Ottawa kitchen renovations.
Designed free. Built to last.

This is the order a kitchen renovation follows in an Ottawa house, from the first measure to the final inspection. It describes the process in general. For two jobs written up start to finish, read our Westboro open-concept kitchen and Stittsville budget refresh.

1. 1

   Weeks 1 to 2: read the house, then fix the layout.

   The design visit starts in the basement. Joists that run at right angles to a kitchen wall and rest on it mean that wall carries the floor above, and the basement ceiling also shows where the plumbing stack and the ducts go up. Those two facts sort the layouts into cheap ones and ones that need a permit.

   Closed kitchens cluster in Ottawa's postwar suburbs. Alta Vista's suburbs went up in the 1950s, when Faircrest Heights, Applewood Acres, Ridgemont and Elmvale Acres were built, and census counts show Nepean township growing from 3,744 people in 1951 to 64,606 in 1971.

   Our own planning guide describes the original kitchen in Ottawa houses of 1955 to 1985 as a room of about 9 by 11 feet with one window over the sink.

   The ruleThe City of Ottawa's list of projects not requiring a building permit includes replacing kitchen cabinets "provided plumbing fixtures remain in same location". Move the sink and it becomes a plumbing alteration that needs a permit. Houses in a Heritage District Overlay get no exemptions at all.
2. 2

   Opening a load-bearing wall: permit, drawings, beam.

   The City of Ottawa lists "adding or removing walls" among the projects that need a building permit, and the application goes in online through My ServiceOttawa. The drawings show the new beam, the posts at each end and what those posts stand on, all the way down to the foundation. Dream Touch writes the structural engineering and the permit into the contract for any wall removal, before demolition starts.

   Our Westboro write-up shows what that looks like in a 1948 semi. The joists ran at right angles to both walls that came out, an engineer specified a triple 1.75 by 11.875 inch LVL with a steel post hidden in a new column, and the permit took three weeks through My ServiceOttawa.

   The ruleThe City asks for inspections at key stages, booked 48 hours ahead. Miss one and you may have to uncover finished work so the inspector can see it.
3. 3

   Electrical: circuits drawn to the Ontario Electrical Safety Code.

   Kitchen outlets fall under Rule 26-722 of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code, and ESA Bulletin 26-23-7, issued May 2025, spells out how it applies. No point along the wall behind a counter may be more than 900 mm from a receptacle, and an island or peninsula with a continuous counter of at least 600 by 300 mm needs its own.

   The fridge gets its own branch circuit. A microwave outlet or the general outlets on an open-concept wall need arc-fault protection under Rule 26-658.

   What sits behind old plaster depends on the decade. The Electrical Safety Authority dates knob-and-tube wiring to homes of the early 1900s to the 1940s, which is Glebe and older Westboro housing, and aluminum wiring to houses built from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, a span that overlaps Nepean's fastest growth: its census population more than tripled between 1961 and 1971.

   We check the panel and the circuit count at the design visit, so any upgrade is in the fixed price.

   The ruleIn Ontario, ESA says only a Licensed Electrical Contractor, or the homeowner doing their own work, may do electrical work in a home. Ask for the ECRA/ESA licence number on the estimate, and keep the ESA Certificate of Acceptance at the end, since insurers can ask for it.
4. 4

   Ventilation: a hood that covers the burners and vents outside.

   Health Canada's cooking and indoor air quality factsheet recommends a range hood that fully extends over the burners, run on high: at 300 cubic feet per minute it can cut exposure to cooking pollutants by more than 80 per cent compared with slower speeds.

   A national survey of 4,500 Canadian households, run in early 2020, found two thirds of range hoods vented outdoors, and just over half of the households with no cooktop ventilation at all lived in buildings from before 1960.

   In a 1950s bungalow that usually means a new duct, either through an exterior wall or insulated through the attic to a roof cap. The duct route is settled before the cabinets are drawn, so it does not swallow an upper cabinet.

