What a full condo renovation actually involves
Most of what decides a condo renovation happens before demolition — in what the building allows, what the board approves, and what you choose to specify. This is the whole scope, the real cost drivers and the honest timeline, written out before you talk to anyone.
01
Feasibility before design
We measure the unit as built and establish what it will allow — where the stacks and ducts run, which partitions are structural, what the declaration and the board actually permit. Every layout that follows is drawn against those limits rather than around them, which is what stops a design being redrawn after it has been priced.
02
Layout and drawings
Two or three plan options tested against how you live, each carrying its own cost. Then elevations, millwork details, electrical and lighting, and a drawing set complete enough that your property manager accepts it for approval and the crew builds from it without interpreting anything twice.
03
Approvals and paperwork
The alteration application, certificates of insurance naming the corporation, permits where the scope needs them, and the elevator and loading dock booked. This is the stage most renovations quietly lose weeks to. It comes off your desk entirely and runs in parallel with design rather than after it.
04
Strip-out and rough-in
Protection first — your floors, the corridor, the elevator lobby, the neighbours’ doors — then demolition done carefully, because what is behind the wall decides the rest of the job. Framing, plumbing, electrical and HVAC set out from the drawings and inspected before anything closes.
05
The work you will never see
Level substrates. Blocking behind every fixture that will ever be leaned on. Waterproofing built for the fact that your floor is someone else’s ceiling. Acoustic underlay to the standard your building specifies. None of it photographs, and all of it is why the finish still reads as considered in ten years.
06
Finishes and handover
Kitchen, baths, millwork, flooring, paint and fixtures installed in the order that keeps each one undamaged by the next. Then a walkthrough together, the list made on the spot and fixed rather than scheduled, the site left clean, and your one-year workmanship warranty issued in writing.
What actually drives the price
We will not publish a per-square-foot number, because in a condo it is close to meaningless — two units of identical size can differ by a factor of three. These are the five things that genuinely move it.
- How many wet rooms you touch.
- Kitchens and bathrooms carry most of the cost of any condo renovation, because they concentrate plumbing, tile, waterproofing, stone, cabinetry and appliances into small areas. A two-bath unit is a materially different project from a one-bath unit, far more than the square footage suggests.
- Whether walls move.
- Removing a non-structural partition is routine. Anything touching a structural element, a shear wall or a mechanical shaft needs engineering, board review and often a permit, which adds both cost and calendar. We tell you which category your idea falls into at the walkthrough.
- How much of it is millwork.
- Custom cabinetry is usually the largest single line in a high-end condo renovation, and it is where the difference between a good unit and an ordinary one is most visible. Full-height runs, integrated storage and fitted closets cost real money and return most of it in how the unit lives and shows.
- What you specify, not what it costs to install.
- Two identical bathrooms can differ by twenty thousand dollars on fixtures and stone alone. This is the part you control completely, and the part our estimator will price for you in about two minutes without asking for anything.
- The building itself.
- Restricted work hours, a single service elevator, a long carry from the loading dock, strict noise rules — these do not change the drawings but they do change the labour. A building with tight logistics genuinely costs more to work in, and any estimate that ignores that is one that will move later.
Room by room
The two rooms that carry most of a condo renovation, in detail.
Full renovations we've built
All projects 
King West Loft
Leslieville Semi
Canary District Townhouse
Harbourfront Corner Suite
Condo renovation questions, answered
Cost, timeline and the board — the three people ask about first.
How long does a full condo renovation take?
For a typical one- or two-bedroom unit, six to ten weeks on site, and roughly eleven to sixteen weeks from first call to handover once design, selections and board approval are counted. Those front stages run in parallel wherever possible rather than stacking, which is most of why our schedules hold.
What does a full condo renovation cost in Toronto?
It depends far more on how many wet rooms you touch and what you specify than on floor area, which is why we will not quote a per-square-foot figure — it would be a guess dressed as a number. After a walkthrough you get one fixed price and one completion date in writing, and every change after that is priced and signed before it happens.
Can I live in the unit during the renovation?
For a full gut, we normally recommend staying elsewhere — there will be stretches with no kitchen and no water. For a partial scope the work area is sealed behind dust barriers and the site is left clean nightly, and plenty of clients stay. Because our projects run in weeks rather than months, the window stays short and, more usefully, predictable.
Do you handle the condo board application?
Yes, in full. We prepare and submit the alteration package, issue certificates of insurance naming the corporation, book the elevator and loading dock, and chase the approval. You sign the application; we do the rest. Property managers notice which contractors handle this properly, which is a large part of why second approvals go smoothly.
What happens when you find something behind the walls?
You see it before it is covered. We photograph it, price the remedy, and bring you both before carrying on. Older Toronto buildings hide plenty — cast iron stacks, undersized wiring, previous work done badly — and no estimate can see through drywall. What we can promise is that you never find out about it on the invoice.
Do you only work on condos?
Condos are the specialty and most of what we do, because the constraints reward knowing them. We take on houses and larger scopes too, held to the same standard.
Start with a free walkthrough
An hour on site, then a fixed price and a completion date in writing.