01Custom homes
Building a new house was the biggest decision we’ve ever made, and it never felt rushed. We walked the site most Saturdays and always knew exactly where things stood.
Whole homes · 02 · A new house on your lot
Custom Home Builder in Hamilton
Custom home builder in Hamilton for a new house on a lot you own. The municipality inspects each stage before the next one covers it, and the final inspection is signed off before the keys change hands.
- Licensed builder
- WSIB
- Years building
- 15+
- Houses completed
- 300+
What’s included
What’s included
in a new house.
Nothing is covered until its stage has been inspected, so walls close on work that has passed.
Plans and permits, coordinated with your designer
Work waits for the permit. The designer draws, and the application is coordinated by the builder with both the municipality and the designer.
Foundation, framing and roof
The foundation goes in, then the frame and the roof, until the house is closed in and the trades can work inside it.
Electrical, plumbing and HVAC, coordinated
The builder sets the sequence for electrical, plumbing and HVAC inside a closed-in house. Rough-in gets inspected first, and drywall goes over it after.
Interior and exterior finishes
The builder who put up the frame also does the finishes: drywall, insulation, flooring, trim and paint inside, siding and windows outside.
Final inspections and handover
Handover follows the final inspection, the last of the municipality’s inspections at set stages during the build.
How it runs
The whole frame,
stage by stage.
Whole houses and rooms alike follow the same order: five stages, each answered for by one builder.
- 01
Permits
Your designer’s plans and the building permit, in hand before the foundation is dug.
- 02
Structure
Foundation, frame and roof come in turn, and the house is enclosed at the end.
- 03
Trades
Electrical, plumbing and HVAC booked against each other and inspected before the walls close.
- 04
Finishes
Framing the house and finishing it, inside and out, fall to one builder.
- 05
Handover
Final inspection signed off, then the keys change hands.
Why Hanna Homes
Why one builder
for all of it.
A new house starts with approvals and the ground, and the roof is on before anything goes inside.
Changes to the drawings go back to the designer who drew them, and the builder works from your designer’s plans to see what gets built first.
Under the lot, sanitary and storm lines are kept apart. Their layout is decided ahead of the foundation being formed, not fitted around the walls.
The house is framed and roofed first, so the wiring, pipes and ducts are roughed in under a roof and in a fixed order.
The lot is checked early for how much can be built on, how it drains and whether it is regulated, so the plans need no redrawing to meet an approval.
Start with a call.
Client reviews
Their house,
their words.
Whole homes and single rooms, in the words of the people who live in them.
02Whole home
We put off the whole house for years because we couldn’t picture living through it. Akram walked us through every stage before it started, and each week went the way he said it would.
03Kitchens
The crew covered the floors and cleaned up at the end of every day, which mattered with two kids at home. The new kitchen is the room everyone ends up in now. Worth every week of takeout.
04Basement apartments
We turned the basement into a unit for my mother-in-law. She has her own entrance and her own kitchen, and we still get Sunday dinners. The paperwork I was dreading turned out to be the part I thought about least.
05Additions
We needed more room but didn’t want to leave the street. The second storey went on over the summer, and from the sidewalk you’d think the house was always built that way.
06Bathrooms
One bathroom is a small job for a builder, but they treated it like the whole house. The tile lines up, the door finally closes properly, and they finished the week they said they would.
07Knockdown & rebuild
Our old bungalow wasn’t worth saving, so we took it down and built new on the same lot. They kept the neighbours in the loop from demolition to the final walk-through. We love coming home to it.
08Basements
The basement used to be storage and a furnace. Now it’s a family room the kids actually want to be in. A clear quote, no surprises, and the site was swept every night.
09Whole home
We bought an older house knowing it needed everything. Akram was straight with us from the first visit about what was worth keeping. Every room is new to us now, and it still feels like the house we fell for.
10Kitchens
Third builder we spoke to, and the only one who returned every call. When we changed our minds about the island halfway through, they made it work without any drama.
01 / 10
Projects
Selected work,
inside and out.
The two whole homes are a bungalow and a new house, the three rooms a basement, a kitchen and a bath, each one complete.
01Custom Homes
A dark gable, glazed two storeys high.
Limestone makes the base and forecourt, and the porch is cedar. Board and batten is deep green-black, and the roof is standing seam.
01 / 05
Gallery
From the street
to the basement.
Each service has pictures, from street to basement. Any one opens whole with a tap.Each picture opens in full. Whole homes lead in street views, then come kitchens, bathrooms and basements.
Seen one
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you like?
13 pictures: Whole homes · Kitchens · Bathrooms · Basements
Service area
Within an hour
of Burlington.
