Home Renovation in Richmond

Our Dunbar Special project is a custom home on Vancouver's west side, a short drive north of Richmond across the Fraser. The kitchen has a live edge bar, the living and dining rooms flow together under a clear cedar ceiling, and the bathroom is finished to the same standard as the rest of the house.

These photos are from that Vancouver house, not from a Richmond address. We show them here because the kitchen, bathroom and finish work are the standard we bring to every Richmond renovation, whether it is one room or a whole house. Every project we have finished is in our gallery.

Richmond sits only a little above sea level, protected by dikes, with a high water table and soft delta soils. That is why most Richmond houses have no basement and are built on a slab or a crawlspace. For an interior renovation, it means plumbing changes on a slab floor involve cutting and patching concrete, and any work in a crawlspace needs a check for moisture first. We look at both on the first visit.

For additions and rebuilds, the City of Richmond sets flood construction levels that decide how high new living space must sit. Interior renovations inside the existing house are usually not affected, but we confirm with the City for any scope that adds floor area. Permits for structural, plumbing and electrical changes also go through the City of Richmond, and strata approval comes first for townhomes and condos.

In Richmond, moving a sink, toilet or shower on a slab floor means cutting concrete, rerouting the drain and patching the slab, which costs more than the same move over a wood floor. A crawlspace with moisture issues needs to be dealt with before new finishes go in. After that, the size of the kitchen and the finishes you choose set the budget.

Our quotes are itemised with finish allowances, and every change is priced before it is built. These are the items we see moving Richmond budgets most.