Questions

British Columbia does not license general contractors as a trade, so "licensed contractor" on its own means very little here — ask what specifically. What you should ask any contractor for, including us, is three documents: a WorkSafeBC clearance letter, a certificate of commercial general liability insurance, and a current municipal business licence. Ask before the deposit, not after. If a contractor hesitates on any of the three, that is your answer.

No. New home construction in BC — and renovation extensive enough to be deemed substantially reconstructed — requires a BC Housing Licensed Residential Builder number and registered 2-5-10 home warranty insurance before the building permit issues. We do not hold that licence, so we do not take that work. We renovate existing structures.

Since January 2024, asbestos abatement contractors in BC must hold a WorkSafeBC licence, and any building that may contain asbestos must be surveyed by a qualified person before demolition or renovation disturbs materials. In practice that means any house built before 1990. The usual finds are drywall joint compound, sheet flooring and its adhesive, textured ceilings, pipe insulation and asbestos cement siding. The survey is a cost on your project and it is not optional — a contractor who offers to skip it is offering you a stop-work order.

Layout changes, structural work, plumbing relocation and most siding replacement: yes. Like-for-like finishes in the same layout: usually not. Electrical and gas permits are separate and must be pulled by a contractor licensed by Technical Safety BC — a general contractor cannot legally pull them or do that work. We tell you which permits your job needs before you commit.

A deposit, then progress payments tied to defined completion milestones rather than to dates. Under BC's Builders Lien Act a 10% holdback applies to construction contracts and is released after the lien period ends — we will walk you through how that works on your job, because it protects you as much as it constrains us. If you would rather not hold a deposit with us at all, we can run the job through TradeStack instead: your money sits in regulated escrow and is released only when you approve each milestone against photographs of the work. It is a payment arrangement, not a credential — TradeStack verifies our identity, it does not vet our licensing, and you should still ask us for the three documents above.

If you signed the contract somewhere other than our place of business — at your kitchen table, for instance, which is where most renovation contracts get signed — it is a direct sales contract under BC's Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, and you have ten days from receiving your copy to cancel it for any reason. That right is stated in our contract in writing. Any deposit is refundable within 15 days of cancellation.

Give us the three things that actually move a number: the age of the house, what you want changed, and roughly when. We will tell you on the phone whether it is work we do. If it is, the site visit is free and the written scope that follows is line-itemized so you can compare it against anyone else's.