Home renovation in Vaughan
We take on renovations in Vaughan from our studio in Markham, the city next door. The drawings, the applications to the City of Vaughan, the construction and the cabinetry sit on one contract, whether the job is a kitchen, a main floor or the whole house.
The Vaughan house on this site is Kleinburg, which we designed: a contemporary French kitchen with a marble backsplash against white cabinetry and a dark wood island. You do not need to arrive with a whole-house plan. One room is a fair place to start.
Nathalia Hara draws the house and signs the drawings. Thiago Hara runs the site.
A house we designed
The picture is our design rendering of the kitchen.
What the City of Vaughan asks for
A renovation inside the house
The City of Vaughan requires a building permit for structural alterations, for finishing a basement and for new or relocated plumbing fixtures. By its own list, replacing cupboards and countertops, replacing existing plumbing fixtures and replacing existing windows and doors generally do not need one. Electrical work is inspected through the Electrical Safety Authority, separately from the City. We tell you at feasibility whether your renovation needs a permit.
An addition
An addition needs more than the building permit, and the City takes the applications in this order.
- Conservation authority, where it appliesA lot that includes or sits beside a river or stream valley, a wetland or a flood plain is likely regulated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, and an addition there may need its permit. We check the lot on the authority’s regulated-area map.
- Minor variance, where it appliesAn addition that reaches into a yard the zoning requires goes to the Committee of Adjustment, which sits about every three weeks.
- Grading permitEvery addition needs a Grading Permit from the City’s Development Engineering Department, with a refundable deposit, before the building permit application goes in.
- Building permitThe drawings to permit standard, and the application through the City’s online permitting portal.
Where the house is
Two rules follow the lot, whatever is being built on it.
- Heritage districts
- Vaughan has four Heritage Conservation Districts: Kleinburg-Nashville, Maple, Thornhill and Woodbridge. Inside one, the whole lot is designated, and work that changes the outside of the property, replacing windows and doors included, needs a Heritage Permit. Cultural Heritage staff take the application to the Heritage Vaughan Committee, which meets once a month and not in July, August or December, and some applications go on to Council. For Kleinburg-Nashville the City says interior changes will likely not require a permit.
- Trees
- A tree with a trunk of 20 centimetres or more cannot be injured or removed without a permit, and that covers an addition, a driveway or a pool. The City gives 30 business days as its standard time for a first response, so the tree application goes in early.
What it costs, and how long it takes
A kitchen on its own starts from $15,000. Custom work and the size of the renovation change that number. Nero and Voyance both won DDA Canada awards in the Kitchen Facelift Under $50K category. Send us a photo of your kitchen on WhatsApp and we will tell you what we can do.
A whole-home or main-floor renovation typically starts around $85,000 and can exceed $500,000. A main-floor renovation may begin at the lower end of that range. Additions and new custom homes are a separate range, from $500,000. HST at thirteen per cent goes on top in every case. How a price is built, and what moves it, is on the renovation page.
Construction typically runs from four to eighteen months, and that range covers construction only. The design, the drawings, the engineering, the selections and the approvals above come before it. In Vaughan the approvals vary more from one lot to the next than anything else in the schedule, so each one goes into it with the date we expect to apply.
Questions we get about Vaughan
- What does a home renovation in Vaughan cost?
- Typically from $85,000, and past $500,000 for a whole house with structural work, custom millwork and extensive mechanical upgrades. A main floor may begin at the lower end. A kitchen on its own starts from $15,000, and custom work and the size of the renovation change that. HST at thirteen per cent goes on top.
- Does a kitchen renovation in Vaughan need a building permit?
- It depends on what moves. By the City of Vaughan’s own list, replacing cupboards and countertops does not need one. Relocating plumbing fixtures or altering the structure, such as taking out a loadbearing wall, does. Where a permit is needed, the drawings and the application are part of our contract.
- Our house is in one of Vaughan’s heritage districts. Can we still renovate?
- Yes. What changes is the outside. Work that alters the appearance of the property needs a Heritage Permit, and the City counts replacing windows and doors as that kind of work, even though the same replacement needs no building permit. The committee’s monthly calendar goes into the schedule.
- We back onto a ravine. Does that change the renovation?
- It can change an addition. The provincial regulation draws the line 15 metres back from the stable top of a valley bank and 30 metres from a wetland, and inside it an addition may need the conservation authority’s permit. The regulation is aimed at work that makes a house bigger, changes its use or adds a dwelling unit.
- Can a basement apartment be part of the renovation?
- On many lots, yes. Vaughan’s 2025 by-law allows up to two additional residential units on a lot with municipal water and sewer, with one parking space for each. The unit needs its own building permit, separate from the permit for finishing the basement, and its entrance cannot go on the same wall as the main entrance of the house. A lot on a well and a septic system does not qualify, and the City lists flood plains among the places a unit is not allowed.
Renovation guides
- What a kitchen renovation costs in the GTAWhere the money goes in a kitchen, why two quotes for the same room can be forty thousand dollars apart, and the five decisions that move the number more than anything else you will choose.
- How long a whole-home renovation takesConstruction is the part you can see. The schedule is usually set months earlier, by drawings, approvals and one cabinet order. Here is what moves the clock.
- How to read a renovation quote in OntarioThe lowest number is usually the smallest scope. How to read the exclusions, the allowances and the contingency in an Ontario renovation quote before you sign it.
The rest of the work
- RenovationThe renovation page, with the sequence and the money.
- Custom homesAdditions and new houses, from $500,000.
- MarkhamThe city our studio is in, and two houses there.
- ProjectsEvery house on the site.