01Whole home
We put off the whole house for years because we couldn’t picture living through it. Akram walked us through every stage before it started, and each week went the way he said it would.
Whole homes · 01 · The whole house, renovated as one
Whole-Home Renovations in Cambridge
Home renovations in Cambridge can take out a load-bearing wall. A beam sized for the load replaces it under a building permit, and it stays uncovered until the inspector has seen it.
- Licensed builder
- WSIB
- Years building
- 15+
- Houses completed
- 300+
What’s included
What’s included
in a whole home.
Planned as one sequence, a renovation moves through the house in this order: layout, structure, services, finishes, then the outside where the job includes it.
Layout changes and open-concept conversions
Across the whole floor plan, the walls to remove and the openings between rooms are fixed first. Beams and pipes are placed after that.
Structural work: load-bearing walls and beams
The beam replacing the wall is sized for its load and installed under a building permit. It stays open until inspection is signed off.
Electrical, plumbing and HVAC, coordinated
Booking each trade and holding the schedule is the builder’s job. It means rough-ins are inspected house-wide before a room closes.
Insulation, drywall, flooring, trim and paint throughout
A finished room is not reopened by the next trade, since each finish is done across the entire house in a single pass.
Siding and windows, as part of the whole
Where the outside is in the job, siding and windows are done within the same project, so the exterior is not a second one later.
How it runs
The whole frame,
stage by stage.
Five stages run in the same order on a room or a whole house, and one builder is accountable for each.
- 01
Permits
Filing the building permit for moving walls and structure comes before any wall opens.
- 02
Structure
Framing the new layout comes after walls are out and beams are in across the house.
- 03
Trades
Open walls are shared by the trades, so the builder orders them and inspections come next.
- 04
Finishes
Every room is done together: insulation and drywall first, flooring, trim and paint after.
- 05
Handover
With all rooms done, final inspection follows and the house is handed over finished.
Why Hanna Homes
Why one builder
for all of it.
What a job across the whole house depends on, and how one builder holds it together.
On one plan, layout and structure come before services and finishes, so no room is opened again for each trade that follows.
No drywall goes up until the beams, set and left open, have been inspected. That way no finish ends up over uninspected work.
Open walls hold the wiring, pipes and ducts together, so the builder fixes a booking order that the inspections can follow.
Material in the walls and ceilings the plan opens is examined first, so a finding is built into the order of rooms before the trades are booked.
Start with a call.
Client reviews
Their house,
their words.
Whole homes and single rooms, in the words of the people who live in them.
02Whole home
We bought an older house knowing it needed everything. Akram was straight with us from the first visit about what was worth keeping. Every room is new to us now, and it still feels like the house we fell for.
03Kitchens
The crew covered the floors and cleaned up at the end of every day, which mattered with two kids at home. The new kitchen is the room everyone ends up in now. Worth every week of takeout.
04Custom homes
Building a new house was the biggest decision we’ve ever made, and it never felt rushed. We walked the site most Saturdays and always knew exactly where things stood.
05Basement apartments
We turned the basement into a unit for my mother-in-law. She has her own entrance and her own kitchen, and we still get Sunday dinners. The paperwork I was dreading turned out to be the part I thought about least.
06Additions
We needed more room but didn’t want to leave the street. The second storey went on over the summer, and from the sidewalk you’d think the house was always built that way.
07Bathrooms
One bathroom is a small job for a builder, but they treated it like the whole house. The tile lines up, the door finally closes properly, and they finished the week they said they would.
08Knockdown & rebuild
Our old bungalow wasn’t worth saving, so we took it down and built new on the same lot. They kept the neighbours in the loop from demolition to the final walk-through. We love coming home to it.
09Basements
The basement used to be storage and a furnace. Now it’s a family room the kids actually want to be in. A clear quote, no surprises, and the site was swept every night.
10Kitchens
Third builder we spoke to, and the only one who returned every call. When we changed our minds about the island halfway through, they made it work without any drama.
01 / 10
Projects
Selected work,
inside and out.
Two whole homes and three rooms, each one finished: a bungalow, a new house, a kitchen, a bath and a basement.
01Whole-Home Renovations
A bungalow, renewed in limewash.
Windows run floor to ceiling, brick is limewashed, with an oak door to a limestone forecourt and cedar under the eaves.
01 / 05
Gallery
From the street
to the basement.
Each service has pictures, from street to basement. Any one opens whole with a tap.Whole homes from the street, then kitchens, bathrooms and basements. Open any picture to see it whole.
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13 pictures: Whole homes · Kitchens · Bathrooms · Basements
Service area
Within an hour
of Burlington.
Towns we build in
- 01BurlingtonHaltonHome base
- 02HamiltonHamiltonby Hwy 403, 15 min, 18 km by road, approximately
- 03OakvilleHaltonby the QEW, 20 min, 24 km by road, approximately
- 04AncasterHamiltonby Hwy 403, 25 min, 28 km by road, approximately
- 05MiltonHaltonby Hwy 407, 30 min, 30 km by road, approximately
- 06MississaugaPeelby Hwy 407 and Hwy 403, 30 min, 41 km by road, approximately
- 07CambridgeWaterloo Regionby Hwy 8 and Hwy 5, 45 min, 51 km by road, approximately
- 08KitchenerWaterloo Regionby Hwy 6 and Hwy 401, 55 min, 72 km by road, approximately
And anywhere else inside the line.
