Frequently
Asked Questions

Yes to all three, and we provide certificates before work begins.

Verify this with every contractor you interview. If an uninsured contractor's worker is injured on your property, the liability exposure can land on you personally.

Yes. The initial consultation, site visit, and preliminary budget conversation are free with no obligation.

Once the project moves into measured drawings, design development, and engineering coordination, that work is contracted and billed, and a portion is typically credited against the build contract on projects that proceed.

Sixteen Lower Mainland municipalities: Surrey, Langley, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond, Delta, White Rock, New Westminster, Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and Abbotsford.

No travel surcharge applies within any of them.

It depends on current workload and whether permits are required. Interior work with no permit requirement can often start within a few weeks.

Anything requiring municipal review has to wait for that process, and review times vary significantly between municipalities. We give you a realistic date rather than an optimistic one.

After a site visit, you get an itemized written estimate broken into construction, mechanical, electrical, millwork, finishes, and allowances, with a stated contingency.

Allowances are set at realistic numbers for the quality level you actually want, not artificially low figures that guarantee an overage later.

A reserve for conditions that cannot be seen until walls are open: undersized framing, old wiring, rot at a sill plate, a foundation that is not what the drawings showed.

On older homes it is not optional. A contractor who quotes with no contingency is either absorbing the risk in an inflated price or planning to come back to you for more money later.

A deposit at contract signing, then progress payments tied to defined construction milestones, with a holdback until deficiencies are corrected.

We do not ask for large cash payments up front. A contractor requesting most of the contract value before work starts is a serious warning sign.

With a written change order stating the cost and schedule impact, issued and approved before we act on it.

Nothing appears on a final invoice that you have not already seen and agreed to in writing.

Yes, end to end. Application, engineering coordination, and inspections through to final sign-off.

We do not build unpermitted work. It creates problems with insurance, with municipal enforcement, and at resale, and the short term saving is not worth it.

Generally yes for structural changes, plumbing relocation, added circuits, new floor area, suites, and decks above a certain height. Generally no for like-for-like finish replacement in an existing layout.

Requirements vary between municipalities and strata buildings add their own approval process. We confirm for your specific project and address.

WorkSafeBC requires a hazardous materials survey before demolition on pre-1990 buildings. We arrange it as a standard first step and coordinate licensed abatement where anything is found.

This is not an area where we cut corners, and any contractor offering to skip it should be treated as a serious warning sign.

Often, yes. It typically involves bringing egress, fire separation, ventilation, and electrical up to current requirements and taking it through the permit process.

We assess the existing suite first to establish what is actually required, because the scope varies enormously depending on how it was originally built.

For single room projects and most additions, yes, with dust containment and protected access routes.

For a full gut with no functioning kitchen and extended utility interruptions, no. We will tell you honestly which situation you are in during scoping so accommodation can be budgeted.

A written update every week covering what was completed, what is next, any decisions we need from you, and status against schedule and budget.

Your project manager is reachable directly throughout. You will not be routed through a call centre.

Typically {esc(SITE['hours'])}, subject to municipal noise bylaws and strata building rules, which vary.

On commercial projects we schedule after hours and weekends where that keeps a business operating, and we price that accordingly.

Dust containment at the work area boundary, floor and surface protection on access routes, and a tidy site at the end of each day.

On larger projects we use negative air where the dust load justifies it, particularly during demolition and drywall sanding.

A formal walkthrough with you and a written deficiency list. Everything on it is corrected before final payment, not after.

You then receive warranty documentation, product and finish specifications, paint colours, and maintenance guidance in one package.

Workmanship is warrantied, and all manufacturer warranties on products and materials pass through to you with the documentation collected at handover.

New home construction in BC additionally requires third party home warranty insurance, commonly two years on labour and materials, five on the envelope, and ten on structure.

Call us and we come back. We also do a follow-up visit after the first season of use to adjust cabinetry and doors, which naturally settle through the house's first heating cycle after a renovation.

That settling is normal and it is easier to correct with one visit than to leave.

Generally, though it varies by neighbourhood and by what you spend it on. Kitchens, bathrooms, added legal square footage, and systems upgrades tend to return well across the Lower Mainland. Highly personalized finishes return less.

We are not appraisers and will not promise a figure, but we will flag during design when a choice is unlikely to be recovered at resale.