Est. 2003
Custom home builder in Canton, GA.
Canton is where the subdivisions end and the acreage begins. Half the custom homes we build here sit on septic in north Cherokee, the other half on estate lots inside a community with an architectural review board. The lot decides the house before the plans do.
Custom home builder · Canton, GA
Ground-up homes for Cherokee County land.
Our office is fifteen minutes south in Woodstock, and Canton is where most of our new-construction work lands: infill lots off Marietta Highway, estate lots in Great Sky and Harmony on the Lakes, and raw acreage out toward Ball Ground, Waleska and Free Home where the first job is finding the well and the drain field.
You get one number before the first tree comes down, the city or county permit in our name, a photograph from the site at the end of each working day, and a written one-year warranty on the finished house.
Know your lot
Three kinds of custom home lot in Canton.
What the ground can carry sets the budget before a single room is drawn. These are the three situations we see most often here.
Septic, well and a long driveway
Ball Ground, Waleska, Macedonia and the Sutallee side. A soil test for the drain field, a well or a long water tap, and a driveway that may need a culvert permit. The house is the easy part.
Sewer, sidewalks and an ARC
Great Sky, Harmony on the Lakes, Riverstone and the newer sections off Sixes Road. Utilities at the street, but an architectural review committee that approves elevations, materials and colors before the county sees a permit.
Teardown or a leftover lot
Older parcels inside the city limits near downtown Canton and along the Etowah. City permitting, tighter setbacks, sometimes a demolition permit first and a floodplain check if the river is close.
What we build
Every part of a Canton custom home.
Lot & Site Work
Design & Floor Plans
Shell, Roof & Exterior
Kitchens & Baths
Outdoor Living
Basements & Bonus Rooms
Included in every build
One contract, no allowances left blank.
- Lot evaluation & site plan
- Architectural plans & engineering
- Permit application & inspections
- Clearing, grading & erosion control
- Foundation, framing & roof
- Plumbing, electrical & HVAC
- Insulation & energy code compliance
- Windows, doors & exterior finishes
- Kitchens, baths & interior finishes
- Selections & 3D renderings
- Daily cleanup & job-site photos
- One-year written warranty
Local conditions
What Canton land does to a house plan.
Canton climbs out of the Etowah River valley in every direction, so a level lot is rare and a walkout basement is the default foundation rather than a slab. That is usually a gift: the lower level is the cheapest square footage in the house. It also means the foundation is engineered to the slope, and the grading plan is part of the design, not an afterthought.
North of the city the parcels are on septic. Cherokee County Environmental Health has to approve a soil evaluation and the drain-field location before a building permit is issued, and the drain field takes up more of the lot than most buyers expect. We site the house, the driveway and the septic together, because moving one moves the others.
Red clay holds water against a foundation and sheds it downhill onto whoever is below. Every custom home we build here gets foundation drainage, downspout discharge that runs to daylight and a grading plan that keeps runoff off the neighbor. On an acre or more of disturbance, the state erosion permit applies as well.
How we work here
The sequence for a Canton lot.
Confirm city or county, sewer or septic
The parcel decides who reviews the plans and whether a soil test comes first. Canton publishes a Do I Live in the City of Canton lookup for exactly this reason.
Walk the lot with a plan in mind
Slope, trees, where the water goes, where the driveway can enter and where a drain field could sit. The house footprint comes out of that walk.
Design to the ARC and the code
In a governed community the review board sees the elevations before the building department does. We design for both approvals at once so nothing is drawn twice.
Price every line, then permit
Foundation, framing, every trade, every allowance and every fee on one fixed-price proposal. Then we file with Canton or Cherokee County and pull the permit under our license.
Build with a photo every day
Footings, framing, rough-ins, insulation, drywall, finishes and the final, each inspection on the schedule, each day photographed from the site.
Permits
Who issues your building permit, Canton or Cherokee County.
The City of Canton runs its own Building and Safety Services office at 110 Academy Street with an online permitting portal, and it publishes a Do I Live in the City of Canton lookup because a Canton mailing address covers a great deal of unincorporated Cherokee County. Those parcels go through the county Development Service Center on Bluffs Parkway instead. A new single-family home is a full plan review either way: site plan, foundation, framing, energy compliance and the trade permits.
