Estimates, quotes and contracts
Whole-home renovation budget: a worked example for an older Canadian house
An illustrative room-by-room budget for refurbishing a 1,800 sq ft older house in Canada, with systems upgrades, moving-out costs, contingency, GST and how to phase it.
When you refurbish a whole house, pricing it as one big per-square-foot number hides the decisions that matter. A better approach is to budget room by room, add the systems work that serves the whole house (electrical, plumbing, heating, insulation), add the costs of living elsewhere, then apply a larger contingency because older houses hide more. In the illustrative example below, a 1,800 sq ft 1960s bungalow in British Columbia with a new kitchen, two bathrooms, new flooring and paint throughout, an electrical service upgrade and replacement of old supply plumbing comes to a first planning range of about $203,000–$444,000 including a 20% contingency and GST, which narrows to roughly $199,000–$350,000 once the main finishes are chosen and moving-out costs are added.
This guide applies the estimating method. Room-level cost logic is explained in the kitchen and bathroom guides, and contingency in how much contingency to keep.
The house and the scope
Illustrative house: a 1,800 sq ft single-storey house built in the 1960s with an unfinished crawlspace, original electrical service, galvanized steel supply pipes, tired finishes and a dated kitchen and bathrooms. The owners want to keep the layout except for opening one non-load-bearing wall between kitchen and dining room.
| Area | Scope |
|---|---|
| Kitchen (150 sq ft) | Gut, mid-range cabinets and quartz, same plumbing wall, new circuits |
| Main bathroom (50 sq ft) | Full gut, tub to tiled shower |
| Ensuite (40 sq ft) | Remodel in place |
| Rest of house (1,560 sq ft) | Flooring, paint, doors, trim, lighting |
| Electrical | Service and panel upgrade, new circuits where walls are open |
| Plumbing | Replace galvanized supply with new piping |
| Hazardous materials | Testing; abatement where needed |
| Moving out | Six weeks of rental and storage |
Room-by-room numbers
All figures are illustrative and use the presets of our renovation cost estimator where a preset fits; the systems lines are editorial allowances, not quotes.
| Line | Calculation | Low | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen | 150 × $250 / 150 × $500 | $37,500 | $75,000 |
| Main bathroom | 50 × $450 / 50 × $850 | $22,500 | $42,500 |
| Ensuite | 40 × $450 / 40 × $850 | $18,000 | $34,000 |
| Rest of house refresh | 1,560 × $40 / 1,560 × $100 | $62,400 | $156,000 |
| Electrical service and panel (allowance) | $8,000 | $15,000 | |
| Supply plumbing replacement (allowance) | $6,000 | $12,000 | |
| Hazardous material testing and abatement (allowance) | $2,000 | $10,000 | |
| Design, permits, bins | $5,000 | $8,000 | |
| Subtotal | $161,400 | $352,500 |
The high end of the "rest of house" line is wide because it spans laminate and paint to hardwood, new doors and extensive lighting. Choosing the flooring and door package is the fastest way to narrow the range.
Contingency for an older house
Because the walls will be opened in a 1960s house, the example uses 20%. With the contingency calculator:
- Low: $161,400 × 20% = $32,280 → $193,680 (with 5% GST: $203,364)
- High: $352,500 × 20% = $70,500 → $423,000 (with 5% GST: $444,150)
That high figure probably exceeds what these owners can spend, which is exactly why the exercise is useful: it shows which choices to make before asking for quotes.
Narrowing the range
Suppose the owners decide on mid-priced vinyl plank flooring and paint-grade doors, which in this example brings the rest-of-house line to $62,400–$95,000, and they keep the ensuite to a refresh at $10,000–$15,000:
| Line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Revised subtotal | $153,400 | $272,500 |
| Contingency 20% | $30,680 | $54,500 |
| Before tax | $184,080 | $327,000 |
| GST 5% | $9,204 | $16,350 |
| With GST | $193,284 | $343,350 |
In British Columbia, a contractor that supplies and installs materials generally pays PST on those materials and includes it in the price, so the invoice shows GST only; see GST/HST on renovations.
Living elsewhere
Add the owner costs outside the contract: in this example six weeks of furnished rental at an illustrative $3,500 per month ($5,250) plus storage ($900), so $6,150. That moves the revised range to about $199,434–$349,500. The narrower figure, calculated after the ensuite and flooring decisions, is the one to take to contractors.
Phasing versus doing it all at once
| Approach | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| All at once | One mobilisation, one permit set, systems done while walls are open | Larger cash need; living elsewhere |
| Phased | Spreads cost; can live in part of the house | Repeated set-up, dust and protection; may redo finishes when later phases open walls |
If you phase, do the systems first (electrical, plumbing, insulation where walls are open), then finishes.
Contract and payment structure
For a project this size, ask whether the contractor proposes a fixed price with allowances or cost-plus with a ceiling, and compare them using the comparison of contracting methods. Tie progress payments to inspection milestones and keep the 10% holdback the BC Builders Lien Act requires; see deposits, holdbacks and payment schedules.
FAQ
Why not just use a whole-home per-square-foot figure?
It hides which rooms and systems drive cost. A room-by-room budget shows where decisions change the total and makes quotes easier to compare.
Do I need to move out?
For a kitchen-plus-bathrooms project with plumbing and electrical work, often yes for part of the time. Ask the contractor when the house will have no water, power or heat.
Will an energy upgrade program help?
Possibly, if the scope includes insulation, windows or heating. Federal grant and loan programs have closed; check BC's provincial and utility programs before work starts.
Sources
- Government of British Columbia — PST for real property contractors and building permits information
- BC Laws — Builders Lien Act
- Technical Safety BC — electrical and gas permits in British Columbia
- Canada Revenue Agency — GST
