Locally owned
Insured
Built on referrals
03 / Site conditions
What a house up here has to answer to.
We build in the country between Lead and Terry Peak, where the road keeps climbing, the ponderosa thins out on the ridgelines, and winter arrives before you've finished raking. Most of the decisions that decide how a house ages get made before backfill, which is the last time anybody will ever see them.
Snow doesn't land evenly up here.
There's a reason the ski hill is right there. Roofs in this part of the Hills carry real weight, and the drift never sits where the drawing says it will. We frame and pitch for the load that actually shows up on your ridge, then detail the valleys, eaves, and roof to wall transitions so meltwater leaves the building instead of finding a way back into it.
Framing · Pitch · Valley and eave detailing
Footings go below frost. No exceptions.
On a mountain lot that often means stepped footings, rock, and a good deal more excavation than a flat lot in town. It's the least glamorous line on the estimate and the one that decides whether things stay square and level a decade from now.
Excavation · Stepped footings · Foundation
Almost every lot up this road is on grade.
Cut and fill, walkout levels, retaining, and drainage all get designed together, because water moving downhill is the single thing most likely to shorten the life of a hillside house. We'd rather spend a day on grading than a season chasing a wet basement.
Cut and fill · Retaining · Site drainage
A north slope holds snow into spring.
An exposed ridge takes wind all winter, and a south facing wall of glass behaves very differently in January than it does in July. Siting, glazing, roof orientation, and which way the front door faces are all worth arguing about before anyone draws a line, especially when the view is the reason you bought the lot.
Siting · Glazing · Orientation
04 / Index of work
Three ways we build.
01
Custom home design
Plans drawn around your land, your view, and the way your family actually moves through a house.
We start on the lot, not on paper. Where the sun lands, where the snow piles, where a driveway can realistically go in February. Then we draw. You'll see the plan change several times before anybody orders lumber, and that's the cheapest place in the whole project for it to change.
View custom home design
02
Timber framing
Post and beam structure for homes and commercial buildings, with joinery you'll still be looking up at in thirty years.
Heavy timber is structure you leave exposed on purpose. Posts, beams, trusses, and the joinery that ties them together, cut for the span and the load, then raised on site. We frame houses this way, and we frame commercial buildings this way too, where an exposed frame does more for a room than any finish you could hang on it.
View timber framing
03
New construction
Ground up builds from footings to final walkthrough, with one crew accountable the whole way.
Excavation, footings, framing, envelope, mechanicals, finish. One set of people you can call about any of it. We keep the schedule honest, including the weeks weather takes from us, because you're making decisions off that schedule too.
View new construction05 / Recent work
Houses we've put up around here.
Selected projects · Northern Black Hills, South Dakota
New construction · Timber framing · Custom home design
06 / Territory
Centrally located in the Black Hills.
Our shop sits on Black Forest Road about five miles south of Lead, ten minutes from town and right in the country around Terry Peak, Deer Mountain, and Powder House Pass. From here we build across the Hills, and almost none of it is a standard lot in a standard subdivision.
Our shop, Black Forest Road south of Lead
Where we build most
Black Hills region
Highways 85, 14A, I-90
Ten minutes from the shop
Out of town, not in it
The country right around us: Terry Peak, Deer Mountain, the pass. Rural lots down forest roads, ridges, draws, and ground people chose specifically so they can't see a neighbor from the kitchen window.
Rural lots · Hillside builds · Forest road access
Most of our work
Across the Hills
Being five miles south of Lead puts most of the Hills inside an easy drive, which matters more than it sounds like it should when a build runs from October through April. Almost none of it is a standard lot in a standard subdivision.
Custom homes · Timber frames · Ground up builds
Worth asking
Farther out
The Hills are bigger than the map makes them look. If you have a lot somewhere we haven't been yet, send us the address. We'll tell you straight whether we're the right crew for it rather than leave you guessing.
Send us the address · We'll tell you straight
On site · Northern Black Hills, South Dakota
Rural lots · Ridge and draw · Forest road access
07 / Common questions
Things people ask us first.
If your question isn't here, ask it directly. We'd rather answer it now than have you guess.
Where is Horstmann Homes located?
Our shop is at 11297 Black Forest Road, Lead, South Dakota 57754, about five miles south of town and roughly ten minutes out, in the country near Terry Peak, Deer Mountain, and Powder House Pass. It puts us close to a lot of the new building happening in the northern Black Hills, and short drives matter when a build runs through winter. You can reach us at (605) 641-7132.
Where does Horstmann Homes build?
Across the Black Hills region. We're centrally located in the northern Hills, five miles south of Lead, and most of what we build is on rural land outside the small towns rather than in them. If you have a lot anywhere in the Hills, send us the address and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right crew for it.
Do you do remodeling?
No. We build new, from the ground up. Custom home design, timber framing, and new construction are the whole of what we do, and keeping it that way is why we can stay on your job instead of splitting a crew across a dozen small ones.
What is timber framing, and why would I want it?
Timber framing uses heavy posts and beams joined together as the actual structure of the building, rather than hiding conventional framing behind drywall. The frame stays exposed on purpose, so the thing holding your house up is also the most striking thing in the room. It suits Black Hills houses well, and it's the detail guests notice before anything else.
Do you frame commercial buildings, or only homes?
Both. We build custom homes and we've framed commercial buildings in heavy timber as well, where an exposed structure does more for a space than any finish material could. Tell us what the building is for and we'll tell you whether timber is the right answer for it.
Do you build through a Black Hills winter?
Yes. Winter changes the sequence rather than stopping the work, and we plan the schedule around it from the start. Excavation and foundations want to happen before the ground closes up, and framing and interior work carry through the cold months. We'll be honest with you about which weeks weather is likely to take.
Can you build from plans I already have?
Bring them over. We'll read through what you have, tell you what will and won't work on your particular lot at this elevation, and where the plan needs adjusting for snow load, frost depth, or grade. Plenty of good plans need a Black Hills edit rather than a redraw.
How do we get started?
Send us a note with roughly what you're thinking about building and where. We'll set up a conversation, walk the lot if you have one, and give you a clear picture of what the project involves before you commit to anything.
08 / Next step