Outside the sewer service area the septic approval comes first. Cherokee County Environmental Health reviews the soil evaluation and the drain-field layout before a building permit can be issued, so on acreage that step is on the schedule before the drawings are finished. Land disturbance of an acre or more brings the state erosion and sedimentation permit into it as well. Every application and every inspection is ours to file and schedule.
Inside the city limits
City of Canton Building and Safety Services, 110 Academy Street, Room 219. Phone 770-704-0100. cantonga.gov
Unincorporated Cherokee
Cherokee County Development Service Center, 1130 Bluffs Parkway, submitting through the CityView portal. cherokeecountyga.gov
Septic before the permit
Cherokee County Environmental Health approves the soil evaluation and drain-field location on any lot without sewer. It comes before the building permit, not after.
We pull it, not you
Application, site plan, drawings, engineering and every inspection are part of the contract, city or county.
Budget
What a custom home costs to build in Canton.
The lot drives more of the number here than in any other town we build in. A sewered estate lot with utilities at the street and a sloped acreage parcel that needs a well, a drain field, a culvert and four hundred feet of driveway can carry the same house plan to very different totals.
Every line is priced on its own, so the site work, the foundation, the septic system and each finish allowance show up as numbers rather than hiding inside a price per square foot. Use the calculator to get into the neighborhood. The proposal is where the numbers become yours.
Where the money goes
Site work and driveway length on acreage, the septic system, a foundation engineered to the slope, and the finished basement most Canton lots make possible.
The lower level
A walkout basement finished during the build is the cheapest finished square footage the house will ever have. Price it in from the start rather than as a later project.
Before you sign anything
Homework before the first proposal.
Why Artistic Construction for a custom home in Canton
The longer read on how we work in Canton, written for people still choosing a builder.
Read the article →Custom home cost per square foot around Atlanta
What the number really covers and why it moves so much lot to lot.
Read the guide →Fixed price vs cost-plus
Why we sign the first kind and what the second kind costs you.
Read the guide →How a construction draw schedule works
What the bank releases, when, and what has to be inspected first.
Read the guide →Custom home cost calculator
A starting range for your square footage and finish level.
Open the tool →Where we build
Canton & north Cherokee.
All remodeling services in Canton · Areas we serve · Custom home building overview
In their words
Reviews from the ground up.
A whopping amount of ZERO stress. You are in truly good hands from start to finish.
Very responsive, patient with our questions, and made suggestions that improved our project.
Exceptional professionalism, expertise, and a genuine commitment to delivering quality service.
Good questions
Building a custom home in Canton, answered.
Do I permit with Canton or with Cherokee County?+
Check the parcel. A Canton address covers a lot of unincorporated county, which is why the city publishes a Do I Live in the City of Canton lookup. City parcels go through Building and Safety Services on Academy Street, county parcels through the Development Service Center on Bluffs Parkway. We confirm before the drawings start and pull the permit either way.
We are looking at acreage near Ball Ground. What should we check before buying?+
Soil. A drain field needs a soil evaluation approved by Cherokee County Environmental Health, and a parcel that fails one is a very expensive place to build. We can walk a lot with you before you close, look at slope, access and where the septic could sit, and tell you what the site work would cost before the house is designed.
Can you build to our community's architectural guidelines?+
Yes. Great Sky, Harmony on the Lakes and most of the newer communities off Sixes Road have a review committee that approves elevations, materials and colors before the county issues a permit. We design for that approval and the building code at the same time, so nothing is drawn twice.
Should we plan a basement?+
On most Canton lots, yes. The grade usually gives you a walkout for close to the cost of a crawlspace foundation, and a floor you finish while the framers are still on site never costs that little again. We price it as its own line so you can decide.
How long does a custom home take in Canton?+
Design, review-board approval where there is one, and permitting come first, and septic approval adds to that on acreage. The build itself follows the size of the house and what the site demands before a footing is poured. Your proposal carries a schedule with those approvals and every inspection in it, so you are looking at the whole timeline rather than the framing.
Canton & nearby
What will your Canton custom home cost?
Tell us about the lot and the home you want to build in Canton and we will come back with a clear budget and a realistic schedule, line by line.
- ✓ Lot evaluation & site plan
- ✓ Design, plans & renderings
- ✓ Permits, septic & inspections
- ✓ Fixed pricing, line by line