Towns we build in
- 01BurlingtonHaltonHome base
- 02HamiltonHamiltonby Hwy 403, 15 min, 18 km by road, approximately
- 03OakvilleHaltonby the QEW, 20 min, 24 km by road, approximately
- 04AncasterHamiltonby Hwy 403, 25 min, 28 km by road, approximately
- 05MiltonHaltonby Hwy 407, 30 min, 30 km by road, approximately
- 06MississaugaPeelby Hwy 407 and Hwy 403, 30 min, 41 km by road, approximately
- 07CambridgeWaterloo Regionby Hwy 8 and Hwy 5, 45 min, 51 km by road, approximately
- 08KitchenerWaterloo Regionby Hwy 6 and Hwy 401, 55 min, 72 km by road, approximately
And anywhere else inside the line.
Common questions
Common questions
in Hamilton.
What Hamilton homeowners ask about custom homes: what it costs, how long it takes and what the city asks for.
No per-square-foot figure is given here, because the price follows the house drawn and not the footprint alone. Hamilton lots add their own lines before any framing: a lot in Pleasant View needs a Niagara Escarpment Commission permit unless it is exempt, and a Heritage Conservation District adds a heritage review. Size, the lot, the finishes and the approvals are what move the price.
Approvals are the part that varies. A lot under Hamilton Conservation Authority regulation needs that permit as a separate application, an escarpment lot may need the Commission's permit as well, and a designated or district property needs a Heritage Permit. A duration is set once the approvals a lot needs are known. The build then runs foundation, framing and roof, trades, finishes and the final inspection.
A City building permit, which needs the project to comply with the property's zoning by-law. Depending on the lot, add a Niagara Escarpment Commission Development Permit, a Hamilton Conservation Authority permit, or a Heritage Permit inside a district. Hanna Homes handles the applications alongside your designer, so the drawings and the paperwork move together.
Usually the answer comes from four checks made before design: the zoning limits on size and setbacks, whether the lot falls in the Niagara Escarpment's Area of Development Control, whether the Conservation Authority regulates it, and whether it sits inside a Heritage Conservation District. Hanna Homes builds on the lot you own, once those are known.
Bring your designer's plans and Hanna Homes builds from them. The builder works the permit through with the designer and the City, which matters here because the drawings have to show compliance with zoning before anything is issued.
Still have a question?
Get a free estimatePeople also ask
Before you build,
people in Hamilton ask.
What people in Hamilton search before custom homes, answered for the town.
Ask who files the permits and who answers for the trades. Then ask whether the builder raises escarpment, conservation and heritage status before anything is drawn, since each can add an approval.
The builder takes a new house from plans and permits through foundation, framing and roof, the coordinated trades and the finishes, to the final inspection and handover. Hanna Homes is licensed and based in Burlington, about 15 minutes away.
A ready house skips the approvals; a custom build gives you the plan and the lot you choose. In Hamilton the deciding question is often the lot: escarpment, conservation or heritage status can lengthen the approvals before building starts.
Good to know
Good to know
about custom home builders in Hamilton.
What changes the work in Hamilton: the rules, the houses and the ground.
Custom home builder permits in Hamilton
A new house in Hamilton gets its building permit only when it fits the lot's zoning. The by-law sets size, setback and location limits, and a design over them waits for a variance. Hanna Homes puts the application together with your designer, then books the inspections as the house reaches each stage. The City's permit is only the first approval, since the lot itself can bring other agencies in, as the next sections explain.
Custom homes in Hamilton: building on your lot
A new house on your own lot starts with what the lot is subject to. In the Pleasant View area, every new development needs a Development Permit from the Niagara Escarpment Commission unless it is exempt. The Commission's control area was amended to include the Pleasant View Survey lands, so other escarpment lots could need one too. A Hamilton Conservation Authority permit is a separate application. It does not exempt a project from other agencies' approvals, the Commission's included, so each one is planned alongside the City permit. The lot's status is read first, so the schedule can be set around the longest approval.
Custom home cost and timing in Hamilton
The cost of a custom home moves with the size of the house, the lot it stands on, the finishes and the approvals the lot needs. In Hamilton the lot and the approvals are the part buyers tend to miss, since an escarpment, conservation or heritage lot carries extra applications that a flat site does not. The build itself runs in order: the foundation, the framing and roof until the house is closed in, then electrical, plumbing and HVAC, then the interior and exterior finishes. The municipality inspects at set stages, and the final inspection is what handover waits on.
Heritage district review in Hamilton
Inside a Heritage Conservation District, Hamilton requires a Heritage Permit for exterior alterations, construction and demolition. A new house there is exterior construction in full, so its design goes through heritage review before building starts and is shaped to the district plan. That review is separate from the building permit and is decided by the City. Knowing the lot's heritage status at the start lets that application run while your designer is still drawing.
Other services
Other services,
same builder.
The other whole-home jobs we take on, with the same builder from the first call to handover.
All services
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Tell us aboutthe lot.
Tell us about the lot, and whether the plans are drawn or still to come. You talk it through with the builder first.
Licensed builder
Burlington, Ontario
15+ years
Building
300+ houses
Completed