Interior Renovations in Kitchener

Yes, once walls or plumbing move. Kitchener sits inside the Region of Waterloo, but the City of Kitchener Building Division issues the building permit and inspects the work, so that is where we file it.

Not for work inside the existing walls. Our Kitchener page names the conservation authority that covers your lot.

Yes. We take on interior renovations across Kitchener, including Doon Pioneer Park and Stanley Park, within ninety minutes of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: property address; photos of the rooms you want to change; and any existing drawings or a previous permit. Send those and we tell you what the City of Kitchener Building Division will ask for before we quote.

Yes. We apply through the City’s online services portal, which runs on AMANDA, and that portal also shows the permit’s status, the drawings on file and the inspection bookings. We answer the City of Kitchener Building Division’s comments as they arrive and send you each update, and the inspections are booked there as the renovation reaches each stage.

Yes, and the beam that replaces the wall is our P.Eng’s design. Each post under it needs a footing below the basement slab, so in the older homes around the core and Victoria Park we check what the basement floor and foundation are made of before the layout is fixed. The beam, the posts and their footings then go on the set filed with the City of Kitchener Building Division.

Mostly what the basement already has. Headroom, the depth of the drain and the state of the foundation walls differ from house to house, and an older home near Victoria Park can need different work from a postwar or newer basement in Doon or Huron. A second unit adds fire separation and egress work that the City of Kitchener Building Division reviews as a unit, so we ask early whether one is planned and price the job after a free consultation on site.

Yes. The new drain has to fall to the stack and the vent has to tie in, so we trace both routes before a floor is opened, which matters most in an older home near the core where the basement below may already be finished. The plumbing goes on the same set as the rest of the renovation, and once the City of Kitchener Building Division issues the permit, the plumbing inspections are booked through the City’s portal.

Usually, as long as the lot keeps the parking its zoning requires. A garage can count as a required space, so we check the parking section of zoning bylaw 2019-051 or 85-1, whichever covers your lot, against what the driveway alone provides. The conversion then needs a raised and insulated floor, a framed wall where the door was and heat for the new room, all on the set for the City of Kitchener Building Division.

Yes, if the lot can take one. Kitchener allows additional units inside a house on lots zoned for a detached, semi-detached or street townhouse dwelling, but a narrow lot or limited servicing can hold a property to one or two units, so we check both before planning around a future unit. The plumbing, the mechanical room and the stair then go where a unit could use them, and the unit gets its own permit from the City of Kitchener Building Division when you build it.

Once the work changes more than the inside of the house: a new unit, a new use for part of the house, or a walkout or bump-out that reaches into a yard. Kitchener has two zoning bylaws in force, 2019-051 and the older 85-1, so we look up which one covers your address before reading its rules. For a kitchen or bathroom inside the existing walls the zoning rarely changes anything, and the City of Kitchener Building Division’s review centres on the Building Code.