   The ruleSince 2025-01-01, Ontario's Building Code (O. Reg. 163/24) has been the National Building Code of Canada 2020 with Ontario amendments. Whether a larger hood needs make-up air is checked against it at design, before the hood is ordered.
5. 5

   Cabinets and counters: ordered on the drawing, templated on site.

   Cabinets are ordered from our Ottawa shop once you sign off the drawing, during the 2 to 4 weeks our process sets aside for permits and ordering. Appliance models are fixed first, because the fridge, range and hood widths set the box sizes. Stone counters come later: the fabricator templates the installed cabinet boxes and cuts the slab to that template, so a counter is never ordered off a drawing.

   Our Stittsville write-up describes one saving at this stage: a 2 cm quartz slab with a 1 cm strip glued under the front edge, which reads as 3 cm at the edge for less material.

   Order checkAsk to see a sample of the fabricator's built-up edge before you commit. Done well the seam is invisible; a visible glue line is the tell.
6. 6

   On site: what happens in which week.

   Our process gives the build 4 to 8 weeks once permits and materials are in hand. The order does not change with the length.

   Week 1. Floor protection, dust walls, demolition, then shoring and the beam if a wall is coming out.

   Week 2. Rough plumbing, new circuits and the hood duct, followed by the rough-in inspections the permits call for, before anything is closed up.

   Week 3. Insulation and drywall where walls were opened, then flooring, run continuous where the old wall stood.

   Week 4 onward. Cabinets, the counter template, counters, backsplash, fixtures and appliances, then the final inspections and a walk-through punch list.

   The ruleWhen a kitchen has both a building permit and new circuits, it is signed off twice: by the City's building inspector for the permit, and by ESA for the electrical.

We see these mistakes most often when we are called in to fix someone else's kitchen.

1. 1

   Ordering cabinets before the layout is finalized.

   Cabinets get ordered off a rough sketch, then the fridge does not clear the island or a drawer collides with the oven door. Reordering a custom run means weeks of dead time and a second delivery.

   Dream Touch fixWe finalize the full layout, including appliance clearances, work triangle and door swings, and you approve it before any cabinet is ordered.
2. 2

   Skipping the structural check before removing a wall.

   That wall between the kitchen and living room looks non-structural, until demo reveals it is carrying the floor above. Now the project stops for engineering, a beam, and a permit no one budgeted for.

   Dream Touch fixOur team confirms what is load-bearing at the design stage. Structural engineering and permits for any wall removal are written into the contract up front.
3. 3

   Under-planning electrical for a modern kitchen.

   Older Ottawa homes were wired for one small appliance at a time. Add an induction range, a microwave drawer, and under-cabinet lighting and you trip breakers or fail inspection.

   Dream Touch fixWe assess your panel and circuits during design and price any electrical upgrades into the fixed quote, so there are no mid-project surprises.
4. 4

   Choosing countertops and finishes for the photo, not the wear.

   Soft marble stains, high-gloss slab shows every fingerprint, and trendy grout lines yellow fast. Selection errors mean living with it or paying to redo it.

   Dream Touch fixWe walk you through how each material holds up to Ottawa hard water and daily family use, so you choose what lasts.
5. 5

   Letting the range hood vent into the attic — or nowhere.

   A hood that recirculates or dumps into the attic leaves grease, moisture, and cooking odours in the house, and moisture in an Ottawa attic leads to mould and frost.

   Dream Touch fixWe spec a properly sized hood ducted to the exterior, with make-up air where the building code requires it.
6. 6

   Hiring the cheapest quote without asking what is excluded.

   A low number usually means allowances that will not cover real material choices, or extras like plumbing relocation and disposal billed later. The final total lands well above the quote.

   Dream Touch fixYou get a detailed, line-item fixed-price contract before demolition. What you sign is what you pay, barring changes you request in writing.
7. 7

   Starting demolition before the materials arrive.

   Cabinet, counter, and tile lead times in Ottawa run weeks. Tear the old kitchen out too early and your family lives around a construction site while everyone waits on a delivery truck.

   Dream Touch fixWe do not start demo until your cabinetry, counters, and finishes are in hand, so the build runs straight through without stalls.