Building a house at 7,500 feet means designing for snow, long winters and a short construction season, and the builders who know the valley tend to live in it. Eleven of the 20 builders listed here are based in Estes Park. The other nine work from Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and nearby.
Hire the builder who can tell you how the project gets priced, not just how it looks. Fixed price, cost-plus and design-build are all fair ways to work, but you should know which one you are signing before the foundation goes in.
Based in Estes Park
A remodel that lands on budget is what people keep bringing up about this builder, and in a town where materials come up the canyon, that is no small thing. The office is on Big Thompson Avenue, next to Highland Cabinetry, and the work is residential only: custom homes, remodels and general contracting across the Estes Valley and Northern Colorado.
On North Lake Avenue, half a mile from Lake Estes Marina, this licensed general contractor keeps its main office, next to Ponderosa Realty & Management. Commercial work and residential builds both run through the same office.
A fire tower with a 360-degree view and a built-in basement wine cellar are both on the project list, alongside small spaces done on strict budgets and historic homes given another run. Westover Construction builds custom homes and additions and takes on whole-house renovations and kitchen remodels, working from an office out on Dry Gulch Road, under a mile from the Lake Estes Marina.
Fixed-price contracts are the whole pitch at The Art of Mountain Living, a custom home builder on 4th Street, a block from Lake Estes. The total is set before work starts, and it comes with a detailed project plan meant to head off the arguments over changes and surprises that sink so many builds.
Bathrooms are where most of the praise lands. Pine Valley is a remodeler based on Graves Avenue, sharing an address with Dr.
Historic renovation is the specialty that matters most at Craftsman Built in a town full of older cabins and lodges. The firm also builds custom homes from architectural plans through site work, and takes on remodels and additions.
A deck that has taken one winter too many, a kitchen that needs gutting, a whole new house: Aldrich Builders takes all of it on from an office on Lone Pine Drive, a few doors from Ace Hardware. The company has been building in the valley for more than four decades, on homes and commercial buildings alike, and its general contractors handle careful restorations as well as new construction.
Carpentry came first at Seba Construction, and fences are still the bulk of it: dog-ear privacy fences, lattice-topped and trimmed-top styles, corrugated steel, vinyl, chain link, iron, Trex, Simtek, and deer fencing with ranch rail, useful in a town where elk wander through the yards. Owner Joaquin Barron's crew also builds patio and raised decks, sheds, garages, pole barns and home additions, and handles masonry and welding for brick pillars, block walls and steel-and-brick combinations.
Donohoe Builders has been building custom homes on the Front Range since 1994, family owned and run, and it is licensed and insured for residential and commercial work. Ground-up new builds are the core.
Custom houses at one end, a ceiling fan at the other. Go 2 Guys & Gals works out of the Estes area about six miles from downtown, and the list is wide: country and custom home building, design, additions, accessory buildings, garages, decks, concrete and foundations, demolition, drywall installation and repair, flooring, electrical, plumbing, fences and exterior painting.
This is a renovation contractor that wants the whole job. High Point Builders starts with material selection and carries through to the last finish detail, so the owner is not lining up suppliers and trades one by one.
Serves Estes Park from the Front Range
From an office on Pearl Street in Boulder, Rodwin Architecture and its building partner Skycastle Construction design and build green custom homes and commercial projects, and Estes Park falls inside their territory. One team handles architecture, interiors, site planning, permitting and construction, which counts for a lot on a mountain lot where the site and the code shape the house.
A kitchen remodel or an addition on a mountain house usually means an architect, a builder and a lot of phone tag between them. Hutch Design Build, based in Fort Collins, puts both under one contract, with architect-led design carried straight through construction.
Cost-plus pricing is the whole pitch here. Homestead Home Builders, out of Loveland, shows clients the actual bids from vendors and subcontractors, with no separate markup layered on top.
Architects, interior designers and builders share one studio at Forge & Bow Dwellings in Old Town Fort Collins, so the people who draw the plans are the people who build them. Jordan and Annie Obermann, husband and wife, run the firm, and it takes on a small number of projects each year by design.
"The Basement Finish Guy" is how Al Kulenski bills the business, and basements are what people hire it for. Finishes run from one extra room to a full build-out with a wet bar, home theater, exercise room, den or craft space, and in-law suites come up more than once.
Windows are the job people mention most with Hygge Haus Design Build, which makes sense for a company built around tight, energy-efficient buildings. It works from Passive House principles and EnergyStar-certified materials, with air sealing and low-load design at the core, and takes projects from feasibility study and drawings through construction.
Fifty-plus years of building in Northern Colorado sit behind Schroetlin Custom Homes, which works out of Loveland and lists Estes Park among the places it comes up to build. Buyers can go fully custom with the company's designer or their own plans, or take the semi-custom route and start from a Schroetlin plan they modify.
Bathroom expansions are the jobs that come up most around Green Fox Home, with careful detail work a close second. The company designs and builds across Boulder County: kitchens, baths, basements, decks, gyms, additions and custom carpentry, with more than 25 years behind it.
The flex in the floor when someone walks past the couch, the cold draft at a window during a snowstorm, the toilet you can hear flush from another floor: those are the things Lone Creek Custom Homes says it builds against. Brothers Ryan and David Quackenbush run the company, and fine detail is what their clients bring up afterward.
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Home builders here split into two groups. The valley group, including The Art of Mountain Living, Craftsman Built Homes and Remodels, Westover Construction, McLain Construction and Aldrich Builders, builds and remodels in town and around it. The Front Range group, such as Rodwin Architecture, Hutch Design Build, Forge & Bow Dwellings and Homestead Home Builders, works from Boulder, Fort Collins and Loveland, and several of those are design-build firms where the architect and builder share one contract.
Pricing models differ, and that is worth asking about. The Art of Mountain Living works under fixed-price contracts, so the total is known before work starts. Homestead Home Builders prices cost-plus, with clients seeing the bids submitted by vendors and subcontractors. Hutch Design Build starts with a free 30-minute consultation. Aldrich Builders has operated in Estes Park since 1980, and Craftsman Built lists historic renovation as a specialty.
Only 2 of the 20 are marked licensed, though that reflects what the listings state, so ask every builder directly for license and insurance details. Eight list residential work and 4 list commercial. Many homes outside town limits are on wells and septic, so ask whether the builder has handled those systems on mountain lots, and expect the schedule to bend around winter.
Eleven of the 20 listed builders are based in the valley, among them McLain Construction, Westover Construction and Aldrich Builders. The other nine work from Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and nearby, so ask any of them how often they build in the mountains.
The Art of Mountain Living and McLain Construction both build custom homes from Estes Park, and McLain also takes commercial projects. Front Range firms such as Schroetlin Custom Homes list Estes Park in their service area.
Design-build means one firm handles design and construction under one contract. Hutch Design Build, Forge & Bow Dwellings and Rodwin Architecture all work that way from Fort Collins and Boulder. Ask how often they would visit a mountain lot during the project.
Yes. Pine Valley Construction And Remodel leads with kitchens and baths, and Craftsman Built, Westover and Aldrich all list remodels alongside new construction. Call with the scope of the work, since several also do additions, basement finishing and older-home renovations.
