FAQs

Single room projects are usually liveable with dust barriers and a temporary kitchen or bathroom set up elsewhere. Whole house work involving power shutdowns, floor sanding or wholesale plumbing replacement is far easier when the house sits empty.

Homes built before 1990 very likely contain asbestos in drywall compound, textured ceilings, vinyl flooring, insulation or window putty. A licensed surveyor samples and reports before anything is disturbed, which RennovArea construction ltd arranges on older Burnaby, BC houses.

A clear written scope, an itemized allowance list, a payment schedule tied to visible milestones, the change order process, expected start and finish dates, warranty terms, and a plain statement of who carries responsibility for permits, inspections and waste removal.

Booking two to four months out is realistic for larger projects once design time and permit review are counted. Spring and summer fill fastest, so exterior work in particular gets scheduled well before the dry season actually opens.

Any addition or alteration to the agreed scope is documented as a change order, along with its cost and its effect on the schedule. Most come from owner requests, or from genuine surprises uncovered once walls and floors are opened.

Kitchens and bathrooms consistently return the most, followed by flooring and fresh paint carried right through the house. Anything that fixes a real defect, such as failed waterproofing or a poor layout, protects value rather than simply adding it.

Almost always. Most councils want written plans, product specifications, contractor insurance certificates and acoustic ratings before work begins, and many also restrict working hours, elevator bookings and material deliveries to particular days and specific hours of the week.

Late decisions, long-lead items ordered too late, permit revisions, and conditions discovered behind finishes. Fixing selections early and ordering cabinets, tile, stone and windows ahead of demolition removes the large majority of that risk before a single wall comes down.

Design build puts drawings, pricing and construction under one agreement, so the party drawing the plan stays accountable for delivering it on budget. Hiring trades separately can work well, but the coordination and the blame then sit with you.

Clear the rooms involved and the full access route, take wall hangings off shared walls, arrange parking for trades, secure valuables and pets, and confirm where materials can be stored and where a waste bin can sit during the work.

Noise is unavoidable during demolition and framing, so a note to either side beforehand helps. Municipal noise bylaws limit construction hours, and strata buildings often narrow those hours further, which is factored into the schedule from the start.

Zip wall barriers seal off the work area, floors and stair runs get protected with board, and negative air machines with HEPA filtration pull airborne dust outdoors. Furnace returns are sealed so nothing travels through the duct system.

Work pauses in that area, the finding is documented and photographed, and options with pricing come to you before anything else proceeds. Old knob-and-tube wiring, hidden rot and undersized framing are the three most common discoveries in an older house.

Renovating usually wins when you like the location, the lot and the bones of the building itself. Moving makes more sense when the existing floor plan simply cannot deliver what your household needs without major structural work and a very long timeline.

Interior work runs year-round comfortably. Exterior painting, decks and window replacement belong in the drier stretch from June through September, so RennovArea construction ltd spends the wetter Burnaby, BC winter on design, selections and permit applications instead.