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Whole-Home Renovations

Main Floor Renovation in Ontario

The main floor is where a house earns its keep — kitchen, dining, living, entry and often a powder room, all working as one connected space. Renovating it as a single project instead of room by room lets the layout actually change: walls move, sightlines open, the kitchen lands where the light is, and flooring runs continuously instead of meeting in awkward transitions. It is the most disruptive floor to renovate and the one where good planning pays back hardest.

Because main-floor plans usually involve removing or relocating walls, permits and engineering come standard. Any wall that carries the floor above needs an engineered beam design and a building permit before it comes out, and moved plumbing or wiring brings licensed plumbers and a Licensed Electrical Contractor into the job. Scope the whole floor on paper first — even phases you will not build yet — so nothing installed this year blocks the plan for next year.

What this covers

  • Layout design for the full floor, including furniture-level planning of kitchen, dining and living zones
  • Permit drawings and engineering for any structural wall changes
  • Load-bearing wall removal with temporary shoring and engineered beam installation
  • Kitchen construction: cabinetry, counters, appliances, and services moved by licensed trades
  • Electrical rework by a Licensed Electrical Contractor — lighting layers, outlets, switching
  • Plumbing relocations for sinks, dishwashers and powder rooms by licensed plumbers
  • Continuous flooring across the floor, with subfloor levelling between old rooms
  • Drywall, trim, interior doors, stair-adjacent finishes and paint

What affects the price

  • How many walls move, and how many of them are load-bearing with beam engineering attached
  • Kitchen scope, which usually absorbs the largest share of any main-floor budget
  • Whether plumbing stacks and gas lines have to relocate or can stay put
  • Subfloor condition and height differences between rooms once old flooring lifts out
  • Electrical capacity for a modern kitchen plus new lighting throughout
  • Living arrangements during the build, since losing the kitchen affects the whole household
  • Finish selections — flooring species, cabinet construction, counter material and trim profile

Every home is different, so we don’t publish flat prices — the quote is free and based on your actual job.

Main Floor Renovation near you

We take quote requests across Ontario. Local pages:

TorontoOttawaMississaugaBramptonCaledonHamiltonVaughanMarkhamRichmond HillAuroraNewmarketGeorginaWhitchurch-StouffvilleKingOakvilleBurlingtonMiltonHalton HillsOshawaWhitbyAjaxPickeringClaringtonKitchenerWaterlooCambridgeLondonBarrieInnisfilBradford West GwillimburyCollingwoodSt. CatharinesNiagara FallsWellandGrimsbyFort ErieGuelphWindsorKingstonGreater SudburyPeterboroughThunder BayBrantfordBellevilleSarniaWoodstockStratfordOrangevilleCornwallNorth BaySault Ste. MarieChatham-KentOrilliaWasaga BeachMidlandNew TecumsethSt. ThomasKawartha LakesCobourgPort HopePrince Edward CountyQuinte WestLeamingtonOwen SoundBracebridgeHuntsvilleNiagara-on-the-LakeTimminsBrockville

Common questions

Can we live upstairs while the main floor is renovated?
Many families do. The workable setup needs a bathroom on another floor, a temporary kitchen corner — microwave, kettle, small fridge — and honest expectations about dust, noise and tradespeople in the house from morning onward. Sealed stairway dust barriers help. If the project includes structural work or full-floor flooring installs, plan a few nights away around the loudest phases.
How do we know which walls are load-bearing?
Direction of the joists above, walls stacking over beams or walls below, and the original framing plan all give clues, but the answer that counts comes from an engineer's assessment. Assume nothing from a house tour. The permit for structural removal requires engineered beam sizing anyway, so the assessment is not an extra cost — it is the first step of the real design.
Does a main-floor renovation always need a permit?
Not always, but usually. Structural changes, moved plumbing, and new or relocated wiring circuits trigger permits in Ontario municipalities; purely cosmetic replacement of finishes in the same layout generally does not. Since most main-floor projects move at least one wall or one sink, plan for a permit and treat any confirmed exemption from your building department as good news.
Is it cheaper to renovate the main floor in phases?
Phasing spreads spending but raises the total. Every phase repeats mobilization, protection, patching and inspection costs, and later phases risk damaging earlier finishes. Where phasing makes sense — kitchen this year, flooring and trim next — do the full design now so services are roughed in once and each phase lands inside a plan rather than beside it.

Ready to sort out your main floor renovation?

Tell us what you're planning — one room or the whole home — and get a free quote.

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