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Ottawa General Contractor · Homes and Commercial · Since 2004

General contractor in Ottawa,
from permit drawings to final inspection

By Moe, Founder & Principal, Dream Touch Renovations·Updated September 2026
Call 613-862-4555

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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:

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:

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 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.

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.

Ottawa general contractor questions

Do I need a general contractor, or can I hire the trades myself?
On a single-trade job, hiring the trade directly is often sensible. Once a job needs a building permit and several trades working in sequence, somebody has to hold the drawings, the permit, the schedule and the inspections. If you hire the trades yourself, that person is you.
How long does a building permit take in Ottawa?
The City of Ottawa's target for a first review of a complete application is 10 business days for a house and 5 business days for small homeowner projects such as decks, porches, sheds and garages. An incomplete application takes longer, because the permit is not issued until every deficiency is answered.
Who draws the plans for a building permit?
A designer registered under the Ontario Building Code (BCIN), an architect or a professional engineer. Homeowners may take design responsibility for their own house. On our jobs we arrange the drawings and any structural engineering as part of the work.
Can a contractor charge more than the estimate?
Under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, the final price in a home renovation contract cannot be more than 10% above the estimate unless you agreed to new work or a new price. Any change should be written into the contract and signed before the work is done.
Do you do commercial work as well as homes?
Yes. We build offices, retail stores and plazas, restaurants and bars, warehouses and healthcare clinics across Ottawa, often in buildings that stay open during the work.