Keystone Awards

Excellence in the Home Building Industry

Overview

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association Central Interior Home Builder Awards of Excellence (Keystone Awards) have been established to recognize and honor excellence in the home building industry. As a professional Home Builders’ Association, we promote industry best practices.  We want to recognize those builders who consistently focus on industry best practices.

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association Central Interior (CHBA CI) is pleased to invite all member companies involved in the residential building industry to participate in the 2026 Keystone Awards®. Each entrant must be a CHBA member in good standing.

For more information on joining the Association, click here.

Questions regarding your entry please contact our office directly: Email: info@chbaci.ca, Ph: 250-828-1844

Eligibility

• Projects and products built, renovated, developed, and/or created for the period of January 1, 2023 – October 17, 2025 are eligible for the 2026 Keystone Awards.
• A building permit must be in place for any pre-sale marketing for categories 1 to 8. False entries will be disqualified.
• Any entry in a specific category from a previous year is not eligible to be entered in the same category for this year’s competition. However a new phase could be entered from the same project, in the same category as last year, provided it is substantially different. (i.e. If an entry won Best Multi-Family Townhouse Development last year, Phase 2 of the same development could enter Best Multi-Family Townhouse Development again this year).
• Project must be submitted by the builder as the primary on the project for Categories 1 to 8.
• Entries must include Builder permission forms. (See specific categories)
• Project Partners must be a member in good standing of CHBA Central Interior.
• Project Partners will not be added after October 17, 2025.

Entry Date Requirements

• Entries must be completed between January 1, 2023 and October 17, 2025.
• Deadline for online entries: Friday, October 17, 2025,11:59 pm PST

Entry Fees

For categories 1 to 24: $225 + GST = $236.25 per entry.

After filling out your entry form you will be prompted to pay online.

All payments must be received no later than Monday, October 20, 2025 to qualify for judging.

Note: The categories Best Supplier, Best Sub Trade, and Best Service/Professional will be decided through a survey sent to all CHBA Central Interior builder members.

Entry Preparation

• All entry materials must be anonymous.
• Inclusion of company names and addresses anywhere in or on the entry materials other than the entry form is forbidden. 
• Do not include company names or logos on floor plans, digital images, or in project description. Any floor plans, digital images or project descriptions in these categories that include company names will not be judged.
• Complete the on-line entry form first before you mark any entry materials. The online entry form will give you an entry number to label all materials for each entry.
• We encourage you to use unique names not home addresses or street names.

Entry Form

• Enter the 2026 Keystone Awards online from our web site www.chbaci.ca. Contact the CHBA Central Interior office at 250-828-1844 for assistance.
• Information given on the entry form will be printed exactly as submitted for news releases, publications, certificates and trophies. Please ensure all spelling is correct before you submit each entry. CHBA Central Interior will not make any corrections after the entry has been submitted.
• If a project partner company or companies are to be recognized with your entry, please include their name(s) and contact information in the appropriate space provided on your online entry. Project partners must be members in good standing of CHBA Central Interior.

Project Description

• Total word count for all text boxes cannot exceed 300 words.
• Bullet form is recommended.
• Text will be used to describe the project and specifically state how it meets the category criteria.

Digital Photos Submission Criteria

Photographic component of your submission must be in digital form on a USB flash drive. Images can be taken with a digital camera. Please do not submit more than the required number of images requested for each category. If you are taking the pictures yourself with a digital camera, be sure to follow the specifications below. Images must be clear; night photos of home exterior are not permitted.

Submit 1 USB flash drive with each entry.

• Images can be horizontal or vertical.
• Exterior, night time images will not be judged. Dusk images are fine (but not recommended) as long as the judges are able to see features of the exterior of the project.
• Images to be saved at 300 dpi which allows for proper optimization for judging, website and gala presentations.
• Max file size 5MB.
• Save as a high-quality JPG file only. Do not submit pdf, tiff, gif, png or any other file formats. Do not send re-formatted images that have been cropped and layered with borders or frames.
• All images must be anonymous. Do not include people in your images unless required by the category (This may not apply to “before” images in the renovation categories).
• DO NOT submit black and white or gray scale images, renderings, and digitally enhanced or high-definition images. Do not submit black and white “before” images for renovation categories. They will not be judged.
• Please name files with community name or project name, category number and sequence number (i.e. hilltop_cat12_1.jpg).
• For renovation category, please add to the sequence number a “B” to indicate a “before” image, and an “A” to indicate an “after” image (i.e.smith_cat4_1B.jpg/smith_cat4_1A.jpg).
• All entry photos are to be kept private and avoid promotion on social media prior to the Gala.

Plans: Floor, Site, Landscape, etc…

• All plans must be submitted digitally on a PDF file only;
• Submit simple and easy to read floor plan and save on a USB flash drive.

Judging

• Each entry will be judged on its own merit, based solely on entry materials provided.
• Entries will be judged by a distinguished panel of highly qualified judges from outside the BC Interior region, who are selected for their expertise in their field.
• An Accounting Firm chosen by CHBA Central Interior will monitor the judging process. No others will be allowed to observe the judging of entries.
• 2026 Keystone Awards Finalists will be announced, and posted on www.chbaci.ca.
• Decisions of the Keystone Awards are final.

CHBA Central Interior reserves the right to:

• Cancel, combine or split any category due to numerous or insufficient number of entries or at the judges’ discretion;
• Withdraw a particular category if all the entries submitted do not meet the criteria or are not of a standard that recognizes excellence;
• Withdraw any entries if they do not meet the criteria or are not of a standard that recognizes excellence; Withdraw a particular entry if they do not meet digital image submission specifications.
• Request any additional information it deems necessary to confirm the information contained in any submission.
• Judges may also re-categorize any entry if, in their opinion, it has been entered in the wrong category, or if the entry is more appropriate in another category.

Return of Entry Material

All materials submitted become the sole property of CHBA Central Interior and Keystone Awards. CHBA Central Interior reserves the right to use any or all of these materials for the promotion of the Keystone Awards. CHBA Central Interior will not return any materials submitted.

It is important to the integrity of the residential construction industry that all entrants must conduct themselves in such a way as to demonstrate good business practices. If it can be demonstrated at any time up to the final awarding of the Keystone Awards trophy that there are business practices detrimental to the integrity of the industry, that participant will be disqualified. Keystone Awards entrants and participants are required to accept all decisions by CHBA Central Interior as final and binding.

Deadline

The online entry form closes at 11:59 p.m. Friday, October 17, 2025. All completed online entry forms must be submitted by this time. There will be no extensions. All remaining entry requirements, including fees, must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. Monday October 20, 2025. Send or drop off the remaining entry requirements to:

The Keystone Awards c/o CHBA Central Interior
202-929 Laval Crescent, Kamloops BC V2C 5P4

2026 Keystone Awards and Tickets

The Keystone Awards Gala Evening is scheduled for Saturday, February 7, 2026 at TRU Grand Hall.

Tickets can be purchased online in January 2026 at www.chbaci.ca or by calling the CHBA Central Interior office, 250-828-1844.

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