01Kitchens
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.
Rooms · 05 · The kitchen, rebuilt
Kitchen Renovations in Kitchener
Kitchen renovation in Kitchener builds the cabinets and millwork to the new plan instead of the old one. Counter templates are taken from the installed cabinets, and the backsplash goes in last, cut to the finished counters.
- Licensed builder
- WSIB
- Years building
- 15+
- Houses completed
- 300+
What’s included
What goes into
a kitchen renovation.
Walls and layout lead the order, and whatever follows them gets its measurements from the previous piece.
Layout changes and opening up walls
The room can be reshaped and its walls opened up. Here is where the fridge, sink and range get their places.
Cabinetry and millwork
The counters take their template from the cabinets and millwork, which are built for the new layout and not for the old.
Counters and backsplash
The counters are templated once the cabinets are in. The backsplash goes last, fitted to the finished counters.
Flooring and lighting
Where lights and outlets go is decided when the layout is set, before the wiring inspection. Flooring comes in with the finishes.
Plumbing, electrical and gas, coordinated
In one room the builder schedules three trades. The walls close only after plumbing and electrical work has passed inspection.
How it runs
One bay of it,
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
The application and drawings go in first when a wall or the sink moves.
- 02
Structure
The layout is fixed before a trade arrives, and walls are removed or shifted.
- 03
Trades
Walls stay open for the rough-in of gas, plumbing and electrical. Drywall follows the inspections.
- 04
Finishes
Installed cabinets give the template for the counters, and the backsplash comes after.
- 05
Handover
Final inspection where a permit applies, then the kitchen is handed over.
Why Hanna Homes
Why one builder
for all of it.
The order the builder works in matters in a kitchen. Three trades share one room, and every finish is measured off the one before.
Everything after is measured off the layout, so the walls and the positions of the sink, range and fridge are decided before demolition starts.
Moving a range brings its circuit, hood duct and gas line along, so the wall it moves to is drawn first with all three.
Cabinets go in, and a template is made from them. The finished counters then set the cut of the backsplash, which keeps each piece fitting the one before.
Where the outlets, lights and appliances sit is settled on paper first, since a late idea would otherwise force inspected wiring out.
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.
02Kitchens
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.
03Whole 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.
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.
10Whole 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.
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.
01Kitchen Renovations
Kitchen and dining, one room.
A wide window is over the table. Linen cabinets run to the ceiling; the island is white oak, topped in limestone.
01 / 05
Gallery
From the street
to the basement.
Every service is covered, street to basement. A tap on any picture shows it whole.Each picture opens in full. Whole homes lead in street views, then come kitchens, bathrooms and basements.
Seen one
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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 Kitchener.
What Kitchener homeowners ask about kitchen renovations: what it costs, how long it takes and what the city asks for.
Kitchener’s permit list is a fair map of the budget. Painting, tiling, cabinets and countertops need no permit, so a refresh built from them has no permit step. Moving the sink or dishwasher, or taking out a load-bearing wall, adds drawings, an inspection and structural or plumbing work. New lighting and appliance circuits add the Electrical Safety Authority’s permit. The size of the room and the cabinetry set the rest, and a number follows the plan.
Hanna Homes states no duration. A refresh made of finish work has no City permit to wait for, so it runs on the trades’ own schedule. A moved sink or a removed bearing wall puts the City’s permit and inspections in front of the build. The electrical has its own inspector, from the Electrical Safety Authority, and that visit is fitted around the City’s.
Not for the finishes. Painting, wall papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets and countertops are all finish work Kitchener exempts, and so is swapping a sink for a new one in the same spot. Moving a fixture or removing a bearing wall does bring a building permit, and the electrical is permitted separately through the Electrical Safety Authority.
It permits and inspects the electrical, because the City of Kitchener does not review or inspect electrical work. Whatever is wired in the new kitchen, from the lighting to the appliance circuits and any added outlets, goes through the Authority on a visit separate from the City’s inspections. Hanna Homes books that visit so it falls before the walls are closed.
Three things: a moved sink or dishwasher, a bearing wall coming out and new wiring. Kitchener needs a building permit to add or move plumbing fixtures and to remove a load-bearing wall, and the Electrical Safety Authority permits new circuits. Cabinets, counters, tile and paint stay a refresh with no City permit. A plain partition can come out of a single, semi or townhouse dwelling without one.
Still have a question?
Get a free estimatePeople also ask
Before you build,
people in Kitchener ask.
What people in Kitchener search before kitchen renovations, answered for the town.
Yes. Kitchener requires a building permit to add or move plumbing fixtures, so a relocated sink brings drawings and a plumbing inspection. Hanna Homes coordinates the kitchen renovation contractors and trades behind it, and the Electrical Safety Authority handles any new wiring.
Not when the new sink goes in the same location. Kitchener requires a permit to add or move plumbing fixtures, but not to replace a sink with a new fixture where the old one was. A moved sink brings drawings and a plumbing inspection.
No. Kitchener lists tiling, cabinets, countertops, painting and similar finish work as needing no building permit. The permit question starts with what sits behind the backsplash: a moved sink or a bearing wall.
Good to know
Good to know
about kitchen renovations in Kitchener.
What changes the work in Kitchener: the rules, the houses and the ground.
Kitchen renovation permits in Kitchener
Kitchener splits a kitchen job by what it touches. On the permit side are adding or moving plumbing fixtures, and removing a load-bearing wall, column, lintel or beam. A plain partition can come out without a permit in a single, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling, and so can a sink replaced in its own location.
The electrical is a separate track. Whatever is wired into the new kitchen is permitted and inspected by the Electrical Safety Authority, never the City, and its visit is booked alongside the City’s inspections.
Kitchen remodel in Kitchener: past the finish list
A remodel goes beyond the finishes. The room is replanned first, with walls opened where the kitchen should join the next room, and the cabinetry and millwork are made to the new layout. Flooring and lighting finish the room. The plumbing for the sink and dishwasher, the electrical for lights and appliances and the gas for the range are coordinated by the builder, so the homeowner does not book three trades.
Kitchen renovation cost and timing in Kitchener: refresh or rebuild
Refresh or rebuild is the first fork. A refresh made of finishes, cabinets and counters has no permit step. A rebuild adds drawings, a plumbing inspection for any moved fixture, and structural sizing where a bearing wall goes. Hanna Homes posts no price, because the kitchen decides it.
The clock forks the same way. The refresh waits on the trades, and the layout change waits for the permit to issue. Neither carries a promised duration here.
Kitchen backsplash, counters and cabinets: Kitchener’s no-permit finishes
Kitchener lists painting, wall papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, countertops and similar finish work among the jobs that need no building permit. A tiled backsplash is tiling, so it falls on that side, and so do new cabinets and countertops installed in the existing layout.
What changes that is what sits behind them. A backsplash set where the sink is being moved belongs to a job that has a permit, and the cabinets around a bearing wall coming out belong to one too. The finishes themselves stay permit-free; the work around them may not.
Other services
Other services,
same builder.
The other rooms we take on, with the same builder from the first call to handover.
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Start with thekitchen layout.
Tell us what you have now and where the sink, range and fridge should end up, and talk it through with the builder first.
Licensed builder
Burlington, Ontario
15+ years
Building
300+ houses
Completed