Construction Runs in the Family
I didn't choose construction. Construction chose me.
My father was a general contractor. Growing up, there was never much of a question about what I was going to do. I liked working with my hands, I liked building things, and I liked being part of turning someone's vision into something real. Before starting North Built Construction in 2020, I spent years working alongside my father. For about five years, we partnered on multifamily projects, apartments, townhouses, schools, and institutional work throughout Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
That's where I learned the industry at a level most contractors don't get: not just framing walls, but coordinating multiple trades, managing timelines, handling complex permitting, and keeping a job running when things don't go according to plan.
Toward the end of that time, we started taking on custom homes. My dad didn't typically work in residential, but a few of those projects came our way, and I got to run them. That's when everything shifted. The precision required, the level of detail, the relationship with the homeowner. That was where my focus landed. North Built Construction came out of that: a focused operation built around custom homes, renovations, additions, and commercial tenant improvements, backed by real experience and real trades relationships throughout Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. More about how North Built started.
What We Build in Vancouver
Vancouver is one of the more demanding places to build in BC. The city's permitting process is detailed, timelines run long (typically eight months to a year for more complex projects), and tighter lots in denser neighborhoods require a different kind of logistics management.
You can't always pull up with a truck and trailer loaded with a week's worth of material. You work with what you can bring in as you need it, and you account for neighbor proximity, parking constraints, and city requirements that don't exist in the same way further out in the Fraser Valley. We've done it enough times to manage it efficiently, and we handle the permits as part of that process on the majority of our projects.
Custom Homes
Ground-up builds on city lots and beyond, managed from design coordination through keys.
Full Interior Renovations
Whole-home interiors, kitchens, and layout changes planned before a wall comes down.
Additions
Main-floor and second-storey additions where the lot and structure allow.
Commercial TIs
Tenant improvements with design professionals and engineers brought in as required.
The Project That Sticks With Me Most
8,000 sq ft. Barrel-radius roof. Architectural concrete throughout.
The project I think about most is an 8,000 square foot home in Vancouver. Contemporary design, but not in any typical sense: the roof had a barrel radius that curved across the exterior. We used architectural concrete throughout. The pool was built partially into the home itself, with a hot tub that connected to the deck alongside it. High-end, obscure products at every level. The kind of build where every trade has to be at the top of what they do, because there's nowhere to hide a mistake.
What I took from that project wasn't just the technical side of learning new products and solving problems with unconventional materials. It was a clearer sense of the kind of work I want to do more of. High-performance, high-detail, clients with real vision and the trust to let you execute it. That's what I'm building toward.
Planning First
Why Planning Separates a Good Build From a Bad One
The most common thing I hear from people who've had a bad experience with a contractor is some version of the same story: they rushed to get started without having everything figured out first. Decisions that should have been made before the shovel went in the ground got pushed to mid-project, and that's where the delays, the cost overruns, and the frustration come from.
My approach is to get 95% of everything dialed in before we break ground. Selections made, design confirmed, trades lined up, permit in the queue. You're always going to have some unknowns; that's construction. But if you've done the work upfront, those surprises are manageable. When you haven't done the work upfront, those same surprises become real problems.
The pre-construction phase is where I earn the trust. That's where the planning happens, the decisions get made, and the project gets set up to actually go the way it's supposed to.
Travellers Home Warranty
What It Actually Means
Every new home we build is covered under Travellers Home Warranty. This is a 2/5/10-year warranty recognized by BC Housing's Homeowner Protection Office, and it's mandatory for licensed builders in BC, which means any contractor who can't offer it is a contractor worth walking away from.
The more meaningful part isn't the policy. It's the track record: no warranty claims in over 30 years of work in this industry. That's not luck. That's what happens when you take the trades vetting process seriously, when you know which areas of a build need the most attention, and when you don't cut corners on the things that matter long-term for the homeowner.
Hope to Metro Vancouver
Serving Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
North Built Construction operates across the full corridor from Hope to Metro Vancouver. We work regularly in Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Surrey, and throughout the Fraser Valley, as well as Vancouver and the surrounding Metro area. Custom homes, renovations and additions, and commercial tenant improvements. We do all of it, and we have established trades relationships throughout so we're not piecing together a crew on every project.
Many of our clients find us the same way anyone looks for a reliable contractor these days. They search "general contractors near me" or "contractor near me" and want to see someone with a real local track record, not a national chain dispatching whoever's available. If that's how you found us, you're in the right place. The people we work with are the same people who've been with us since we started.
