Renovating a century home in Brantford: what's behind the walls

The five things you'll probably find

• Knob-and-tube wiring: insurers increasingly refuse or surcharge homes with it live; replacement is an ESA-licensed scope and often the hidden budget line
• Balloon framing: wall cavities running basement to attic with no fire-stopping, a spread-path for fire that modern blocking corrects
• Plaster and lath over empty, uninsulated cavities
• Galvanized plumbing rusted nearly shut from the inside
• Stone or rubble foundations needing drainage, parging or, for basement livability, underpinning

"The romance of a century home is real and so is the electrical panel from 1962. My rule on these houses: modernize everything you've opened, because closing a wall over known knob-and-tube is a decision your insurance company gets to have an opinion about later."

Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.

The sequence that works

1. Assess before designing. Electrical, plumbing, structure and moisture get evaluated first, because they set the real budget. 2. Price with a named contingency. Concealed-conditions allowance in the written contract, every discovery priced by change order, Ontario's 10% estimate protection intact. 3. Permits, including heritage where designated. Ontario Heritage Act properties add a heritage-permit layer for exterior work on top of the building permit. 4. Systems first, finishes last. Wiring, plumbing, structure and insulation while walls are open; plaster repair or drywall after; character trim preserved and reinstalled. 5. Inspections at every stage, which in an old house are your friend twice over.

Budgeting a century project

Take the standard renovation ranges in the per-square-foot guide and expect the systems layer (electrical, plumbing, structure) to claim a bigger share than in a 1990s house. The pricing mechanism that keeps it sane, contingencies and written change orders, is the same one that defeats the low-ball artists described in how old-house owners get low-balled. When you're ready for a walkthrough, this is exactly the specialty of our heritage renovation service.