Dihedral Builders is a small custom home company with a deep bench. We've spent twenty years building homes and remodels across Southcentral Alaska and the Pacific Northwest — we're now carrying that work into the Idaho Panhandle.
The builds are the story. Every project we take on is one we want to stand behind in ten years, not ten months.
Chad met each idea with enthusiasm and counseled me beautifully on exactly how to achieve what I was after.
Rane MacDonough · Google review
We've been building in Southcentral Alaska, Skagit County, Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands for twenty years — custom waterfront homes, historic additions in Coupeville, remodels that touched every wall. The work built the reputation, and the reputation built the business.
Every lesson got folded back in: how to site a house for PNW weather, how to specify products that suit our client's needs best, how to run a trade partnership for a decade instead of a project, how to say no to work that won't end well, how to direct collaboration between designers, engineers, clients, and craftsmen.
Since 2020 we've been forging relationships and putting down roots in Sandpoint and the Idaho Panhandle, with the goal of making it our permanent home. The move is deliberate — we've chosen the place, and we plan to still be here decades from now.
The Panhandle has a lot in common with where we started — mountains instead of islands, a similar tolerance for weather, and the kind of clientele who wants a home that will last beyond them, but we have noticed a gap in the building process – a gap that we are particularly suited to fill. Our experience building in extreme climates and under strict building codes provides a knowledge base that can suit discerning clients in North Idaho – we analyze a home as an integrated system of individual parts, specifying materials, assemblies and systems with intention and purpose, rooted in science and data. Our pre-construction process leaves no stone unturned BEFORE the build begins meaning we know what we're going to do and how much it's going to cost.
Our first Sandpoint build is underway in the Selle Valley. Over the next few years, we'll phase toward building primarily in Idaho while continuing to honor our Washington relationships and take on select projects in the Anacortes area.
We're small by design. That means you work with the principal on every project, the trades on site are ones we've personally vetted, and decisions don't get lost in layers of project management. We're good at hard sites, careful budgets, and the long conversations that make a house feel like a home when it's done. We cherish the opportunity to partner with you in creating an heirloom that you can be proud of and feel part of.
We care as much about the experience of building as we do about the finished home. A project that ends in a beautiful house but a strained relationship isn't a project we'd count as a success — so clear communication, honest numbers, and a calm job site get the same attention as the millwork. We have respect for our client's time and budgets, and view our role as educators and facilitators, helping you make the right decisions for your project.
Nearly every review on this site names one person: Chad. Here's his story, in his own words.
Chad Gailey — founder and president of Dihedral — grew up tagging along to job sites with his father, a plumber, general contractor, and business owner with uncompromising standards. Chad watched him review not just his own crew's work but every trade's, point out the deficiencies, and often fix them on the spot. His father was known to strip all the plumbing out of a new build and start over if the workmanship didn't meet his bar. That, though Chad didn't know it yet, was where a passion for building with excellence took hold.
Construction wasn't the original plan. After high school, Chad spent five years in the Coast Guard patrolling the icy waters of Alaska, then studied biology and occupational therapy through college and graduate school. He started his first company during grad school — remodels and small builds around Anchorage — and soon realized he liked building more than rehab, and that a naturally analytical mind was a welcome thing in the trade.
He brought that home to Washington in 2011 and started the current Dihedral Builders in 2012. Growth has been slow and steady ever since, and the values haven't wavered — plenty of chances to grow faster have come along, always with a trade-off he wasn't willing to make. That background is also why he reads a house as an integrated system, specified with intention: beautiful where you see it, better where you don't.
There is a fast way to build a home and a correct way, and we have never seen the two get along. Every project runs through the same six deliberate phases, worked out before any hammer swings — so you always know what happens next.
An industry-leading three-year craftsmanship warranty, on top of the manufacturers' warranties, plus scheduled inspections at one month and again at eleven months — timed just before your product warranties lapse, so anything covered stays covered.
We schedule follow-up visits because standing behind our work is not only part of the process — it is central to who we are.
“We are now a few weeks past our three-year occupancy permit anniversary… The house is spectacular and is performing beautifully. This is in contrast to several of our neighbors whose custom homes by ‘high end’ local builders have been beset by various significant problems.”
Gene Scott
Oak Harbor, WA · three-plus years after completion
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