Five stages, the same on every job, from the first call to the last payment. Here is what you do and what we do at each one.
Plan, permit, prepare, build and finish. Most people only count the build. The first three stages set the price and the dates, so they matter just as much.
A renovation goes smoothly when both sides know their part. Read across a stage to see yours and ours.
Write down what bugs you about the room. Gather a few photos of rooms you like. Pick a budget range you can live with.
We visit, measure and talk through options. Then you get a written quote with each part on its own line.
Sign the contract and choose finishes: cabinets, tile, fixtures, paint.
We draw what the permit office needs and file it. Items with long delivery times get ordered now.
Clear the room. Decide where you will cook, wash or sleep while it is closed.
We cover floors on the way in, put up dust walls and shut off the water or power the job needs.
Answer the questions the crew lead brings you. Most days there are none.
Demolition, then new pipes and wires, then inspection, then walls, then finishes.
Walk every corner with us and point at anything you do not like.
We fix the list, hand over the permit sign-offs and take the last payment.
A job is only as clear as its paperwork. These five stay with you after we leave.
Every part priced on its own line, so you can take a line out.
Ontario law says any renovation deal worth more than $50 has to be on paper. See your rights on ontario.ca.
The permit card and each signed inspection, kept with your house papers.
Any change after signing, written down with its price before the work is done.
Sign-offs, product names and paint colours, so touch-ups match years later.
A refresh that keeps walls, pipes and wiring in place is the fastest kind of renovation, and a job that moves them takes the longest. Moving a wall, a drain or a circuit means drawings, a permit and inspections, so planning can take as long as building.
Before we start, you get a dated plan for your job. If anything changes it, the new dates come to you in writing.
You never pay far ahead of what you can see built. Each payment is tied to a stage your contract names, and this is how a typical job splits them.
Books your start date and orders the materials with long delivery times, such as cabinets, windows or special-order tile.
Paid once the pipes, wires and framing pass inspection, before the walls are closed up.
Paid when the cabinets, tile, floors or fixtures named in your contract are in place.
Waits until we have walked the job with you and every item on the touch-up list is cleared.
Your contract lists the exact stages for your job. A change order adds its own line and its own payment, agreed in writing before the extra work starts.
A change order is a written change to the contract. It says what is added or taken out, the new price and any new dates. Both of you sign it before the crew does the extra work.
Changes are normal. You see the tile on the wall and want a different grout, or we open a wall and find rot. The paper keeps the price honest for both sides.
Empty the room, protect what you love and plan how you will live without it. Then take photos of the room as it is today.