The questions worth asking early.

For a permanent home, land you own is the usual starting point. A modular or manufactured home is set on a foundation on your property, and it is that property the local requirements are assessed against.

A recreational building is more flexible on paper than in practice. A cabin, tiny home RV or park model can sit on land you own, on a leased site in a park or resort where that is permitted, or on a destination property you have permission to place it on. Acceptance and permitted occupancy are decided by the resort, park or local authority, not by Summit, and not by the size of the building.

If you are still looking at land, bring it to us before you commit. A property review is quicker and far cheaper than discovering the constraint after purchase.

Start with the property, not the floor plan. Four things decide fit: what the property is zoned and permitted for; where a building area can sit against setbacks, covenants or strata rules; how a building arrives: road, gate, turning and lifting space; and how water, power and wastewater are handled.

Wayfinder works through the first pass with you: what the property is today, how you want to use the building, and which pathways are worth exploring. Our property review then sets out what still has to be answered locally before a design is fixed.

What we can do is tell you honestly whether the property is a realistic fit, and which questions to put to your local authority. Permission itself is theirs to give, and we do not promise it.

Modular. The home is built in sections indoors, in a controlled shop, then transported and set on a foundation prepared for the site. It is built as a dwelling, and the layout, elevations and finishes can be adapted within the model’s structure.

Manufactured. A complete factory-built home, delivered and installed on a prepared foundation or pad, chosen from the homes available. What may be installed, and where, is determined locally.

Tiny home RV. Trailer-mounted and published in the tiny home RV category, a recreational vehicle, not a dwelling. It is haulable by design, and placement, occupancy and seasonal limits follow the rules your local authority applies to recreational vehicles.

Park model. A specific class of recreational vehicle, built in Canada to the CSA Z241 standard, used for seasonal and recreational stays. Acceptance, permitted occupancy and any park fees are decided property by property.

Size does not settle the category. A 325 sq ft tiny home RV and a 250 sq ft modular dwelling are classified differently because of how each is built and approved, not because of how much floor area each contains.

Within a model, layout, elevations and finishes can be adapted inside the model’s structure. How much can change without affecting the approach is confirmed with you during design rather than assumed beforehand.

When the property or the brief cannot be answered by adapting a model (a steep or tight site, an unusual use, a building that has to answer an existing structure), the project moves to a bespoke direction: designed around the land first, with a one-off layout, elevations and detailing.

Bespoke is priced project by project. Neither a fee nor a timeline is offered before the brief and the property have been reviewed. Where a Summit model suits the site, adapting that model is faster and less expensive to develop than starting from nothing.

A published starting price is a building price in Canadian dollars, before site work. For the park models it covers the building and its published layout, the systems described for the model (insulation, heating and cooling, and on-demand water heating), and the interior finishes set out in the model specification.

It does not cover site works or the pad, the foundation, water, power and wastewater connections, delivery and lifting, park or municipal fees and permits, furniture and decor outside the specification, or applicable taxes. The same split applies to modular homes and tiny homes: the published figure is the building, and the property costs are quoted separately for your site.

A written proposal lists the inclusions and exclusions for the direction you choose, so the figure you agree to is the figure that is documented.

Site preparation: clearing, grading, the building area and access works. Foundations: designed for the home and the site, including engineering where it is required. Servicing: water, power, and septic or sewer, with connections arranged with local providers. Transport and lifting: delivery distance, permits where they apply, a crane or lift, and setting the building. Applicable taxes, shown separately.

We do not publish a cost range for these. They depend on the property, the servicing, the foundation and the scope, and they are quoted for your site rather than estimated from a distance. Budget for the total project, not only the building.

Summit provides the brief review and an assessment of what the property allows, design development with construction drawings and documentation, coordination of the consultants and trades the project needs, factory production and site assembly where the building suits it, and one point of contact from the first brief through to the build.

Specialists and approvals sit outside that: geotechnical, structural and civil engineering where required; surveying, site plans and confirmation of servicing capacity; building permits, zoning or development approvals, with timing set by the authority; energy modelling, and septic or well approvals where they apply; and legal review of title, covenants or strata rules.

You supply the property details, your brief and any references, decisions at the points we ask for them, access to the building area for survey and site work, and site preparation such as clearing, driveway or trenching unless it is agreed otherwise. The split for your property is written into the proposal.

It is the first real conversation about the property and what you want to build, not a presentation. Bring what you know: where the property is, how you want to use the building, and anything you already hold, such as a survey, well or septic records, or zoning notes.

We use it to tell you whether the property is a realistic fit, which questions have to be answered before design, and which pathway is worth exploring next. It is also where we say plainly if a different route suits you better.

No fee is quoted on that call for bespoke work. Fees and dates are quoted in writing once the brief and the property have been reviewed.

Three things, in order. First, the answers the property still needs: servicing capacity, foundation design, covenants and local requirements. Second, the approval path, where timing is set by the authority having jurisdiction. Third, the build and delivery sequence once scope is agreed, with site work and fabrication able to run alongside each other.

Dates are set by the agreed scope and confirmed in the project schedule. Weather, transport and inspection scheduling affect on-site dates, and changes after scope approval are quoted separately.

Nothing on this site is a fixed schedule. We do not publish a completion date for a project we have not yet scoped.

The haul route and the arrival: road condition and grade, gate width, turning space, overhead clearance and lifting room, checked against the model’s dimensions. Distance, ferry crossings and seasonal road conditions change how delivery is planned.

On site: a level, prepared pad or foundation sized to the footprint, the support the destination requires, and service connections either already in place or brought in. For a park model, those checks happen with the destination before a model is fixed.

For a modular home, delivery and installation typically take one to two days on site, access dependent. Access that cannot be confirmed in advance is a reason a delivery date moves.