The primary service
Whole-Home Renovations
Down to the studs, or close to it. Structure, envelope, mechanical and finishes sequenced as one project rather than a series of separate trades.
A whole-home renovation between Ladysmith and Qualicum Beach commonly runs $250,000 to $400,000, or roughly $200 to $350 per square foot for a full gut. Published BC figures put a complete project at 7 to 14 months from the start of design to occupancy. Any home built before 1990 requires a qualified person to inspect for asbestos before demolition begins, under section 20.112 of the BC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. Scope at that level frequently approaches BC Housing's substantial reconstruction threshold, which converts a renovation into a new home for regulatory purposes.
Typical range $250,000 to $400,000. Published BC market ranges put a mid-range whole-home renovation at $150 to $250 per square foot and a full gut at $200 to $350. A range that means anything comes out of measured drawings and a structural review, not a square-foot multiplier.
A whole-home renovation is not a large collection of small jobs. Sequence is the entire discipline: structure before mechanical, mechanical before insulation, insulation before finishes, and every one of those gated by an inspection. Getting that order wrong is what turns a nine-month project into a fourteen-month one. On the corridor between Ladysmith and Qualicum Beach most candidates for this work were built between the 1950s and the 1980s, which means the structure that gets opened up is rarely the structure the drawings predicted.
What down-to-the-studs actually means
Interior finishes, cabinetry, flooring and often the ceilings come out, exposing framing, wiring and plumbing across the whole floor plate. That exposure is the point. Wall removals get engineered properly instead of guessed at, mechanical systems get replaced as a system rather than patched, and insulation reaches current prescriptive levels while the cavities are open. It is also the most expensive moment to discover something, which is why the design stage carries a structural review rather than an optimistic assumption.
What drives the number on an older home
Four line items account for most of the gap between a $200,000 renovation and a $400,000 one. Whole-house rewiring where knob-and-tube or aluminium is present runs roughly $12,000 to $30,000 on a 2,000 square foot home. Poly-B replacement runs about $8,000 to $16,000, and galvanized supply lines in a pre-1950s home $9,000 to $18,000. Seismic work ranges from about $15,000 for straightforward anchor bolts and cripple wall bracing to $60,000 and beyond where foundation reconstruction is involved. An electrical service upgrade from 100 to 200 amps adds roughly $3,500 to $6,500. Published guidance on contingency for projects of this scale sits between 10 and 20 percent.
The point where a renovation becomes a new home
BC Housing treats a project as substantially reconstructed when 25 percent or less of the original structure above the foundation remains, or when 75 percent or more of the finished home is new. Past that line the project is a new home in the eyes of the province: it requires a licensed residential builder and 2-5-10 home warranty insurance, or a formal exemption such as an Owner Builder Authorization. Ambitious whole-home renovations can drift toward that threshold without anyone intending it, and the honest time to establish which side of the line a project sits on is during design, not during demolition.
Asbestos, and why it is not optional
Section 20.112 of the BC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation requires that before demolition, salvage or renovation, a qualified person inspects for hazardous materials — and places that duty on the owner as well as the employers doing the work. Since 1 January 2024 WorkSafeBC has also required asbestos abatement employers to hold a licence and abatement workers to be certified. Pre-1990 construction is where this bites hardest, and it is a survey and a written report before a permit application, not a discovery mid-project.
How a whole-home renovation runs
Measured drawings and structural review
The existing building gets documented as built, not as originally drawn. Structural review establishes what can be removed and what has to be engineered.
Hazardous materials survey and permit application
The pre-1990 survey happens here, and the permit application goes to the authority that governs the address.
Demolition, structure, mechanical, envelope
The inspection-gated sequence. Nothing gets closed in until the inspection covering it has passed.
Finishes, deficiency walk, handover
Deficiency list built and cleared before the final payment and before the 10 percent holdback period ends.
Renovating older stock on this coast
Nanaimo Airport records annual precipitation of about 1,165 mm across the 1981 to 2010 climate normals, and the December 2018 windstorm — the most destructive in BC Hydro's history, cutting power to roughly 750,000 customers — is a fair illustration of what an envelope on this coast is asked to handle. Homes along the corridor from Ladysmith through Qualicum Beach carry a mix of eras and a mix of retrofits, and the retrofits are frequently the problem: an addition framed in 1988 against a 1962 original, with two different insulation standards meeting at a wall nobody has opened since.
What a whole-home scope typically includes
Structural and envelope
Wall removals with engineered beams, foundation and seismic work where required, insulation to current prescriptive levels while cavities are open, windows and exterior finishes.
Mechanical replacement
Electrical service and full rewiring, supply and drain plumbing, heating and ventilation, sequenced ahead of insulation and inspected before anything is closed in.
Interior finishes and millwork
Kitchen and bathrooms, flooring, doors and trim, built-in cabinetry, finished after the mechanical inspections have passed.
What tends to show up behind the drywall
- Situation
- a mid-century home along the corridor comes with drawings that are either missing or wrong, because permit records for alterations were kept unevenly and owner-built work often was not recorded at all.
- Complication
- the three findings that most often move a budget are wiring that predates modern grounding, supply plumbing in poly-B or galvanized steel, and a wall carrying load that no drawing shows as structural.
- Resolution
- none of the three is unusual, and all three have published cost ranges, which is why they belong in the design-stage budget as line items rather than in a contingency that quietly absorbs them.
People also ask
- How long does a whole-home renovation take?
- Published BC figures put a full gut renovation at 7 to 14 months from the start of design to occupancy, and a mid-range whole-home renovation at 5 to 9 months. Design and permitting alone account for roughly 8 to 20 weeks of that. Of the four building authorities along this corridor, only the Town of Qualicum Beach publishes a processing target, at three to four weeks for a complete residential application.
- Is it cheaper to renovate or to rebuild?
- It depends almost entirely on the foundation and the structure. A sound foundation and a workable footprint favour renovating. Once a project approaches BC Housing's substantial reconstruction threshold it is being treated as a new home anyway, at which point the licensing, warranty and cost structures of new construction apply and the comparison changes.
- Can I live in the house during the work?
- Rarely, on a genuine down-to-the-studs project. Once mechanical systems are out and the building envelope is open, the house is a construction site rather than a dwelling. Phased occupancy is sometimes possible where the scope is confined to one floor or one wing, but it extends the schedule.
- What happens if something unexpected is found?
- Change orders — priced, documented and signed before the work proceeds. The three most common findings on older stock along this corridor are wiring, supply plumbing and undocumented structural changes, all of which have published cost ranges and belong in the design-stage budget rather than arriving as surprises.
Related scope and process: home additions and kitchen and bathroom renovations. See also the renovation process. Mid-Island Renovation Group also works in Nanoose Bay and Parksville.
A whole-home project starts with scope, not a price. The questionnaire takes about two minutes and covers enough to establish whether a project is a fit.
Project inquiry
Tell Mid-Island Renovation Group about the project
Five questions covering scope, budget, timeline and property. Enough to establish whether a project is a fit before anyone books a site visit.
Planning a major renovation?
Start with the project questionnaire — five questions covering scope, budget, timeline, and property. Enough to establish whether a project is a fit before anyone books a site visit.