Home Renovation in Whitby

Interior work, generally yes. Exterior changes are where the heritage conservation district designation bites, because it governs what you can alter about the streetscape. Before you plan anything visible from the road, including windows and front doors, that needs checking with the Town. We would rather raise it at the assessment than have you find out after ordering. Inside the house you have far more latitude than most owners assume.

Plaster and lath rather than drywall, framing that is not on a modern 16-inch layout, floors that are rarely level, and services that have usually been added in layers over a century. None of that is a problem, but it does mean the work is measured and fitted rather than cut to standard sizes, and it takes longer than the same square footage in a subdivision house. Anyone quoting a century home at subdivision prices has not looked at it properly.

Those houses sit on unusually wide lots, which is their real asset. The single-storey footprint and the lot width make them good candidates for opening up the main floor and, where the budget allows, extending rather than going up. Ceiling heights are modest, so anything that adds light and sightlines tends to change how the house feels more than new finishes do.

Yes. Basement finishing involves new walls, and usually electrical, plumbing and HVAC changes, all of which require a permit from the Town of Whitby. If the basement is becoming a secondary suite the requirements step up again around ceiling height, egress and fire separation. We handle the application and the inspections.

Regularly. Those houses are structurally straightforward, which makes them predictable to quote, and the work is almost always about finishes, basements and the kind of feature work that a builder does not include. They are also the jobs where a proper design conversation pays off most, because nothing behind the walls is constraining what is possible.