Service Areas / Medina
Custom Home Builder in Medina, WA
Medina, Washington homeowners get custom home new construction, whole home renovation, and additions from Gallagher Co., a team based a short drive away on Mercer Island.
20+
Years building
300+
Projects completed
Greater Seattle
Area
Ready to talk about a Medina project? Call (206) 232-1600 or reach out here.
What We Build in Medina
In Medina, we see a lot of custom homes following tear-down of an existing structure, whole-home renovations where the existing structure carries decades of its own history, or, occasionally, a DADU addition. Each one gets a different starting point.
Custom homes
Every custom home in Medina begins with the same three questions: what can the site support, what will the neighborhood’s design review expect, and what will it feel like to live in the finished house. Your architect and our team work through those questions together before anything is finalized, and once we break ground, a single superintendent stays on site daily so decisions never sit waiting for a returned call.
Especially on rebuilds, where site conditions can shift the plan mid-project, having one person accountable for the day-to-day keeps things moving. Our custom home building work in Medina runs on that same standard.
Remodels and whole home renovations
Home remodeling is particularly popular in Medina, where much of the housing stock is older and much of the work coming to us is renovations rather than bare lot builds. A kitchen refresh sits at one end of that range. A whole home renovation that reworks a house from the foundation up sits at the other. Both get the same superintendent, the same trade crews, and the same line-item budget as new construction.
What is behind an existing wall in a Medina home built decades ago rarely matches a generic estimate, so we thoroughly inspect the actual conditions before committing to a number. Our home remodeling and whole home renovation team treats every Medina project with that same scrutiny from the first walkthrough.
How Medina Was Built, and What That Means Now
From summer escapes to year-round estates
Many of the homes near the water in Medina started out as something simpler: a summer place used part of the year rather than a full-time residence. Most of that original housing stock has since given way to larger, year-round homes built for how people actually live today. For a buyer, that means the land here was mostly spoken for long ago, so a Medina project is rarely a bare lot. It almost always comes with something already standing on it.
The teardown and rebuild era
The defining pattern in Medina today is replacing what is already there, whether that means a full teardown and rebuild or taking an existing house down to the studs. Both approaches carry weight that building on open ground does not: protecting a neighboring property during demolition, working within a footprint that is already established, or making the case for changing it. It is also exactly the kind of project our custom homes and home remodeling teams handle regularly, just under different names.
What has changed about how these homes get built
The homes being replaced in Medina were often built to a different standard than what is expected today. Building envelope performance, energy code, and mechanical systems are all a step up from what an older property was built with, and closing that gap is real work. It is also why a Medina project tends to need more design and preconstruction time than an owner may expect walking in, since getting the systems right before framing begins saves far more than it costs to plan for.
Building a Custom Home in Medina
Medina does not build like its neighbors. Permitting, lot conditions, and even the split between new construction and rebuilding all run differently here than anywhere else on the Eastside, and a schedule built on Bellevue or Mercer Island assumptions will not match a Medina site.
What Medina's review process means for your schedule
Permitting and design review in Medina answer to their own jurisdiction. We have direct and current experience working inside Medina’s review process to get your home projects done.
Ahead of a final schedule, we account for:
- Medina’s design review timeline for your specific project
- Any conditions the review raises that affect the design
- How that timeline lines up with your target construction start date
That keeps Medina’s review timeline part of the plan from day one, instead of a delay nobody saw coming three months in.
Lot conditions across Medina
A Medina lot brings its own set of conditions, and a generic estimate rarely captures what a specific site actually allows.
Conditions to consider before finalizing a design with your architect:
Slope
What it means for foundation design and site access
Mature trees
Ones that predate the current house and may carry retention requirements
Drainage
Especially where established neighbors sit close on every side
Buildable area
How much of the lot is left once those factors are accounted for
A site walk before the design is locked in almost always pays for itself: anything the lot will not allow is far easier to solve on paper than after a permit is already filed.
Building new versus rebuilding on an existing lot
Most of the desirable land in Medina already has a house on it, so most owners are not choosing between a builder and an open lot. The real choice is whether to rebuild from the ground up or take the existing structure down to the studs.
Choosing the right path depends on:
- What shape the existing structure is in
- What Medina’s rules allow for the lot
- What the finished project needs to accomplish
Either path gets the same level of planning attention from our team, and we work through that decision with you honestly before anything is committed to paper. See how we approach whole home renovations when a rebuild is the better path.
How We Work in Medina
A Gallagher Co. project in Medina runs through one point of contact from the first site visit to the final walkthrough. Your superintendent is the same person opening your project and handing you keys at the end, which matters most on a rebuild where conditions change as work uncovers them.
Once Gallagher Co. starts building, you get:
Continuity
The same superintendent runs your project start to finish
No surprise invoices
A scope change gets a specific number attached before we act on it
Weekly contact
You hear about a decision before it becomes a delay
One process
A rebuild, a renovation, and a new build all run through the same standards
We built the firm on the idea that a builder should be a partner in the decisions, and Medina’s older housing stock and tighter lots make that partnership matter.
Why Medina Homeowners Choose Gallagher Co.
Gallagher Co. has been a family firm since 2005, and that has not changed as we have grown. Over twenty years across the Eastside means we have seen almost every condition a Medina lot can throw at a project.
- Two decades of Eastside experience, including the slopes, teardowns, and tight lots Medina is known for
- Work that comes through referrals, from past clients and the architects and designers we return to project after project
- The same superintendent on site every day, on every project we build
- A family firm from the start instead of a franchise or a volume operation
We intentionally keep our project load manageable so each build gets consistent attention from the people responsible for it. Your project stays closely managed from start to finish, with direct communication and a team that knows the details rather than handing them off as the work progresses.
Our work has been recognized by Luxe Interiors + Design, Architectural Digest, and the Puget Sound Business Journal, which named Gallagher Co. among the region’s fastest-growing private companies.
See Our Medina Work
Our completed projects showcase how Gallagher Co. builds look and feel. Medina is one part of the wider Eastside area we serve.
Frequently Asked Questions About Building in Medina
Why does a Medina project take a design phase most builders do not mention?
Because almost every Medina project starts with an existing structure rather than open land, the design phase includes work a bare-lot build skips entirely: assessing what is there, deciding what comes down, and designing around what stays. That phase, plus Medina’s own design review and permitting, is what actually sets your schedule, and we would rather walk you through that reality up front than quote a generic number before we have seen your site.
Is most of the work in Medina new construction or renovation?
Renovation and rebuilds make up most of what we do in Medina. The land here was largely built on decades ago, so a project usually starts with an existing house rather than an open lot, whether that means a full teardown and rebuild or taking a structure down to the studs and reworking it from there. We plan for that reality from the first site visit rather than defaulting to a process that assumes a blank slate.
Do you work with the architects and designers we already have?
Yes, and most of our Medina clients come to us already working with one. We coordinate directly with whichever architect or design team you already have, and we ask to be brought in early enough that budget and buildability are still part of the conversation. Without one in place yet, we are happy to walk through what that first conversation looks like and refer you to the right team to fit your needs.
What happens if something unexpected turns up once demolition starts?
On a teardown or major renovation, conditions occasionally turn up that were not visible before work started. This is common enough in Medina’s older housing stock that we plan for it rather than treat it as a rare exception. Any change gets priced as a specific, numbered option before we act on it. Nothing proceeds on a surprise you have not approved.
Start Your Dream Project in Medina
Whether you envision a brand new custom home in Medina, a full-scale renovation, or even a project you have not fully defined, we would like to hear about it. Call (206) 232-1600 or share the details here, and we will follow up directly.