Category Archives: The Home Discovery Show

I was on the Home Discovery Show this morning for a chat with Ian and Steve.  Their other guest this morning was Mike Holmes.

Yes, that Mike Holmes.

Mike Holmes changes people’s lives by going into their homes after bad building practices or crappy renovating have ruined them, and he makes them right again. He’s a hero to these people.  He respects good work, and he is constantly frustrated when he sees shoddy construction.

But what is to say we’re not going to have a badly constructed laneway home?  Sure, we can see a building going up, but how do we know it’s being built to withstand the weather? To not leak or creak or (shudder) reek?  So we can look forward to years in a well-built home that will need minimal maintenance and will never have to call upon someone like Mike Holmes to fix catastrophic problems.

Well, first of all we trust our builder, Novell.  Angelito and Laurel had our confidence right from the start.  They are a part of the Renomark Renovator Program, a member of the Greater Vancouver HomeBuilders’ Association, and are rated A+ in the Better Business Bureau Business Review. And we’ve seen how they work — always keeping the worksite tidy, using good materials.  Plus we talk with them all the time, in addition to our every-other-week meetings, we can call or email them anytime if we have questions.

And we have another reason to feel confident that our home will be solidly built.

Like all BC residents, we have the Homeowner Protection Office, a branch of BC Housing.  And that means we have Home Warranty Insurance on our new home; we are

covered by mandatory, third-party home warranty insurance. As a minimum, this coverage includes 2 years on labour and materials (some limits apply), 5 years on the building envelope and 10 years on structure. It’s the strongest construction defect insurance in Canada.

The HPO’s Guide to Home Warranty Insurance in British Columbia is a 24-page comprehensive guide to what you can expect in the way of protection.

The 2 year labour and materials coverage includes

defects in materials and labour supplied for the electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning delivery systems, as well as for the exterior cladding, caulking, windows and doors

The 5 year building envelope coverage includes

the components that separate the indoors from the outdoors, including the exterior walls, foundation, roof, windows and doors.

And the 10 year structural coverage includes

defects in materials and labour that result in the failure of a load-bearing part of the new home, and for any defect that causes structural damage that materially and adversely affects the use of the new home for residential occupancy.

Novell has purchased insurance through a company called Pacific Protected for our build.

I recommend that anyone who is building or renovating (or if you are interested in the process) go to the HPO site and explore.  They have guides for every stage of the build so you can see for yourself if each aspect is being built properly.