About US

In 1985 Fred and Jill (Fred’s Wife) made a life altering choice and moved the family from Los Gatos, CA to Reno, NV. Fred would place his teaching duties on hold and become the first full-time custom home builder in the newly developed Caughlin Ranch in western Reno. By the mid 1990s Fred had built hundreds of custom homes in and around Reno, Lake Tahoe and Truckee, CA. Fred then branched into the production home business and for the next 10+ years he built-out over a dozen communities with thousands of homes in and around northern Nevada. Fred began introducing better building energy efficiency principles into his home building and became the leader of sustainable Green building in northern Nevada. By the 2008/2010 time frame Fred won Builder of the Year for Green and Sustainable Building and the Governor’s Award for Green Home of the Year. 2021 marks 46 years since Fred remodeled that first Victorian in downtown Los Gatos and 36 years since he and his family moved to northern Nevada to begin his lifelong love of building. The future is now as we begin building the next phase of Altmann Builders.

The whole team here at dfaltmann A Better Building Company is focused on giving back to our greater Nevada community. We share a common passion to step-up and be active with several of the following organizations and events:
Education Alliance for Washoe County
K-12 Education Foundation for Washoe County
Focus on Literacy Program (kids to read by 3rd grade)
Art Town
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Truckee Meadows
Reno Philharmonic Foundation
Nevada Museum of Art
Children’s Cabinet
Hope Community Church
Northern Nevada Foundation
Military Alliance of Northern Nevada
Sierra Club
Young Life
American Cancer Society – Relay for Life
Nevada Academy of Family Physicians Scholarship Fund
Nevada Humane Society / Nevada SPCA
Boy Scouts of America
Reno Elks