Custom Home Builders in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and Lake Country.

Every Binning home is bespoke, so we don't publish a per-square-foot rate — anchoring on a single number tends to mislead in either direction. What we can tell you: recent Binning builds have ranged from premium custom homes through to estate projects in the multi-millions. The number for your home depends on the lot, square footage, design complexity, finish level, Step Code performance target, and whether you're adding a pool, suite, coach house or significant landscaping. After a discovery meeting we'll come back with a written cost framing for your specific project.

For anything under 5,000 sq foot, plan for 12–24 months from the day you get permits to the day you get your keys. Roughly: 4–6 weeks of discovery and feasibility, 3–5 months of design and engineering, 2–4 months of permits and pre-construction, and 8–14 months of construction (longer for homes over 5,000 sq ft). Surrey's published target for a single-family permit is around 10 weeks, though actual times vary — we plan around realistic windows, not best-case ones.

A general contractor coordinates trades on a project that has already been designed and specified by someone else. A custom home builder takes responsibility from raw lot to handover — including design coordination, engineering, energy modelling, permitting, the build itself, and the warranty afterwards. With a custom builder, one party is accountable for the home from start to finish. With a GC-only model, the homeowner usually carries the integration risk between architect, engineer and builder.

Yes — by law, anyone building a new home for sale in BC must be a Licensed Residential Builder under BC Housing's Homeowner Protection Office. Binning is licensed under HPO Licence #43347, which also means Pacific Home Warranty 2-5-10 coverage is enrolled on every home we build. You can verify any BC builder's licence on the BC Housing Licensed Builder Registry.

A new single-family home in Surrey requires a building permit at minimum, plus development and demolition permits where applicable. Depending on your lot you may also need arborist, geotechnical, environmental and BC Energy Step Code submissions. Heritage zones, hillside areas and waterfront lots add further review steps. We handle the entire permit process for you and submit on your behalf — but we'll explain every fee and every approval as it comes up.

The BC Energy Step Code is the province's performance-based path to net-zero-energy-ready buildings. Every new BC home must currently hit at least Step 3 — measured by air-tightness, energy modelling and a mid-construction blower-door test — and the floor steps up to Step 5 (Passive House performance) province-wide by 2032. In practice it means more insulation, better windows, careful air-sealing, and a heat-pump-ready electrical strategy. Done well, it costs a little more up front and saves money for the life of the home.

The quote will include all pricing which includes what the customer wants in their homes. Weather, Acts of God, Delays by city hall is beyond the control of the Home builder. Included will be all designs, engineer firms fees, city hall permit fees, supplies and labor costs.

Yes — and we do, regularly. Recent Island builds include homes in Victoria, Nanaimo and Port Alberni, with active and upcoming work elsewhere on the Island. We use the same family, the same warranty and the same standards on both sides of the Strait. Most Lower Mainland custom builders don't take Island work. We built the team and processes to do both well.

Either path works. Many of our clients arrive with their own architect and a design they love — we're happy to be the builder of record on a project that's already been designed. Others prefer a true design-build relationship. Binning and Sons have dedicated home designers and Architects inhouse. You can choose your own or you can work with our team. The cost will always be lower when you choose the architect or designer with Binning and Sons. Regardless, whichever route you take, the same Binning principal stays on the project from the first meeting onwards.

Often, yes. Bill 44 (small-scale multi-unit housing) and Surrey's July 2024 zoning amendments mean three to four units are permitted by right on many traditional single-family lots — up to six on lots within a Frequent Bus Stop Area. The right answer for your address depends on lot size, frontage, servicing and the rest of your project brief. We'll review your specific lot at the discovery stage and tell you what's actually permitted.

A short list we'd genuinely want a client to ask any builder, including us:

1. What's your BC Housing Licensed Residential Builder number, and how long have you held it?

2. Are you enrolled with a 2-5-10 home warranty provider?

3. Who specifically will be on my site, and how often?

4. Can I see a line-item construction budget for a recent build similar to mine?

5. What's your process when a cost overrun looks likely — at what point do I find out?

6. How many active builds do you carry at once?

7. Can I speak to two clients whose homes you've handed over in the last 12 months?

Usually no more than 5-7 custom hom builds per year. The arithmetic of a family business that puts a principal on every site, every week, doesn't allow for fifty active builds at a time. It means we sometimes have a waitlist; it also means your home gets the attention it deserves.

Two years on materials and labour. Five years on the building envelope (water penetration). Ten years on structural defects. It's BC's mandatory new-home warranty standard, and we enrol every Binning custom home with Pacific Home Warranty automatically. We service the warranty ourselves — calls go to a Binning, not a phone tree.

Simplest answer: 2 years: what the eyes can see (paint, nail pops, minor cracks in the wall) 5 years (inside the walls ie plumbing or electrical? 10 is structural ie: foundations the structure itself.