Renovation questions in Ottawa, answered with the rules

The work comes from an independent local company. You describe the room and budget in one form, we pass the request to one company, and that company calls, looks at the space, writes the quote and does the job. Price, schedule and warranty are set by that company.

Sending the request costs you nothing. Any price comes from the company that calls, after it understands the scope. Ask it on the first call what is free (the visit, the written quote) and what is billed.

One independent company receives it and calls to go over the scope. We do not state a callback time, because the company sets its own calendar. Say in the request which hours you can answer, and keep your photos ready.

Yes. A room, a rough size and a budget are enough for a first call. The company can help sort refresh, rebuild or full gut. If the plan moves walls, windows or plumbing, the permit step comes before the building.

The Desk checks with you first. Your request moves to a second company only if you say yes, and you are free to stop there and look on your own. The choice of whether to continue stays with you at every step.

Paint, new flooring, damp-proofing an existing basement, a new hot water tank, and fresh cabinets in a kitchen or bathroom where the fixtures keep their spots all sit on the City’s exempt list. Exempt work still has to meet the Building Code and the zoning by-law.

Moving or adding a wall, cutting a new window, making a window or door bigger or shifting it, extending or rerouting plumbing, and repairing a foundation all need one. A like-for-like fixture swap stays exempt. The City’s general size trigger is building area over 10 square metres.

A heritage designation, or a lot inside a Heritage District Overlay, switches off every exemption on the City’s list. Even a cabinet swap is worth a call to a Building Code Client Service Centre before work begins.

Ontario advises checking that anyone you hire or pay for permit plans is listed in the Qualification and Registration Tracking System (QuARTS) public search. A designer missing from the registry may not be able to give you what the application needs.

Ontario’s consumer guide warns against any estimate given by phone or by someone who has not seen the space. A written estimate should break the work, products and services into priced lines, so it can be set beside another. The province suggests collecting three of them from different contractors before choosing.

Ontario recommends keeping the down payment to a minimum, no more than 10%, and paying the full amount only after the work is done. The guide warns against a large deposit for materials, since established firms can buy the materials they need.

Only by 10%, and only when the written estimate forms part of the contract. Anything above that needs your signature on a changed price. The protection works only if the estimate is physically attached to the signed contract, so ask for that at signing.

The province’s list starts with who the contractor is and how to reach them, then what will be built and with which materials. It goes on to price, payment schedule, deposit, start and finish dates, cleanup, any warranty and the sub-trades with who pays each. The contract checklist walks through each line.

Hired electrical work in an Ontario home belongs to an electrical contracting business with an ECRA/ESA licence. A renovation company without that licence brings such a business in for the wiring. Its seven-digit number appears on estimates and trucks, so ask to see it.

It is a warning sign. The ESA puts the notification on whoever does the electrical work, before the work starts, and a business holding the licence files it itself. When a worker wants the paper in the owner’s name, the usual reason is that the worker holds no licence.

Most construction workers and independent operators in Ontario need WSIB coverage, according to the province’s consumer guide, and the WSIB can confirm a firm’s status. The same guide suggests asking which tradespeople on the job hold Skilled Trades Ontario certification.

The shut-off valve is the dividing line. Ottawa makes the owner responsible for the house side and keeps the valve-to-watermain stretch for itself. Its Lead Pipe Replacement Program helps eligible owners with the private part, so read the eligibility page before anyone digs.