Marcus Holt spent eleven years as a site supervisor for a mid-size general contractor in Hamilton before he started Craftstone Renovations in the spring of 2014. The decision came after a particular project, a kitchen renovation in Ancaster, where the homeowner was handed a final invoice that was forty percent higher than the original estimate. Marcus had flagged the scope creep to his employer three weeks before completion. Nothing was done. He quit two weeks after the project closed and spent the following winter writing the operating principles that still govern every Craftstone job today: fixed-scope quotes, daily site communication, and no subcontractor on site without a signed scope agreement.
Craftstone started as a two-person operation out of a rented bay in a Stoney Creek industrial unit. The first year was mostly drywall and painting, the kind of work that comes through word of mouth when you are new and do not yet have a portfolio of finished kitchens to show. By 2016, the referral base had grown enough to take on a full basement finishing project in Dundas, and that job, a 1,100-square-foot unfinished space converted into a home office and guest suite, became the first project Marcus photographed properly and put on the website. The phone started ringing differently after that. By 2018, Craftstone had completed over forty renovation projects and brought on two additional carpenters full-time.