General contractor in Ottawa,
from permit drawings to final inspection
Dream Touch Renovations is a general contractor in Ottawa, founded in 2004 and based at 33 Roydon Pl, Suite 210. We run renovations, additions and commercial fit-outs as one job under one contract. We hire and schedule the trades, get the drawings and the City of Ottawa building permit, book the inspections and hand over the finished space.
We also design, so you can start with an idea instead of a drawing set.
Homeowners hire us for kitchens, basements, additions and whole-house work. Businesses hire us for offices, shops, restaurants, warehouses and clinics. Call 613-862-4555 to book a site visit.
What a general contractor does on an Ottawa renovation
A job that needs a City of Ottawa building permit runs in a fixed order. The general contractor answers for every step of it.
- Drawings. In Ontario, permit drawings are prepared by a designer registered under the Ontario Building Code (a BCIN holder), an architect or a professional engineer. The Code does let you take design responsibility for your own house, as the City explains, but the drawings still have to show the work complies. We produce them with the designers and engineers we work with. Architectural plans covers the drawing set and structural engineering covers beams, openings and loads.
- The permit. Applications go in through the City's online portal on My ServiceOttawa. The City's target for a first review of a complete application is 10 business days for a house (detached, semi-detached or row) and 5 business days for a small homeowner project such as a deck, porch, shed or garage. Those targets count from a complete submission. If the examiners find a deficiency, the permit waits until the answer comes back. We handle that back-and-forth; see City permit planning.
- Nothing starts before the permit. The City is explicit that construction, demolition included, can begin only once the permit is issued. The permit is posted on site and the approved drawings stay there for the inspector.
- Licensed trades, in sequence. In Ontario, only a Licensed Electrical Contractor can legally be hired to do electrical work in your home, and that contractor files the notification of work with the Electrical Safety Authority. Plumbing and electrical rough-in come before insulation and drywall. Drywall comes before paint, and paint before flooring. When one trade runs late, every trade after it moves, and keeping that schedule is our job.
- Inspections. The City inspects at key stages and asks for inspections to be booked 48 hours ahead. If an inspection is missed, the inspector can have finished work opened up again. We book them around the trade schedule so nothing gets closed in early.
Renovations and additions for Ottawa homes
On the residential side we take on:
- kitchen renovations and bathroom renovations
- basement renovations, including secondary suites
- home additions, sunrooms and attic conversions
- coach houses and multi-unit conversions, with Bill 23 guidance on what the province now allows on a residential lot
- accessibility renovations
- whole-home renovations that open up several rooms at once
A whole-home job is where the coordination matters most. Every trade affects the next, one person has to sequence all of them, and you should still have a working kitchen or bathroom while the other is torn out.
Commercial fit-outs and renovations
Commercial work runs on different rules. There are landlord work letters, buildings that stay open while you build, and inspections from more than one authority. We build in five kinds of space:
- offices and corporate space
- retail stores and plazas
- restaurants and bars, where Ottawa Public Health inspects the food premises
- warehouses and storage
- healthcare clinics
In an occupied building we phase the work, contain the dust and move the noisy trades to evenings or weekends, so your staff, tenants or patients keep working. Send a brief at any stage, from a sketch to a full drawing set, through the commercial renovation page.
General contracting jobs we have run in Ottawa
These jobs are from our own portfolio. Work on this scale needs a permit, several licensed trades and a run of inspections in the right order, which is the part a general contractor is hired to hold together.
- Alta Vista, 2024: a legal basement suite for an aging parent, plus a rec room for the family. We worked within the existing foundation, added an egress window, built a kitchenette and a three-piece bathroom, and put sound-dampening between the floors. Demolition to move-in took 14 weeks. More on basement renovations.
- Westboro: a rear addition on a heritage bungalow, with a main-floor family room and a larger primary suite above it, matched to the original red brick, roofline and window proportions. We coordinated the structural engineering, and the job ran 11 months from first sketch to final inspection. Our home additions page has more.
