Published · every figure below was checked against its primary source on the date shown.
The builders working out of St. Anthony
This table is assembled from Idaho contractor registration records, Better Business Bureau profiles, chamber listings and the companies' own material, all checked on 14 August 2026. It is not a ranking and it is not a recommendation. It is the set of checkable facts, so that you can start from evidence rather than from whoever advertises hardest.
| Builder | Principals | What the public record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Spot-On Construction | Oney & Bobbi Tews | 616 N 2800 E. Idaho registration RCE-60642, active. New single-family construction; chamber member. |
| H&H Builders, Inc. | Rick G. Hill | 660 N 5th W. Idaho corporation trading since 2000 — the longest-running builder on this list. |
| Altitude Builders | Terry Bauer | 200 N 3rd E. Idaho registration RCE-49714, active. Single-family construction. |
| H&M Astin Homes | Matthew & Holly Astin | Based here, but markets to Teton Valley and Rexburg. Insulated concrete form (ICF) specialist. |
| Timbercraft Construction | Rance & Summer Robles | 612 W Main St. Around 19 years trading. Its general remodel registration is the active one — ask what it covers. |
| AV Builders | Anders & Savannah Vargason | 418 Riverview Rd. Design-build. Its contractor registration lapsed in July 2026 — confirm current status before contracting. |
| Rogue Builders & Home Repair | — | 265 N 2500 E. Twelve public reviews averaging 5.0; the profile is unclaimed, so nobody is paying to manage it. |
Two honest notes. A registration number is a fact you can verify in about a minute, and a lapsed one is not an accusation — registrations lapse for ordinary administrative reasons and are often renewed. It is simply something to ask about before you sign. And several corridor-wide firms based in Chester, Ashton or Idaho Falls also build here; they are real options, they are just not St. Anthony businesses.
What you are actually planning
The one thing that decides most of your paperwork
Fremont County publishes a sentence on its own Building page that changes almost everything downstream, and hardly anyone building here has read it.
“Fremont County administers the International Building Code requirements in the issuance of all permits, except within the city limits of St. Anthony.”
— Fremont County, official Building page (fremontcountyid.gov/197/Building), retrieved 14 August 2026
St. Anthony is the only town in the county named in that exception. Inside the city limits the city issues your permit, under its own code list, with a zoning permit required first, a $150 deposit before the application is accepted, and sidewalk, curb and gutter required before a certificate of occupancy. Outside, it is the county: a $50 site plan review, a septic permit due at submittal, and roughly four to six weeks of review.
Two houses a mile apart, two entirely different processes. The full comparison is in the guide to which desk issues your permit, and what each side charges is set out in the guide to what a build here costs. A side-by-side of the two code lists publishes later this week and will appear in the list below the moment it goes live.
It is worth being clear about why that matters more here than the usual advice about permits. A mailing address will not tell you which side of the line you are on. Rural routes carry the St. Anthony name for miles out into the valley, and the corporate boundary does not follow the roads in any way you could reasonably guess from a map or a listing. People discover which process they are in when somebody at a counter tells them, which is usually well after they have been quoted a price and given a timeline by someone who assumed the other answer.
Asking first costs one phone call. Asking late can cost a redesign, because the two paths do not want the same drawings, do not charge the same fees and do not finish at the same point — one of them will not hand over a certificate of occupancy until there is a finished sidewalk along the frontage.
The county figures every new house here satisfies
- Ground snow load, 50 PSF. Fremont County Ordinance 2005-02 §3 sets it for the St. Anthony District — the lowest of the county's districts. The University of Idaho's 2015 state reference gives this town 37 psf at 4,963 feet, so the county's adopted figure is the more conservative of the two and designing to it satisfies both.
- Engineered stamped plans for free-standing post and beam structures. No size threshold, no snow-load exemption. It catches a large share of shop and barndominium designs on this valley floor.
- An engineer or architect at the county's stated snow-load threshold. The checklist names 70 lb/ft²; this district sits at 50. Worth confirming rather than assuming — the wording is ambiguous and the saving is real.
- Height caps of 30 feet, or 25 for accessory structures. Which one applies depends on whether your building is the dwelling.
Where to ask
- City of St. Anthony, 420 N Bridge Street Suite A, St. Anthony, ID 83445 — (208) 624-3494; inspections (208) 709-3030, 24 hours' notice
- Fremont County Building Department, Fremont County Courthouse, 151 W 1st North, St. Anthony, ID 83445 — (208) 624-7200
- Eastern Idaho Public Health, Fremont County office, 45 South 2nd West, St. Anthony — (208) 522-8065 — for a septic permit, which the county requires at the moment you submit the building permit application.
