My goal is to have the background span the entire width of the browser window but keep my columns/content in the center within a fixed width.

I have been successfully accomplishing this by:
<row> (no max width + background)
<subgrid> (max width 1000px)
<column-4>
<column-4>
<column-4>
</subgrid>
</row> (no max width)

Just was wondering if there is a more correct or cleaner way to accomplish this.
Thanks!

Why do you want the row to span out full width when you are not going to use it for the contents? If it is because of a background image or colour, I'd rather add it to the grid (which always spans full width), and let the rows be as wide as you need for the content.

He may only want part of the page background to fully cover?

That's how I do it, Brandon. Unless I don't need a subgrid and then I just put in a container to replace it and fill it with any specific content or groups of content, etc.

What Eric asked was correct. Certain sections of the website I want to have a different background then the rest. I attached a screen shot of the layout I am trying to create. I've built other website similar to this one but I always like to do things in the cleanest way possible so just wanted to make sure I wasn't going over kill on the divs.

Thanks for the confirmation Jeff!