- Orléans, 2024: an accessible primary bathroom with a zero-threshold walk-in shower, grab bars rated to 660 lb, a roll-under vanity and a fold-down bench, planned with an occupational therapist. The full Orléans bathroom project walks through it.
- Manotick, the Glebe, Kanata, Dunrobin, Riverside, Orléans and Kars, 2023 to 2025: eight backyard coach homes of 450 to 750 sq ft.
- Restaurants: franchise tenant fit-outs for Tim Hortons and Harvey's in Nepean, Orléans, Kanata and Barrhaven, and the full interior of The Chop Steakhouse at Hunt Club, finished for its grand opening. See restaurants and bars.
More jobs, by room and by neighbourhood, are in our renovation portfolio.
General contractor, design-build, or both
Strictly, a general contractor builds from drawings someone else produced, and a design-build firm designs and builds under a single contract. We are set up for design-build, and our comparison of design-build, general contractors and architects explains why we recommend it for most homeowners. People search for "general contractor" meaning either one, so here is how both routes work with us.
If you already have drawings from an architect or designer, send them and we price and build from them. If you do not have drawings, we draw the plans, 3D renderings show you the result before you commit, and the same team builds it. The engineers and designers we work with are on our partners page.
How to compare general contractors in Ottawa
No public body ranks general contractors in Ottawa, so the best one for your job is the one that passes the same checks as everyone else on your shortlist. Most of those checks come from the Province's own guide, Your rights when starting home renovations or repairs.
- Get written estimates from at least 3 contractors. The Province also says never to accept an estimate given over the phone or without the contractor inspecting the area.
- Check at least 3 references, even when someone you know recommended the contractor.
- Ask for a WSIB clearance. The WSIB says a clearance shows a business is registered and up to date with its premium payments and reporting, and anyone can look one up online at no cost. A homeowner hiring for repairs or renovations to their own home is not required to get one, so asking is your call.
- Search the business name and the owner's name on Ontario's Consumer Beware List to see if there are any complaints or charges against the contractor.
- Ask whether the tradespeople on your job hold Skilled Trades Ontario certification, and get the electrical contractor's licence number (the next section covers that).
Dream Touch has worked in Ottawa since 2004. We hold BCIN designation, so the permit drawings are produced in-house, we carry $2M+ commercial general liability insurance, and our work comes with a 1-year workmanship warranty. If you want to see a finished job, ask: some of our clients agree to show their renovation to people choosing a contractor.
Before you sign with any general contractor in Ottawa
Ontario's Consumer Protection Act sets rules for home renovation contracts. They protect you whoever you hire, us included.
- A home renovation contract worth more than $50 must be in writing.
- If the contract includes an estimate, the final price cannot be more than 10% over it unless you agreed to new work or a new price. New work should come to you as a signed change to the contract, with a new estimate.
- The contract should list every sub-trade that will be contracted out and who pays for it, along with the work schedule, the payment schedule and a clear description of any warranties.
- The province recommends keeping the deposit to no more than 10% of the contract.
Ask for the electrical contractor's ECRA/ESA licence number too. A Licensed Electrical Contractor prints it on estimates and vehicles, and you can look it up with ESA's Find a Contractor tool. Our checklist of six things to verify before you sign covers the rest.
What a general contractor costs in Ottawa
We price every job from a written, itemized quote after a site visit, with each line item explained. The scope, the permit and whatever turns up behind the walls move the number, so we quote the job in front of us. Our estimating process walks through how the quote is built, and renovation financing covers paying for it.
Where we work
From our office on Roydon Place we work across Ottawa, including Nepean, Kanata, Barrhaven, Orléans, Stittsville, Manotick and Westboro. We have local pages for Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orléans and Stittsville. Everywhere else is on all service areas. Since 2004 we have also worked as an Ottawa renovation contractor for homeowners across the city.
Talk to a general contractor about your project
Call 613-862-4555, email office@dreamtouchrenovations.com, or request a free quote. Tell us what you want to build and whether you have drawings. We will tell you what the permit involves and book a site visit.