Home Renovations Across the City of Vaughan

A city that was built in a hurry

The Town of Vaughan was formed in 1971, when the old township joined with the Village of Woodbridge, and it became a city in 1991. Between 1996 and 2006 it grew faster than any other municipality in Ontario. Much of that growth arrived as subdivisions of two-storey detached homes and townhouses, in areas such as Vellore Village and Patterson, laid out around historic centres like Woodbridge, Maple and Kleinburg.

Houses from that boom are now roughly twenty to thirty years old, and a great many of them were handed over with an unfinished basement: a poured concrete floor, a furnace and water heater, bare foundation walls and, in some cases, a rough-in for a future bathroom. For a growing household that lower floor is usually the most practical place to find more room without building an addition, which is why a Vaughan renovation so often starts at the bottom of the stairs.

Where Vaughan renovation budgets usually go

The lower level as a second living room

A large unfinished basement is often the biggest piece of unused space in the house. Families here tend to ask for a media room, a games area or a bar counter, a home gym and a guest bedroom with its own bathroom. We handle the framing, insulation, drywall, flooring and finishing, and we lay out the space so the parts that need other trades, such as a new bathroom or wet bar, sit where the existing services make sense. A lower level like this generally needs four to eight weeks of site work. If the plan includes a separate rental or in-law unit, the city treats it as an additional dwelling unit, so a Vaughan building permit comes before any framing, and the timeline is drawn up with that approval in mind.

Kitchens that outgrew the builder package

Many owners like their kitchen's size but not its finishes or flow: honey oak or thermofoil doors, laminate counters, a pantry that is too shallow to be useful. Sometimes new cabinets, counters and tile are enough. Other owners want the kitchen and family room joined into one space; where the dividing wall supports the floor above, that change depends on an engineered beam and a City of Vaughan permit, so we build both into the schedule from the first meeting.

Condo suites around the VMC

The subway reached the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre in December 2017, and residential towers have been rising around Highway 7 and Jane Street ever since. Suite work there is about logistics as much as craft: management approval, elevator bookings, permitted working hours and, in many buildings, sound-control requirements for any new hard flooring. We read the corporation's renovation rules before we price the job, not after.

Renovating inside a heritage district

Vaughan has four heritage conservation districts: Kleinburg-Nashville, Maple, Thornhill and Woodbridge. In these areas the city reviews exterior changes such as additions, porches, windows and cladding, and altering the outside of a house there normally requires heritage approval first. Interior work is normally treated like any other renovation. If your home sits on one of the older streets in Kleinburg, we suggest checking the district plan early, so the design and the schedule allow for that review.

Wherever you are in the city, the first visit ends with a free, itemized written estimate, and nothing outside it goes ahead until you have approved it.