The county over the pass
Grand County is the big ranching-and-resort county on the far side of Berthoud Pass, home to about 15,700 people spread from roughly 7,300 feet at Kremmling to 9,000-plus at Winter Park. The housing splits by valley: resort condos and custom homes in the Fraser Valley, golf and lake communities around Granby and Grand Lake, and ranch homes in the Kremmling country. Winters are the deepest we work in.
Where we build in Grand County
Our Grand County work centers on the Fraser Valley. Winter Park is the resort town at the top, where a 60 psf deck minimum is written into code and Rendezvous and the Highlands carry architectural review. Fraser is the valley floor — the Icebox of the Nation — with older cabins downtown and fast-growing Grand Park and Rendezvous neighborhoods. Tabernash is the unincorporated stretch between Fraser and Granby, golf-course and ranchette subdivisions like Fairways at Pole Creek on county permits. On the west side — Granby, Grand Lake, Hot Sulphur Springs, and Kremmling — we take projects as scheduling allows and confirm the permit counter for each address first.
Permits: one county counter, one shared town division
Grand County Building & Sanitation issues permits for unincorporated land — Tabernash and the rural Fraser Valley included — from Hot Sulphur Springs at 970-725-3255, with every application filed through Cloudpermit. Winter Park and Fraser issue their own permits through the combined Winter Park–Fraser Building Division at 970-726-8081, filed through Winter Park's Accela portal. The county is on the 2015 I-Codes with 2018 amendments; Winter Park and Fraser are on the 2021 codes. Master-planned communities add HOA review before the permit. Our permit guide explains the process.
Snow by zone, frost at thirty inches
The county does not publish a single snow number; the figure comes from the Grand County snow-load and snow-zone map, the Subdivision Index, or the SEAC Colorado design snow loads for your elevation. Frost depth is 30 inches and design wind is 115 mph three-second gust countywide. Inside Winter Park and Fraser, uncovered decks must hit 60 psf or the design snow load, whichever is greater, with no duration factors and no roofs shedding onto decks — the numbers that size every beam and post under a covered deck or patio cover.
Wildfire code, town by town
The 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code has arrived in Grand County unevenly. Winter Park and Fraser have adopted it, as have the Grand Fire and East Grand Fire districts; Granby declined and Hot Sulphur Springs opted out; and as of June 2026 the county itself had not adopted it, with the decision pending. We build ember-aware on every forested lot regardless — ignition-resistant capped composite, screened framing bays, and an underside that is not storage.
Custom homes, older cabins, and the honest answer
On the resort side, projects run large and structural — walkouts, covered sections, railing chosen to keep the view. On the older cabin side, the common call is a deck framed to snow assumptions the current zone map does not accept. Where an existing frame is sound we say so and price a re-deck; where it is not, a replacement built once beats repairing twice.
Over the pass, in blocks
The Fraser Valley is 100 to 120 minutes from our Centennial shop over Berthoud Pass — well beyond our Idaho Springs work — and the west side is further, with the pass deciding winter access. We schedule mountain projects in blocks by season. Run the cost calculator for a planning range, then tell us what you are planning and we will confirm the counter and snow figure for your parcel.