Testimonials

“My wife and I have retained Cardinal Contracting as General Contractor for 2 major renovation projects in our home. The first in 2012 was a complete gutting of 3 main floor bathrooms and one basement bathroom to create a fabulous up to date bathroom experience with which we are very pleased.  The second which was completed in October 2014 was a complete kitchen and main floor renovation including American Walnut hardwood flooring throughout our 2100 square foot main floor. In all our dealings with Cardinal Contracting, Brent Giesbrecht was extremely considerate of our daily living situation as we lived in our basement suite as the work proceeded upstairs throughout our main floor. All sub trades were timely and the quality of all electrical, plumbing, drywall, painting and carpentry work completed by Brent’s sub trades was of the highest quality. We were guided in a very professional manner when timely decisions had to be made for all our lighting, kitchen cabinets, and kitchen appliance and flooring installations. Whenever unexpected issues occurred, they were dealt with quickly on a face to face basis to allow both our bathroom and kitchen renovation projects to be completed on time and on budget. We highly recommend Brent Giesbrecht at Cardinal Contracting Ltd for his strong work ethic, his close coordination of both our projects, and most importantly, his straight forward dealings with all matters related to costs and best choices of all materials including detailed explanations of all cost-related decisions made for all work in our home. At no time were we left without professional guidance including heads-up advice regarding the work plans for each following day. Due to Brent’s experience and hard work, we now intend to enjoy our home for many years to come. Thank you Cardinal Contracting!”

Ron and Marilyn Davis

"Hi Brent – it was ten years ago this month that we moved into this “palatial estate” that you and your team built for us. We continue to feel very blessed to be living in our beautiful home, it is one of the best decisions we ever made.
 
My father continues to comment that it would be hard to ever find a house built this well again. 
 
We have enjoyed having a backyard and house that allows us to host and share the fun with several friends and groups ... we even had a baptism in the hot tub one year.        
 
Thanks again and hope you and yours are also doing well, Brent."
 
Ken, Alison, Steph and Kevin Redekop

"It was my first time building a home and I was looking for someone who could guide us through the whole process. Someone who had a good track record and a good reputation. After extensive research on the top builders in the area one name stood out from the others. That was Brent Giesbrecht of Cardinal Contracting.
Brent built our home in 2007- 2008. He walked us through the whole construction process including design and blueprints. Everything was done with careful consideration and he was always mindful of budgets throughout the whole project. Brent went the extra step with us as it was our first time building a home. He helped out with layout of the house while still respecting our wishes. Brent took extra time to help us pick out paint colours, floor tiles, lighting fixtures, doors, plumbing fixtures and on and on. It was all a big bonus. Brent’s sub trades were extremely friendly and very efficient in their work.

At the end of construction, our home was delivered to us on schedule and exceeded our expectations with a very big bonus; Brent brought the process under budget!

Going forward Brent and his sub trades continue to do work on our house in regards to the ongoing maintenance in which he does so with the same passion as he had when he built our home. We are so pleased with his work we are now considering building another home from Brent."

Kam Dhanda

EDITORIAL

Canadian Builders Quarterly-May 2011

Cardinal Contracting LTD.
British Columbia home builder builds a solid reputation on trust and expertise, letting its high-end, custom-residential work speak for itself.
By Christopher Cussat

Brent Giesbrecht takes pride in the fact that he is not just a pencil pusher who works behind a desk. In fact, this carpenter by trade had built his company, Cardinal Contracting, by being hands –on and establishing a strong reputation as being one of the premier custom-home builders in the greater Vancouver area.

Although Cardinal marks Giesbrecht’s emergence as a complete builder, the company is the natural progression of Giesbrecht’s training as a carpenter and his acquired knowledge of how to build homes. At the age of 21, after leaving university, he began his career by starting as a carpenter’s helper, where he framed homes with the mindset of one day becoming a builder. Two years later, Giesbrecht began his own house-framing company and hire a journeyman carpenter to help with his business plan.

By the age of 25, Giesbrecht felt comfortable enough to do it all on his own, and he soon received a framing contract for 25 custom homes in an elite area of Vancouver. “A year later, I built my first home in the evenings and weekends while I kept my framing business going-and from there, I knew this is what I wanted to do full time,” Giesbrecht says. “From that point on, as I would receive building contracts, I would continue to frame homes until I was too busy building custom homes.”

As a result, Cardinal has been building high-end custom residential homes in the greater Vancouver area for the past 14 years. “These homes have gradually become more and more custom to the point where 90 percent of my work is high-end homes, with the other 10 percent being high-end renovations, Giesbrecht says.
According to Giesbrecht, Cardinal established its niche for building larger custom homes almost by happenstance, but its apparent his work ethic and professional philosophy played a role in this as well. “It just kind of happened- kind of the same way I became the person I am,” he says.

Giesbrecht says that he is pretty particular and the detail oriented, such that after starting off doing medium-sized nicer homes well, there was just a natural progression to move into the next level of homes, in which he now specializes. “How I got here might also be just a little bit of circumstance of location, as well as the fact that I am constantly working and always taking pride in what I do,” he says.
This is also directly linked to Cardinal’s competitive edge. “Clients are not hiring me because I’m cheaper than the next guy, or because I’m going to build them a less expensive home,” Giesbrecht explains. “I think the reason why I’m in this strong position is because of the person I am. People know that I do good work and that they can trust me to look after their best interests.”

Cardinal’s success come as no surprise, especially when one considers Giesbrecht’s personal history and background. “I come from a family where my dad was an entrepreneur in real estate-selling homes, developing land, and building homes-so I have been exposed my whole life to exactly what I do and have become today,” he says.

In addition, being a carpenter before becoming a builder helped Giesbrecht fully understand how to build a home and the hard work required to do so. “Being a subtrade myself at one time helps me to better understand where subtrades are coming from and has given me the experience necessary to build a quality home,” he says
Giesbrecht believes Cardinal’s increased volume and sales is a result of potential clietns recognizing his name and the work he has done. “People notice my name around quite a bit on jobsites and see the kind of work I do in this area of the lower mainland of Vancouver,” he says. “So they see my sign up-that I’m building other custom home and they call me.”

Giesbrecht plans on Cardinal continuing to fly high end and ascend by constantly being creative and creating quality homes. “We’ll accomplish this by always trying to think outside the box, doing things that are original and different, listening to people and deciphering exactly what they want, and at the end of the day giving them exactly what they want in a custom home,” he concludes. There’s not many better philosophies than that.