What's actually behind a Brantford century wall
- Knob-and-tube and early wiring: insurers increasingly require its removal; replacement is an ESA-licensed scope
- Galvanized and lead-era plumbing at the end of its life
- Plaster and lath over uninsulated balloon framing (a fire-stopping issue as much as a heat one)
- Stone and rubble foundations that need parging, drainage or underpinning, not wishful thinking
- Sagging structure from a century of renovations that each removed "just one stud"
"A century home isn't a worse house, it's an honest one: everything it needs is visible to someone who knows where to look. I walk these houses expecting knob-and-tube and empty wall cavities, so my quotes carry a named contingency instead of a fantasy price. Old houses don't create surprises. Bad quotes do."
Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.
Heritage designation and permits
Some Brantford properties carry heritage designation under the Ontario Heritage Act, which adds a heritage-permit layer for exterior alterations on top of the normal building permit. We handle both streams, Cloudpermit for the building side and the City's heritage process where it applies, plus County of Brant equivalents for Paris and St. George century homes. The base permit rules are in the permit rules across our municipalities.
How we price the unknown
Century work runs on written contingencies and change orders: the contract names an allowance for concealed conditions, every discovery is photographed and priced in writing before work proceeds, and Ontario's 10% estimate protection stays intact. That mechanism, and how it defeats the low-ball-then-escalate pattern that plagues old-house owners, is documented in the escalation tactic we price against.