Commercial Renovations

Commercial work runs on other people's calendars: a lease start date, a tenant moving in, a store that has to open on Monday, residents who still use the hallway while it is being painted. We renovate offices, retail units, rental suites and building common areas across Toronto and the GTA for business owners, property managers, condo and apartment management teams, investors and general contractors who need an interior crew they can plan around.

The spaces and scopes we take on

• Offices — new partitions and meeting rooms, ceiling repairs and replacement, flooring and paint, and refreshes between tenants.
• Retail units — interior fit-outs of empty units, and returning a space to base building condition when a lease ends.
• Rental buildings — suite renovations between tenancies, including new flooring, kitchens and bathrooms, and upgrades carried out one suite at a time as units come vacant.
• Common areas — lobbies, corridors, stairwells and amenity rooms: drywall, trim, flooring and paint.

New walls in commercial space are usually built with steel studs, and our framing work there covers partitions, bulkheads and demising walls between units. For routine work across a portfolio, such as tenant-reported damage or small fixes in several suites, see our repairs and maintenance service.

Planning around a business that stays open

Few commercial clients can hand over a building and walk away. Before we price anything, we ask how the space is used: when staff and customers arrive, when deliveries come in, which areas must stay open and which can be closed off. From that we propose a sequence, for example one section of an office at a time, or dusty cutting and sanding when the floor is empty. Evening or weekend work can be part of that plan where the building and local noise rules allow it; we agree on it with you at the estimate stage, and it is reflected in the price. Where people keep working nearby, we set up dust barriers and protect finished areas, and in multi-residential buildings we book elevators and loading areas through management, with residents informed through the property manager.

Trades, drawings and building approvals

Moving a wall in a commercial space usually means moving light fixtures, switches, outlets, data cabling, HVAC diffusers and sprinkler heads. That work belongs to licensed electricians, HVAC and fire protection contractors, and whoever installs your data cabling; our framing, drywall and ceilings are sequenced around their rough-ins and inspections. Many commercial alterations need drawings from a designer or architect and a building permit, particularly where walls, exits or the use of the space change. Commercial leases usually require the landlord's written approval before alterations, and many buildings have their own rules for contractors. We flag when a permit is likely, help you through the application and the coordination that follows, and build to the approved drawings, including fire-rated walls built exactly to the assembly specified.

What drives price and timing on commercial jobs

Size and scope come first, followed by the condition of what is already there: old ceiling grid, uneven slab or layers of flooring adhesive can add work once the space is opened. The times we are allowed to work, the building's protection and elevator requirements, and the number of phases all matter, because each phase adds its own setup and clean-up. Lead times on commercial flooring, doors and hardware, and the time taken by permit review and inspections, shape the schedule. Our estimate is itemized, so each area, phase or unit can be seen on its own line. If the scope changes once work is underway, say a tenant asks for an extra office or the ceiling above the old grid turns out to be damaged, we price the change and wait for your approval before doing it. The same coordinated team stays on the job from the first walk-through to the final deficiency list.

Tell us your target dates and any building rules you already know about, attach a floor plan or photos if you have them, and we will come and see the space, then send a free estimate broken down by area.