Kitchen & Bathroom Renovations in Ottawa

Which approval belongs to whom

1. The City: a building permit is required where the activity is an installation, erection, extension, or material alteration or repair. Moving a wall, relocating fixtures and opening up a structure all sit inside that language.
2. The Electrical Safety Authority: the City states that it does not regulate electrical installations and that no building permit is required for work that is exclusively electrical. Only a Licensed Electrical Contractor may be hired, and it files the notification of work before starting.
3. The Technical Standards and Safety Authority: work on a gas range, a gas line or a gas water heater is for a certified technician working for a TSSA-registered contractor.
4. Skilled Trades Ontario: plumber is a compulsory trade, so the person doing the plumbing holds a Certificate of Qualification, a Provisional Certificate or a registered training agreement, and the Public Register lets you confirm it.

A general contractor coordinating all four is doing a real job. A quote that mentions none of them has not scoped the work, and the City is clear that the owner and the builder are equally liable under the Ontario Building Code Act.

The permit clock, and the posting

An issued permit is posted in a visible location on site for the duration of construction, so the public and the inspector can see it. Review takes about five working days once a complete application and fee are in; an incomplete one gets a deficiency letter instead.

Construction has to seriously commence within six months of issue or the permit can be revoked, and a job substantially suspended or discontinued for more than a year may lose its permit. On a renovation that pauses for a custom order, that is a real risk rather than a theoretical one.

The estimate is a ceiling once it is in the contract

Where a written estimate is included in the contract, the final price cannot be more than ten per cent above it unless you agree to a new price and sign a change to the contract. On a renovation with change orders, that makes the written change the mechanism rather than an inconvenience.

If you negotiate and sign in your home it is a direct agreement, and you can cancel within ten days of receiving the written copy for any reason. Where a completion date is specified, the business has 30 days from that date to perform before you can cancel; where none is given, 30 days from signing.

So a contract with no dates in it is weaker for you, not more flexible.

The rebate that may be sitting inside the project

Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program pays rebates on energy efficiency upgrades: insulation, air sealing, windows and doors, smart thermostats, heat pumps, and more. A kitchen or bathroom renovation often opens up exactly the walls where insulation and air sealing are cheap to do and expensive to retrofit later.

The product rules matter. Windows, doors and heat pump water heaters have to be an ENERGY STAR certified model, and a heat pump has to appear on Natural Resources Canada's qualified products list. Decide that before the order is placed, because an otherwise identical product that is not on the list is not eligible.

What to avoid when renovating a bathroom

1. Moving the toilet, tub or sink without asking about a permit. The City of Ottawa exempts replacing kitchen or bathroom cabinets from a building permit only while the plumbing fixtures stay in the same place. A designated heritage building, or one in a Heritage District Overlay, gets no exemptions at all.
2. An exhaust fan that vents into the attic. Health Canada's guide to moisture and mould says each bathroom should have an exhaust fan vented to the outside, not into the attic, and that it should keep running for at least 30 minutes after a shower or bath. Ask where the duct ends before the ceiling is closed.
3. Cracked tile, grout or caulking left around a new tub or shower. The same guide calls for repairing or replacing them, and for moisture-resistant materials wherever a room gets wet.
4. Demolition before an asbestos test. Health Canada says that before 1990 asbestos was used mainly to insulate buildings and homes, and that older materials such as plaster, drywall, floor and ceiling tiles and caulking may still contain it. Its advice is to have a professional test before renovating, and to hire a qualified removal specialist if the test finds asbestos.
5. A basement bathroom without a backwater valve. The City's Residential Protective Plumbing program offers a rebate on an indoor sanitary backwater valve in a home built before 2012, and on the plumbing building permit fee. The permit comes before the work, the rebate application is due within 18 months of the permit's issue date, and repairing or replacing a valve that is already there does not qualify.