Home Renovations near you

Building permits come from your municipality and the details vary, but the dividing line is broadly similar across the country: work that changes the structure, the layout, the openings in the walls or the plumbing and heating is reviewed, while like-for-like replacement of finishes usually isn't. Toronto's permit guidance is a useful example. It requires a permit for adding or removing walls, for new windows or doors where there were none before, and for installing or modifying heating or plumbing systems, while repairing and replacing plumbing fixtures and installing cabinetry and millwork appear among work that doesn't need one.

Two points catch homeowners out. Toronto notes that even when no permit is required, the work must still comply with the zoning bylaw, and that changing a building's use, such as turning a single-unit house into a multi-unit house, needs a permit even when no construction is proposed. Electrical work runs on a separate track: in Ontario, the Electrical Safety Authority says only licensed electrical contractors may be hired for electrical work in your home, and they file the notification and have the work reviewed, so a contractor who asks you to pull the permit yourself is a warning sign.

In Ontario, the Consumer Protection Act gives renovation customers specific rights. The province's guidance says home renovation contracts above a nominal value must be in writing, and that when a contract includes an estimate, the final price for all goods and services can't be more than 10% over it unless you agreed to new work or a new price. If you sign a renovation or repair contract in your own home, you have a 10 calendar-day cooling-off period to cancel for any reason without a cancellation fee, although you owe reasonable compensation for work and materials already supplied if the job started during that period.

In Quebec, a renovation contractor must hold an RBQ licence with the subclasses the work requires, which you can confirm in the RBQ's online register. When the contract is signed with an itinerant merchant, meaning a contractor who concludes it away from their place of business, such as at your kitchen table, the Office de la protection du consommateur explains that you can cancel without fees or reasons within 10 days after receiving a written copy of the contract, even if the work has started, and the contractor must reimburse you within 15 days of your cancellation.

Renovation disturbs materials that have sat quietly for decades. Health Canada says a home built before 1960 probably contains lead-based paint, and that the exterior of one built between 1960 and 1990 may too. It warns against removing that paint with sanders, heat guns or blowlamps, which create toxic dust and fumes, and advises keeping children and pregnant women away from the work area, since the risk is greatest for children. For asbestos, which can turn up in siding, cement and plaster, floor and ceiling tiles, roofing and insulation around hot water pipes and tanks, Health Canada recommends having a professional test before renovating and hiring a qualified removal specialist if it's found.

Whether you can stay home depends on which rooms are affected and for how long. Losing one bathroom in a house with two is an inconvenience; losing the only bathroom, the kitchen, or heat in winter is a different matter, and some households arrange other accommodation for the worst weeks. Ask the contractor for a schedule that shows when water, power or heat will be shut off and when the loudest demolition happens, and agree in advance on working hours, site access and where materials and waste bins will go.