Getting the most out of this
The table of builders is the place to begin — every figure in it is something you can confirm independently. After that, pick whichever guide matches the question actually blocking you, and ring the number at the top of the page once you know what to ask. Writing works equally well: the form further down lands in the same inbox. Two things worth reading before you trust any of it are where the money comes from and who is doing the writing.
Guides published so far
- St. Anthony is the one town in Fremont County that issues its own building permitsThe county says so in a single sentence on its own Building page, and it names no other town. Which desk you walk into decides your codebook, your fees, your inspector and whether you owe sidewalk before you can move in.Published 2026-08-14
- The St. Anthony District snow load is 50 PSF — the lowest in Fremont CountyFremont County Ordinance 2005-02 sets it, and here the county is more cautious than the state engineering study, not less. What 50 PSF changes about your roof, your trusses and one costly county rule you may fall below.Published 2026-08-14
- Building a barndominium in St. Anthony, Idaho — what the county actually requiresNo builder in the upper valley owns this lane, and the statewide post-frame companies marketing in from Post Falls do not tell you the one Fremont County rule that hits nearly every barndominium design.Published 2026-08-14
- What does it cost to build a custom home in St. Anthony, Idaho?Nobody local publishes a price. What is publishable are the fixed public costs on both sides of the city line, the site-work variables that actually move a bid, and the five line items that make two quotes comparable.Published 2026-08-14
Common questions
Who builds custom homes in St. Anthony, Idaho?
Seven firms with a St. Anthony address show up in the public record: Spot-On Construction (Oney and Bobbi Tews, RCE-60642), H&H Builders (Rick G. Hill, trading since 2000), Altitude Builders (Terry Bauer, RCE-49714), H&M Astin Homes (Matthew and Holly Astin, ICF specialists), Timbercraft Construction (Rance and Summer Robles), AV Builders (Anders and Savannah Vargason) and Rogue Builders & Home Repair. Each is listed with what the record shows on this page.
Is this site a builder?
No. It is written by Kjel Jones, an independent researcher, and it holds no contractor licence, employs no crew and builds nothing. It exists to answer the questions a person building here actually has, from primary documents, and to point them at the builders who do the work.
Which builders should I call first?
This site will not rank them, because it has no basis to. What it can tell you is what is checkable: who holds a current Idaho contractor registration, who has been trading longest, and where a registration has lapsed. Those facts are on this page and you can verify every one of them yourself.
Does Fremont County or the city issue my building permit?
St. Anthony is the only town in Fremont County that issues its own. The county's Building page says it administers permits everywhere except within the St. Anthony city limits. Which side your lot is on decides your codebook, your fees and your inspector.
What is the ground snow load here?
Fremont County Ordinance 2005-02 sets 50 PSF for the St. Anthony District — the lowest district figure in the county. Unusually, that is above what the University of Idaho's 2015 state study recommends for this town, so designing to the county figure satisfies both.
Can I build a barndominium or a shop house?
Yes, and it is a normal way to build on this valley floor. The rule that catches most designs is the county's requirement for engineered stamped plans on all free-standing post and beam structures, which carries no size or snow-load exemption.
What does it cost to build here?
No local builder publishes a rate, and any single figure quoted for this town came from somewhere else. The public fees are knowable in advance and are set out on this site; the site work is what actually moves a bid, and it is unknown until the ground is tested.
What does it cost me to use this site?
Nothing, permanently. No homeowner is ever charged. The site intends to rent its enquiry stream to a single local builder for a flat monthly fee, and as of 14 August 2026 no builder pays anything and none has been promised placement.
Will you sell my details?
No. Enquiries go to a person, not into a marketing list, and there are no automated text sequences. The privacy page sets out exactly what is collected and what is never done with it.
Ask about a build in St. Anthony
Describe the parcel and roughly what you have in mind. What comes back is an honest read on which firms here take that kind of work, plus the one thing most people have not established yet: whether the city or the county will be reviewing your plans. Free, and nothing automated ever follows.
- Say where the ground is and what you intend to put on it.
- You are pointed toward the firms in this town with that work behind them.
- From there it is between you and them. No commission, no introduction fee, and nobody standing between you and your own contract.
One contact method is plenty — whichever you prefer. A human being writes back.