For a home on a standard 33x122 lot I was quoted for 3600sf in East Van:

E.I builder: $700k
Chinese builder including Tyko: $800-$1m
White builder (Lanefab, an award winning builder that specialises in passive houses): $1.1-1.3m.

5% GST on top of that but otherwise it's all inclusive. The $1.3m price I was quoted by Lanefab included stuff like a rooftop deck, steel railings, concrete stairs etc.

I know the builder who did Bo Horvat's house and a couple years ago he said he was charging around $400-500/sf

can someone clarify what is an "E.I" builder?

East Indian builder

^ buddy guy

Building in Vancouver is bloody costly vs other regions.
Comparable builds out here in Coquitlam:
"White" builder: 1.2M for 5500sqft (~220/sqft)
"EI" builder: 800k (~140/sqft). (flocks of unlicensed workers descend on your house but it's done in a blink of an eye. Saw over 15 guys working on a house during the framing process).
Chinese builder: 1M (~180/sqft. From my experience, the quality isn't much better than an EI builder).

Keep "price anchoring" in mind when it comes to builders. For westside builders, a good starting point for basic interior painting is $10psf...

And I'll add... Many homes advertised as custom homes are NOT custom homes, they are homes built from an off-the-shelf blueprint and tweaked.

That $10 psf for walls only?

do 'white builders' contract out large parts of the job to EI and other builders anyway? since they are trying to save money here and there they must sub the jobs out to other guys that they know, often trying to save costs regardless of race.

My first and only dealing with a white contractor was a restoration company. Referred through the insurance company, I'm 100% positive there's some referral money changing hands there. Anyway, talking to and watching the workers... they were all very green, all fresh out of prison. The work was shit and it took forever. Just days after they left I had another company(asian guys) come in, rip it all down and redo it. I repiped most of the house at the same time. They did 5x the work in about a 5th the time.

This thread has taken a weird turn lol.
“The official RS latest race of your contractor” thread.

They definitely do but they are much more selective about who they contract out to and the relationship is usually long term, not lowest bidder for each job - it shows in the quality of work. The materials may be the same but the detail work is way better, little things like the hole that's cut in the sink cabinet for the water lines (and how the water lines line up). I know my white builder of choice (Lanefab) uses a Chinese company for their kitchen cabinets (Brilliant Cabinets I think).

On a related note, it doesn't matter what the colour of your skin is if you don't take any pride in your work.

Well I do try to stay away from nustream they don't even English during showings apparently. And they might come steal your fruit or threaten you. :lawl:

their office is in the same building and across from bc housing office to apply for affordable housing... not sure if that's an elaborate troll or just irony

Taking pride is one thing, actually knowing what you’re doing is somthing else.

Allowing people who have no idea what they are doing to do your framing, plumbing etc is moreso what I’m speaking to. Having general labourers pull wires or plumb a house because they are working with an actual “tradesperson” who’s out at Starbucks getting coffee is the issue

I agree that white builder/contractors quality are often good. But when it comes to scheduling and being on budget they suck turd...

EI and asian builders get it done. The workmanship on the other hand, you get what you pay for.

Thats just trades

Those of you who dont work in trades, let me tell you, does not matter if your paying 160$/hr for a top tier company, for an HVAC guy to come out to fix your furnace, could be a 2nd year apprentice, could be a 20th year journeyman.

You pay us to learn, regardless if its hvac, millwork, etc.

Ofcourse companies try and set the right guy for the job, but thats not always the scenario. Just like peoplr are mentioning above

You should see the nightmares going on in 40 story high rise condos, with VRF equipment, 100 indoor units, 10 intermediate units, 4 rooftop units. All on ONE system.
Only 20-50% of the guys doing the work are properly trained. Most buildings are fine, but when you see "the system is down for maintenance" followed by "its been delayed another 2 weeks" what it really means is shits hit the fan

story cut short, first world problems living in a first world country, in a new house/condo whatever

I’d say what sets the good companies apart from the shit companies however is the amount of “good” people you have on site at one time. I don’t really care if it’s one red seal with 5 first years because you know they know how to do things by the book and have guidance if you have the right people on your crew

When my old company was building custom homes in a bit of a lull 5 of us who had been around quite a while did all the excavation and grading, form work, framing, and rough landscaping for three 4000 sq ft homes. We only had one “carpenter” but we all had the skills and ability and we built three great homes

Some of these companies, even with people in training etc. Just drag these kids around doing the most menial shit and necer actually learning the job.

That was a big thing with all these people who got their electrical tickets out in ‘berta when the boom was going on. Spoke to a few guys who owned electrical companies and they said these guys who did all 5 years of school and on-site training in the oil field etc couldn’t he trusted to wire a basic residential home back in Vancouver because all they knew was pulling cables and leaving others to terminate etc

lol so true...i recall a guy got his ticket and for his hours...all he did his entire life was install cable tray, i think think he ever twisted any wires together and you're a jman electrician :ahwow:

i know someone working his way through and getting jobs ppl don't want b/c it takes too much brain work, i told him learn/do it all, fire alarm, distribution, terminations, controls, everything. don't just be a donkey pulling cables and installing backboxes, you'll be useless :lol

i wonder if their association will sort that out...i know EGBC really dissects the actual work experience with engineers...you can't just be a CAD monkey for 4 years and get a PEng.

RE: EI builders

Idk how but my garage suddenly snapped. Effing buddy guys man. Anyone here know how to fix this/reccos on someone to call?

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...175899494c.jpg

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I don't have a company to recommend, but I do have one to NOT recommend. Overhead Door. They suck and are ridiculously expensive.

Could try Sams Garage Doors.

https://samsgaragedoors.ca/is-it-saf...door-yourself/

Not sure where they fall on the price or value spectrum, but honest guys.

What a coincidence! My mother-in-law’s brother has been a general contractor (Asian, not EI in case that matters) for 30+ years, so he definitely has the experience and established relationships with his preferred trades people. He built my custom yet basic home in Vancouver 7 years ago, and Sams Garage Doors is the company that installed my garage door. The bad news is that one of the wires also snapped relatively early, but they did come by to fix it reasonably quickly.

When I managed commercial parkades, Sams Garage Doors was my go to. They can be expensive for after hours call outs but was otherwise average pricing and they have a quite a few people working so can come out quick. Also recommend Valmart doors and Pacific Coasts Doors as they offered pretty good pricing and work as well.

Can someone explain to me how the rules differ with respect to down payments between CMHC standard and British Columbia? Looking to confirm whether what I heard is completely bogus or is actually true.

What BC standard, it's 20% 5% min