Kitchen Renovation Toronto
Most people call us about the kitchen first. It is the room the house gets judged by and it is usually the room that stopped working years ago. A galley from 1987. A fridge door that blocks the hallway. One outlet doing the work of four.
We have been doing kitchen renovations in Toronto since 1997. More than 100 homes in 29 years, on the same phone number the whole time. Harvey quotes every job himself and checks it before it closes.
Every kitchen is priced after a walkthrough. What is behind your walls decides as much as what goes in front of them and a quote written before anyone has looked is a guess with a number attached.
Three kinds of kitchen renovation
Almost every kitchen reno in Toronto is one of three jobs.
The makeover. The layout holds. Sink, range and fridge stay put. New custom cabinetry, new quartz counters, new floor, new lighting, paint. Plumbing and gas do not move, so the trades come and go quickly. This is the shortest kitchen remodel we do and the easiest to price.
The reconfiguration. Same four walls, different plan. The sink moves under the window. The range moves to an exterior wall so the hood vents straight out. A kitchen island replaces the peninsula everybody bumped into. That means opening the floor for drain lines, pulling new circuits and cutting in pot lights.
The structural job. A wall comes out. In most Toronto semis the wall between kitchen and dining room carries floor joists, which makes it a load-bearing wall. Removing it takes an engineer's drawing, a sized beam, posts down to solid bearing and a building permit. This is what people mean when they ask for open concept and it changes how the whole main floor feels.
What is included
One contract and one crew. Harvey answers the phone.
- Design and layout, with 3D renderings before anything is ordered
- Demolition, disposal, framing and engineering where a wall comes out
- Electrical: new circuits, receptacles, under-cabinet lighting, pot lights
- Plumbing and gas: sink, dishwasher, fridge line, range
- Range hood ducted outside and sized to the appliance
- Drywall, paint, tile, backsplash, flooring
- Custom cabinetry built to the room instead of shimmed to fit
- Quartz counters templated after the cabinets are set
- Appliance installation and permits coordinated with the City of Toronto
- All labour and materials supplied, one-year workmanship warranty
The right order of work
Kitchen remodeling in Toronto goes wrong when the finishes get locked in before the structure is settled. We work the same order every time.
Structure first. If a wall is coming out, the beam and posts go in before anything else. Ceilings get furred flat. Floors get levelled.
Rough-ins second. Plumbing, gas, electrical and venting get run and inspected while the walls are open. This is where Harvey's Passive House training pays for itself: air sealing at the exterior wall and insulation behind the cabinets in a brick wall that never had any. We measure that part of the work instead of guessing at it.
Finishes last. Cabinets go in, counters get templated to the cabinets as built, then tile, then paint, then appliances. Templating after the boxes are set is why our quartz counters land tight to the wall on the first try.
Work that order backwards and a kitchen renovation contractor ends up cutting a finished counter or fishing wire through a closed wall. You pay for both.
Toronto century-home kitchens
A kitchen in a bay-and-gable semi or an Edwardian detached comes with a list and we have opened enough of them to know most of what is in there.
Knob-and-tube wiring behind the plaster, which comes out before new circuits go in. Lath and plaster walls run out of plumb by an inch across a wall. Custom cabinetry absorbs that. Stock boxes do not. Undersized joists that bounce under a stone counter and want sistering. Original brick with no insulation, so the corner by the back door has always been cold.
Every one of those is workable. What matters is having the surprises priced honestly the day they turn up.
Much of this work is east of the Don. See Riverdale and the Danforth, or the Toronto home renovation page.
"First Place turned the house we had been living in for 20 years into our dream home!" Jennifer Z. & Russell L.
Finished kitchens are in the photo gallery.
Kitchen renovation FAQs
How much does a kitchen renovation cost in Toronto? There is no useful rate card for this. Cabinetry and counters move the kitchen renovation cost most, then whether the plumbing and gas move, then whether a load-bearing wall comes out and a beam is required. A 1920s semi and a 1980s side-split working from identical drawings are different jobs. Harvey walks the kitchen, then you get a written number itemizing labour, materials and permits.
How long does a kitchen renovation take in Toronto? Design runs 2 to 4 weeks and the build runs 4 weeks to 4 months depending on scope. A makeover sits at the short end. A structural job with a permit and a city inspection sits at the long end. Cabinetry lead times usually set the schedule.
Do I need a permit for a kitchen renovation in Toronto? You need a City of Toronto building permit to remove or alter a load-bearing wall or change the structure of the house. A kitchen remodel that leaves the walls in place generally does not, though electrical work still requires an ESA inspection. We are a licensed City of Toronto renovation contractor and coordinate permits.
Can you take out the wall between my kitchen and dining room? In most cases yes. In a Toronto semi that wall usually carries load, so the work needs an engineer's drawing and a sized beam with posts carried down to proper bearing, sometimes a new pad in the basement. Open concept is our most common request on century homes.
What should I look for in a kitchen renovation contractor? Ask who is on site every day. The scope should be in writing, including rough-ins, permits and disposal, so one quote is comparable to the next. Ask what happens when something turns up behind the plaster, because in a century home something will.
Get a free consultation
Tell us what is wrong with the kitchen you have and what you want the room to do. Harvey will give you a range and an honest read on scope before you spend anything.
Book a free 15-minute call with Harvey or contact us. Call Harvey at (416) 489-4083.