General Contracting · Tacoma to the Eastside · Veteran-Owned · WA L&I #BIGSTSG760LQ
Big Star General Contracting
Veteran-Owned
High-end residential exterior · Tacoma to the Eastside

Two decades of building for clients who notice every seam.

Custom homes, exterior renovations, and the craft disciplines that golf courses and private clubs taught us. Now serving Bellevue, Mercer Island, Madison Park, and the Tacoma North End.

Joel LemkeOwner · Builder · Veteran
Bonded · InsuredWA L&I #BIGSTSG760LQ
Veteran-OwnedBuilt on a 20-year résumé
What we build

Exterior craft, taken seriously.

There are a thousand contractors in the South Sound who can put a roof on a house. There are a handful who know which roof to put on, why, and what fails three years later when it's done wrong. Big Star is in the second category. Every job, every time.

01

Custom homes

Ground-up construction for clients with a clear vision and the patience to build it right. Twenty years of high-end residential experience, including custom builds in private mountain communities. Joel runs every project personally.

02

Roofing

CertainTeed Authorized Partner — the top-warranty brand in the industry, not the cheap IKO shingle most contractors quietly install instead. Custom metal flashing around chimneys (a Pacific Northwest necessity that lowest-bid roofers skip). Composition, metal, tile, low-slope.

03

Decks

Premium composite (Trex, Sunwood) installed correctly — the boards can't be cut on a standard saw without burning the edge, and the framing isn't 16-on-center like dimensional lumber. We know the difference. Most contractors don't, and the work shows it.

04

Hardscape & rockery

Retaining walls, terraces, native stone features, water features, drainage engineering. Disciplines learned co-owning an Arizona stone warehouse and on golf course construction. Master-plan-development scale, applied to your property line.

05

Concrete & land prep

Foundations, driveways, patios, cart paths. The difference between concrete that lasts thirty years and concrete that cracks in three is the environmental factors most contractors don't account for — soil prep, expansion joints, slope, mix specification. We do.

06

Fences & gates

The first thing your guests see, and the boundary that defines your property. Cedar, steel, automated entry hardware. Built to read as architecture, not utility.

07

Pole barns & garages

Detached structures, oversized garages, equipment barns. The kind of build Montana ranchers ask for, finished to suburban-residential standards.

08

Gutters

On-site gutter truck means seamless gutters cut to your roofline and color-matched in real time, not pre-fab sections joined with seams that fail in five winters. We can also fix the underlying roofing issues we find while we're up there. Most gutter installers can't.

09

Pre-sale renovation

For listing agents and homeowners with stale luxury inventory. Show-ready transformations on agent timelines. Pay-at-close arrangements available.

The résumé

Joel Lemke has been building since the nineties.

Born and raised in Tacoma. Served in the United States Army as a 19K Armor Crewman. Came up working a crew at the Yellowstone Club, where his early career was framed by clients with the means to expect every detail done right. Co-owned a stone warehouse in Arizona for three years — wholesale flagstone in, custom-cut and crew-installed out, on master-plan developments where the rockeries, water features, and yes, every stone mailbox on the cul-de-sac were ours. A decade total in automotive sales and finance, much of it at Larson Auto Group selling Porsche and Audi to a Pacific Northwest clientele he now builds for. Joel still owns and drives the 1986 black 911 he bought in those years. Returned home to Tacoma to build the way he was trained, for clients who notice every seam.

  • U.S. Army19K M1 Armor CrewmanThe discipline that runs through every job site we operate. Big Star is a veteran-owned business.
  • Early careerYellowstone Club, Big Sky, MTCrew on custom residential builds inside one of the most exclusive private communities in the country. The standard was set here.
  • 2010sSpanish Peaks Mountain Club, Big Sky, MTCourse construction on the Tom Weiskopf signature design.
  • 2000sQuintero Golf Club, Peoria, AZCourse construction on the Rees Jones design — top-40 public course in the United States.
  • 2000sSuperstition Springs Golf Club, Mesa, AZDesert-climate course construction. Concrete, hardscape, and irrigation infrastructure.
  • 3 yearsCo-Owner · Arizona Stone WarehouseWholesale flagstone, custom-cut and crew-installed on master-plan developments.
  • A decadeSales & Finance · Larson Auto GroupPorsche, Audi, and the wider portfolio. A decade selling to the same Pacific Northwest clientele he now builds for.
For listing agents

Stale inventory? Let's talk.

If you're sitting on a luxury listing that's been on market longer than your seller wants to admit, we're the call to make before the next price drop. Pre-sale renovation on agent timelines. Quotes in 48 hours. Start in 7 days. Pay-at-close arrangements available for qualified sellers.

See how it works →
Start a project

Book your on-site project consultation.

We deliver top-quality work that lasts. Many imposters promise the world, only to leave you discovering later about the shortcuts they took to beat the lowest bid. Those shortcuts save you today and cost you plenty tomorrow.

We are licensed, insured, and bonded. Let our 30 years of vast planning and construction expertise guide your project to a successful outcome — on time and on budget. We excel at project management to contain pricing sprawl and protect delivery timelines.

How it works

Book your $300 on-site consultation. If you book the project with us, the $300 is applied toward your purchase. If you don't, you receive $200 in Big Star credit good toward any future project.

A real on-site visit by a real builder. Not a sales pitch from a phone-bank quoter.

On-site project consultation
$300
applied to your project · or $200 credit if you don't book
  • On-site walkthrough of your property and project scope
  • Direct conversation with Joel — not a phone-bank quoter
  • Written quote within 48 hours of the visit
  • Materials specification and timeline planning included
  • License, insurance, and bond verification on request
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