Common questions
Common questions
in Cambridge.
What Cambridge homeowners ask about whole-home renovations: what it costs, how long it takes and what the city asks for.
In Cambridge the cost turns first on how much of the plan needs a City permit: walls that open, structure that changes, plumbing or drains that move. Each brings drawings and inspections with it. After that the price follows the size of the house and the finishes chosen, so no figure is posted here. A number given before the plan exists would be a guess.
We do not promise a duration, and in Cambridge two things outside the crew set much of it. The permit has to be issued before work starts, and every City inspection happens on a date requested at least 24 hours ahead. Framing and plumbing rough-in wait open until the inspector has seen them. The size of the house and how far the layout moves do the rest.
Almost always. The City’s permit list includes interior structural alterations, adding or removing walls, and plumbing or drains, and a whole-home job nearly always has at least one of them. Hanna Homes takes the application through the City and books the inspections after it. A mature tree is a separate matter: cutting or injuring one 20 cm across or more needs its own permit.
Any wall you add or remove. Cambridge lists adding or removing walls and interior structural alterations as permit work, so the City sees drawings first, whether or not the wall carries load. Hanna Homes finds out what a wall carries before the plan is final, because a bearing wall brings a beam and an uncovered opening for the inspector.
The permit drawings, then the order of everything after: which walls open, where drains land, which trees sit near the access. In Cambridge the permit sets the sequence, and each inspection is requested once a stage is ready, so the trades are booked around those dates and not ahead of them. Hanna Homes lays that out once for the whole house.
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Get a free estimatePeople also ask
Before you build,
people in Cambridge ask.
What people in Cambridge search before whole-home renovations, answered for the town.
It starts with a call about the house, and the plan is then built backward from the City's two fixed points: the permit before work and the inspection calls during it. Hanna Homes, a licensed builder based in Burlington, fits the layout, structure and trades between them and asks early whether a tree 20 cm across or more is in the way.
At two points: the permit, which must be issued before work starts, and each inspection, which the permit holder requests at least 24 hours ahead once a stage is ready. Framing and plumbing rough-in stay open until the inspector has seen them. Everything else moves at the crew’s pace.
Yes, across Cambridge. Hanna Homes is a licensed builder based in Burlington, and Galt, Preston and Hespeler are parts of the city where the work happens. The City’s permit list and inspection calls apply the same in each, so a house in any of them is planned around the same two fixed points: the permit and the inspections.
Good to know
Good to know
about whole-home renovations in Cambridge.
What changes the work in Cambridge: the rules, the houses and the ground.
Home renovation in Cambridge: permits for walls, drains and structure
Cambridge lists interior structural alterations, adding or removing walls, and plumbing or drains among the work that needs a building permit. A whole-home job nearly always involves at least one, so the drawings go to the City before any trade is booked, and the permit sets the order for everything that follows.
Inspections are requested, not scheduled for you. Once a stage is ready, the permit holder calls the inspector named on the permit at least 24 hours before the date wanted. Hanna Homes books each visit as a stage nears and closes walls only after it has happened.
Whole home renovation in Cambridge, from first plan to beam
One plan covers the whole house: which walls open, where the kitchen and bathrooms sit, how the rooms connect. Where a load-bearing wall comes out, a beam takes over its load, under the City permit. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC are coordinated onto the carpentry’s schedule. The finishing then moves through every room in one pass: insulation, drywall, flooring, trim and paint. Siding and windows join the job when the outside is part of it.
Home renovation contractors in Cambridge: what sets the dates
Cost in Cambridge follows how far the plan reaches into walls, structure and drains, because those changes bring permit drawings, structural sizing and extra inspections. A job that rearranges every floor prices differently from one that opens a single wall. Hanna Homes starts with a conversation about the house and what you want it to become, not with a number.
Timing has parts the crew does not control. The permit must be issued before work starts, and each inspection waits for a date requested at least 24 hours ahead. No duration is promised here because those dates are not ours to set.
Renovating a Cambridge house with a mature tree by the access
A whole-home job needs a way in for bins, deliveries and materials, and an exterior change such as a new window opening or a wall pushed outward puts work close to whatever grows beside the house. Cambridge requires a permit to remove, cut down or injure a tree with a diameter of 20 cm (8 inches) or more. Hanna Homes looks at the trees near the access and the exterior work while the plan is on paper, so that permit is sorted out before any equipment arrives.
Source: City of Cambridge: forestry
Other services
Other services,
same builder.
The other whole-home jobs we take on, with the same builder from the first call to handover.
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Walk us throughthe whole house.
Send a floor plan, or a list of the rooms in the job, with the walls you would like gone marked on it.
Licensed builder
Burlington, Ontario
15+ years
Building
300+ houses
Completed