Renovation

1. Design and drawingsLayouts, elevations, 3D and a construction set complete enough that the trades are not guessing. Every material named by species, grade, finish and supplier.
2. PermitsPrepared to permit standard and submitted. Where the house needs a minor variance, you hear it at feasibility rather than in month four.
3. Demolition and structureThe designated substance survey Ontario requires before demolition, on any house rather than only an old one, and the abatement work where the findings call for it.
4. Mechanical rough-inPlumbing, electrical and HVAC, by the licensed trades the province requires, then the inspections that gate everything after them.
5. FinishesInsulation, drywall, tile, flooring, stone, paint, trim and doors.
6. MillworkCut in our own shop from the approved shop drawings, which is why it does not sit on the critical path the way a subcontracted kitchen does.
7. HandoverA walkthrough, a written list of everything that is not right, and a date against each item.

Design and documentation

8 to 16 weeks

Permit review

Set by the municipality

Demolition

1 to 3 weeks

Structure and framing

2 to 6 weeks

Rough-ins and inspections

3 to 6 weeks

Insulation, drywall and taping

3 to 5 weeks

Millwork, tile, flooring and stone

4 to 8 weeks

Paint, trim, doors and fixtures

3 to 5 weeks

Deficiencies and closeout

2 to 4 weeks

Construction typically runs from four to eighteen months. The design, the documentation, the engineering and the selections come before it, and so do the permits where the municipality requires them. The stages above are working time. What sits between them is the rest of it: permit review, your own decisions, and the long-lead orders that have to be placed well before the trades who need them arrive. Construction only moves quickly when every decision has already been made. We build about fifteen per cent schedule contingency into a whole-home plan.

• Is this a fixed price or cost-plus, and if cost-plus, plus what percentage?
• What is the deposit, what triggers each draw, and is the final payment after the deficiency list is closed?
• What is the markup on a change order?
• Which line items are allowances, and what happens when the real selection costs more?
• Can I see your WSIB clearance certificate and your liability insurance limit?
• Walk me through the designated substance survey, and who does the abatement if it finds anything.
• Who is the site supervisor, and how many other jobs are they running while mine is open?
• Give me three references at a similar value, including one whose job went over budget.

What is a designated substance survey, and do we need one?

Before demolition, the owner of a project in Ontario has to determine what designated substances are in the building and list them. Asbestos is the one that matters most in a house, and it turns up in drywall compound, floor tile, pipe wrap and attic vermiculite. The survey is the report that answers the question. It is not an old-house formality, it applies to the project rather than to the vintage, and it has to happen before the wall comes down rather than after somebody has opened it.

What is inside the price, and what sits outside it?

Drawings, permits, construction and the millwork from our own shop sit on one contract. HST at thirteen per cent goes on top of the work. Anything the designated substance survey turns up, and anything found behind a wall once it is open, is priced and agreed in writing at the time rather than discovered at the end. Ask us to mark which lines are allowances before you sign, and ask the same of everyone else you are pricing against.

Can we live in the house during a whole-home renovation?

Usually not, for a full gut. The services go off, the dust is everywhere and the inspections need the house empty of obstructions. Budget for somewhere to live for the construction period and tell your insurer, because a house left empty under renovation is a material change to the risk and your coverage can change with it.

What happens when you open a wall and find a problem?

It gets priced and agreed in writing before the work happens, rather than turning up on the final invoice. On pre-1990 houses the usual finds are asbestos in drywall compound and vermiculite in the attic, and vermiculite has to be tested because not all of it carries asbestos. What follows depends on the material and on whether the work disturbs it, and the crew doing that work needs the training Ontario sets for its class. It costs time as well as money.

• How long a whole-home renovation actually takesConstruction is the part you can see. The schedule is usually decided months earlier, by drawings, approvals and one cabinet order. Here is what actually moves the clock.
• What a kitchen renovation actually costs in the GTAWhere the money goes in a kitchen, why two quotes for the same room can be forty thousand dollars apart, and the five decisions that move the number more than anything else you will choose.
• How to read a renovation quote in OntarioWhat a complete quote contains, why the lowest number is usually the smallest scope, how allowances hide cost, and the questions that expose a thin bid before you sign it.
• Why basements leak in Markham, and the repair that lastsWhat water actually does around a foundation, what efflorescence and a hairline crack each tell you, and the honest difference between an interior patch and an exterior repair.