Bathroom renovation in Toronto

Bathrooms in Toronto homes

Toronto bathrooms tend to be small, old, or both. That makes them some of the most satisfying rooms to renovate and some of the least forgiving of poor planning.

The one-bathroom house

A large share of the semis, row houses, and small detached homes in the old city, East York, and Leaside were built with a single bathroom on the second floor, about 1.5 by 2.1 metres, and nothing else. Families work around it for years.

Two projects follow from that:

• Rebuilding the existing bathroom to get the most from a small footprint: a wall-hung or compact vanity, a tub-shower or walk-in shower with a glass panel, a recessed niche and cabinet, and lighter finishes.
• Adding a bathroom: a basement three-piece, a main-floor powder room tucked under the stairs or at the back, or an ensuite carved from a bedroom.

What older Toronto houses hide

Open a bathroom wall in a house built before the 1950s and you may find:

• a cast-iron drain stack, sometimes cracked or corroded,
• galvanized steel or lead supply pipes with reduced flow,
• knob-and-tube wiring running through the same cavities,
• joists notched or cut for earlier plumbing, leaving a bouncy floor, and
• plaster on wood lath, which is heavy, dusty, and slow to remove.

None of this stops the project. It does mean that a bathroom in an old Toronto house should be budgeted as a rebuild to the studs, with an allowance for what is found, and not as a cosmetic refresh.

Post-war bungalows: North York, Scarborough, East York

A main bathroom on the ground floor and often a rough second one in the basement. These houses are straightforward to work in. Typical projects are rebuilding the main bathroom and creating a proper basement bathroom, frequently as part of a basement renovation or secondary suite.

Condo bathrooms

In a tower, the layout is fixed by the stack and the concrete slab. The improvement comes from replacing a tub with a walk-in shower where the drain allows it, better storage, large-format tile, and good lighting. The corporation’s approval, water shut-off bookings, and limited hours set the pace. See condo renovation.

City of Toronto permits for bathrooms

From Toronto Building’s page When Do I Need a Building Permit?:

No permit needed: repairing or replacing plumbing fixtures.

Permit required:

• installing or modifying plumbing systems, which covers a new bathroom and relocated drains,
• structural or material alterations, such as adding or removing walls,
• basement work that includes new plumbing, and
• installing a backwater valve.

We prepare the drawings and manage the application where one is needed. Electrical work is done under an Electrical Safety Authority permit and inspected separately.

How the project runs

1. Phone conversation, then a free site visit at your Toronto home.
2. Budget and design, from your mood board and inspiration photos.
3. 3D rendering, on request. In a room this small, seeing the layout first matters.
4. Approval, and a permit or condo approval where the work needs one.
5. Build: demolition, rough-in, waterproofing, tile, fixtures, and finishing.

What a bathroom renovation includes is set out on our main bathroom renovation page, and the bathroom renovation cost guide explains the price tiers below.