Marcus Feld
Founder & lead estimator
Twenty-one years on island sites, red seal carpenter, and the person who writes every quote. If a number looks wrong to you, Marcus is who explains it.
About us
Twenty years of island houses, and their particular problems
Island Home Renovations is a design-build company in Victoria, BC. We renovate homes on Vancouver Island and nowhere else, which is the whole point.
Our story
It started with one bathroom on Gladstone Avenue
In 2004 Marcus Feld had a van, a skill saw and a reputation for cleaning up. Twenty-one years later there are eighteen of us, and the way we work has changed a great deal while the reason has not: island houses deserve to be renovated by people who understand island weather, island soil and island building departments.
We build between forty and fifty projects a year, all of them on Vancouver Island, none of them at the same time as five others. That constraint is the reason a client can phone the superintendent on a Tuesday and get a real answer.
What we are known for is the boring part: the sequence, the written updates, the permit file handed over at the end. The kitchens photograph well. The paperwork is what people tell their neighbours about.
BC Business Licence #82-559114 · BC Housing Licensed Residential Builder #56421
0Years on the island
0+Homes renovated
0People on the team
0%Average change orders
How we work
Four things we don't compromise on
Fixed price, or it isn't a quote
Once design is done, the number is the number. Change orders exist only when you change your mind or the house surprises us — and both arrive in writing before any work happens.
Build for this climate
Rainscreen cavities, back-primed cedar, stainless fasteners, ventilation that actually moves air. Detailing that suits Ontario does not survive a Sooke November.
One crew, not a phone tree
Our carpenters are employees. Our electricians and plumbers have worked with us for over a decade. Nobody hands your project to a stranger.
Say the difficult thing early
If your basement can't make ceiling height, if the budget won't reach the scope, if the answer is to wait a year — we say it at the first visit, not in month three.
The people
Who you'll actually deal with
Four names, and you'll have all of their numbers before demolition starts.
Dana Whitcombe
Interior designer
Trained in Vancouver, on the island since 2011. Draws the kitchens, runs the 3D walkthroughs and does the material selections that hold up in a family house.
Tom Kealey
Site superintendent
Runs the crews and the calendar. The Friday photo update in your inbox is Tom's, and so is the deficiency list at the end.
Priya Raghunathan
Permits & compliance
Files every application, answers every plan-checker comment and attends the inspections. Knows which municipality wants what, and why.
Timeline
Twenty-one years, six turning points
First job: a Fernwood bathroom
2004
Marcus starts out with a van, a skill saw and one bathroom on Gladstone Avenue.
The crew becomes employees
2009
Four carpenters come on staff rather than sub-contract — the decision that shaped everything since.
Design comes in-house
2014
Dana joins and we stop drawing kitchens on graph paper. Design-build becomes how we work.
Suites and additions
2019
A dedicated permits role, and the company takes on secondary suites and structural additions as a core service.
Envelope specialists
2023
Two years of building-science training across the crew after one too many rot repairs behind face-sealed walls.
480 island homes
2026
Still on Vancouver Island. Still the same five services. Still Marcus writing the quotes.
Working with us
Questions clients ask before signing
Our own carpenters, led by a site lead who stays with the project start to finish, plus the same electricians, plumbers and tilers we have used for years. You'll be introduced to everyone in week one.
One contract, one company, one point of accountability. The designer and the builder sit in the same meetings, so nothing is drawn that can't be built and nothing is priced that hasn't been checked against a real supplier quote.
Four to six. It is deliberately fewer than we could take, because the alternative is a superintendent spread across nine sites and a client who can't reach anyone.
A written workmanship warranty covering everything we install, on top of manufacturer warranties on products. If something we built fails in five years, we come back and fix it. It has been the same document since 2011.
Next step
Come and meet the crew
The easiest next step is an hour in your house with Marcus. No charge, no obligation, and you'll know your realistic budget by the end of it.