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 Kitchener
Home renovations in Kitchener reach the outside of the house when the job calls for it, with siding and windows handled alongside the rooms inside by one licensed builder.
- 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
Which walls come out and which rooms open into each other is decided for the whole floor plan first; beams and pipes follow it.
Structural work: load-bearing walls and beams
A beam sized for the wall’s load replaces it, set under a building permit and left open for inspection until it 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
Each finish runs through the whole house in one pass, so a room is not finished and then reopened for the next trade.
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 in the same order for a room and a whole house, with one builder answering for each.
- 01
Permits
Ahead of the first opened wall, a building permit is filed for the moving walls and structure.
- 02
Structure
Walls come out and beams go in across the house, then the new layout is framed.
- 03
Trades
Ordering the trades is the builder’s job, as rough-ins share open walls. Inspections follow.
- 04
Finishes
In every room at once, insulation and drywall go in first, then comes the flooring, trim and paint.
- 05
Handover
Final inspection once every room is done, then handover of the finished house.
Why Hanna Homes
Why one builder
for all of it.
The things a whole-house job relies on, and how a single builder keeps it together.
The plan puts layout first, then structure, services and finishes, so a room is opened once and no later trade has to reopen it.
Beams go in and stay uncovered for inspection ahead of any drywall, so no finish is laid over work that has yet to be inspected.
The builder books wiring, pipes and ducts in an order that inspections can follow, as they run through the same walls while open.
The material inside the walls and ceilings that the plan opens gets examined, and any finding goes into the room order before 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.
Three rooms are done: a kitchen, a basement and a bath. So are two whole homes, a new house and a bungalow.
01Whole-Home Renovations
A bungalow, renewed in limewash.
Limewashed brick, cedar under the eaves, windows floor to ceiling and an oak door onto a limestone forecourt.
01 / 05
Gallery
From the street
to the basement.
Every service is covered, street to basement. A tap on any picture shows it whole.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 Kitchener.
What Kitchener homeowners ask about whole-home renovations: what it costs, how long it takes and what the city asks for.
Two questions come before a number: how many of the City’s permit triggers the plan hits, and whether the house sits in a heritage district. A bearing wall, a moved plumbing fixture or a new or widened window opening each brings drawings, structure or inspections, and a district adds a heritage application ahead of the building permit. The electrical is permitted through the Electrical Safety Authority, not the City. The size of the house and the finishes then set the rest.
For a house inside a heritage district, the first date on the schedule is Heritage Kitchener’s. It meets on a schedule and sets application deadlines ahead of each meeting, so a start date can only be set once the application has met a deadline and been answered. Every Kitchener job also has the City’s permit and inspections, and the electrical adds a visit from the Electrical Safety Authority. No duration is promised.
Usually, from two offices. The City’s building permit follows the plan: a bearing wall coming out, a plumbing fixture added or moved, and a new or widened door or window opening are each on Kitchener’s list, and so is finishing a basement. The Electrical Safety Authority permits and inspects the electrical, since the City does not. A house in a heritage district may need a heritage permit as well, ahead of the building permit.
Only if the opening changes. Kitchener requires a building permit to install a new window or door or to widen an existing opening, and not to replace one within the existing opening where no structural members change. A whole-home plan that adds a window to a wall or widens a doorway carries the permit, so the openings are counted before the schedule is set.
Yes. Finishing the basement of a house takes a building permit in Kitchener whatever the size of the project around it, and a bedroom added down there is its own permit item. Hanna Homes plans the basement as one more piece of the permit work, with inspections of its own.
Still have a question?
Get a free estimatePeople also ask
Before you build,
people in Kitchener ask.
What people in Kitchener search before whole-home renovations, answered for the town.
No. Kitchener requires a permit to remove a load-bearing wall, column, lintel or beam, but not a non-load-bearing wall in a single, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling. Which kind a wall is gets found out before the plan promises an open layout.
Yes, if it moves. Kitchener requires a building permit to add or move plumbing fixtures, but not to replace a toilet, bathtub or sink with a new fixture in the same location. A moved fixture brings drawings and a plumbing inspection into the schedule.
The layout is decided first, because it sets the structure, the plumbing and the electrical, and the finishes follow once the plan is fixed. You talk the house through with the builder before work starts, and one builder answers for the project from beginning to handover.
Good to know
Good to know
about whole-home renovations in Kitchener.
What changes the work in Kitchener: the rules, the houses and the ground.
What a Kitchener home renovation sends to the City, and what goes to the ESA
Kitchener sorts a renovation by what it touches. A permit is needed to remove a load-bearing wall, column, lintel or beam, to add or move plumbing fixtures, to install a new window or door or widen an opening, and to finish a basement. A non-load-bearing wall in a single, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling can come out without one, and so can a toilet, tub or sink replaced in the same spot.
Electrical work follows a separate route. The City does not review or inspect it; the Electrical Safety Authority issues that permit, and its visit is scheduled alongside the City’s building inspections. A whole-home plan is checked against all of this before the first trade is booked.
Home renovation in a Kitchener heritage district
The city’s four heritage conservation districts are Civic Centre, Victoria Park, Upper Doon and St. Mary’s. An owner inside one may need a heritage permit to change the building or the property, so a renovation that alters the outside of a house in Victoria Park, or in Upper Doon (the Doon area), is held against the district plan, with the heritage permit sought ahead of the building permit.
Heritage Kitchener, the committee that reviews these applications, meets on a schedule, with a deadline ahead of each meeting. For a whole-home job that means the design settles first, the application goes in by a deadline, and construction is scheduled once the answer is in. Whether the address is inside a district is the first thing checked.
Source: City of Kitchener: heritage properties and districts
Whole home renovation in Kitchener: the load-bearing question first
The job begins by finding out which walls carry load, since that sorts the plan into walls that need structural sizing and a permit and walls that are only partitions. Where a bearing wall comes out, a beam takes its place. Layout changes, the electrical, plumbing and HVAC, then insulation, drywall, flooring, trim and paint are planned as one sequence, and siding and windows are included when the outside is part of the job.
Home renovation contractors in Kitchener: what sets the price and the dates
The price turns on how many permit triggers the plan reaches: bearing walls, fixtures that move, new openings. A house that keeps its layout prices differently from one rebuilt around an open plan, and no figure is posted here because the house comes first.
The dates depend on people the crew does not control: the City issuing the permit, its inspections, the Electrical Safety Authority’s visit for the electrical and, in a heritage district, the committee’s meeting calendar.
Other services
Other services,
same builder.
The other whole-home jobs we take on, with the same builder from the first call to handover.
All services
Get a free estimate
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