Condo Bathroom Renovation Toronto

What your condo board will ask for

Most Toronto condo corporations want the same things before a bathroom renovation can start. Check your building's renovation rules and expect some or all of these:

• An alteration or renovation request submitted to management, sometimes with a drawing of the new layout
• A certificate of insurance from the contractor naming the condo corporation
• An elevator booking, with pads and floor protection from the elevator to your door
• Working hours, often weekdays only, with quiet hours for demolition and cutting
• Debris taken out of the building, not left in the garbage room
• Notice before any water shut-off that affects other units

Send us your building's rules when you call. The schedule is built around them, so nothing stalls halfway through demolition.

Protecting the unit below

In a condo, a slow leak is not just your problem. It shows up on your neighbour's ceiling and on your building's insurance. A condo shower needs a continuous waterproofing membrane behind the tile and under the shower floor, correct slope to the drain, and drain and supply connections checked before anything is closed up. That is the part of a condo bathroom you never see, and the part that matters most.

What works in a condo-sized bathroom

• Tub to walk-in shower. The most common condo change. Same footprint, easier to use, and the room reads bigger. See tub to shower conversion.
• Floating vanity. Showing floor under the vanity makes a small room feel wider.
• Sliding or fixed glass panels instead of a swing door that hits the toilet.
• Recessed niches in the shower instead of corner shelves.
• Large-format porcelain with fewer grout lines.

Wall-hung toilets need space in the wall for a carrier. In many condos the wall behind the toilet is concrete or holds a shared stack, so it is not always possible. We check before you fall in love with one.

What drives the cost of a condo bathroom

The size of the room matters less than you would think. Price moves with how much you change: keeping the toilet and drain where they are versus moving them, a tub versus a tiled walk-in shower, custom glass, the tile you pick, and the vanity. Building rules can also add time, for example when noisy work is limited to a few hours a day. You get a quote for your bathroom after we see it.