About North Built Construction
General Contractor, Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley
I didn't grow up thinking about construction as a career I was picking. My father was a general contractor. Working in construction was just the direction things went, and it turned out to be the right direction.
The Origin
Construction Chose Me
What kept me in it wasn't just that I was good at it. It was the problem-solving. The coordination. Taking a set of drawings or a client's idea and working out every detail of how it becomes something real. I like working with my hands and I like working with people, and construction requires both, every day, on every project.
North Built Construction was founded in 2020: a focused operation I started to do the kind of work I wanted to do, with the kind of clients I wanted to work with.
Before North Built
Where the Experience Came From
Before starting North Built, I worked with my father for the better part of my career up to that point. For about five years, we partnered directly on projects: multifamily buildings, apartments, townhouses, schools, institutional work. That's a different scale and pace than residential construction, and it shapes how you think about managing a job. Multiple trades on site, sequencing that has to work precisely, no tolerance for poor coordination.
Toward the end of that time, we started taking on a few custom homes. My dad didn't typically work in residential, but these projects came our way and I got to run them. That's when my interest in residential construction, particularly custom homes, really took hold. The detail required, the relationship with the homeowner, the fact that you're building something someone is going to live in for the next twenty years. It's a different kind of work.
The Project I Think About Most
8,000 sq ft in Vancouver. Nothing ordinary about it.
The most memorable project I've completed is an 8,000 square foot custom home in Vancouver. Everything about it was outside the ordinary. The roofline had a barrel curve to it: not a standard ridgeline, but a radius across the exterior that made the whole form unusual. We used architectural concrete throughout. The pool was designed and built partially into the structure of the home itself, with a hot tub connected to the deck alongside it. High-end, obscure products at every level.
What I took from that project was more than technical knowledge about new materials and unconventional building methods. It clarified the kind of work I want to do more of. Intricate projects. Homes with real vision behind them. Clients who have high expectations and the trust to let you meet them.
Looking Ahead
What We're Building Toward
Coming off the ICF custom home we recently completed, with geothermal, all-ICF construction, and full off-grid infrastructure, I want to do more high-performance building. Not just ICF, but things like exterior-insulated wall assemblies and fully wrapped, airtight building envelopes that perform at the level of a net-zero home. The technology and the methodology are there. The clients who want it are out there. That's a direction I'm actively pursuing.
On the other end, I'd also like to take on more ornate, detail-heavy residential work: the kind of home where the intricacies are what define it. I enjoy problem-solving. The harder a project is, the more interesting it is to figure out.
The Working Relationship
How We Work With Clients
I work best with clients who have high expectations, because I like delivering a high-end result. Beyond that, the most important thing is trust. The clients I've had the best relationships with are the ones who are focused on the end result and willing to let me do my job to get there, while staying engaged in the decisions that matter.
Most clients we work with haven't been through a construction project at this scale before. Choice paralysis is real: there's a point in every project where the number of decisions required becomes overwhelming. I help people through that. Guiding someone through a selections process, helping them understand what matters structurally versus what's purely aesthetic, making sure they don't get to the end of a project wishing they'd made a different call in the middle. That's a real part of what we do.
The thing I'd want every client to understand going in is this: not everything goes according to plan. There will be days where things go smoothly and days where something unexpected comes up. The way through that is patience and trust. My job is to earn the second one and manage through the first.
The Warranty Behind the Work
Every new home we build is backed by Travellers Home Warranty: the 2/5/10-year coverage required by BC Housing for licensed builders. Two years for general defects, five years for the building envelope, ten years for structural.
No warranty claims in over 30 years of work across our team. That's a record built on how trades get vetted, how builds get managed, and how much attention goes into the stages of construction that determine how a home holds up over time.
