How to renovate a condo in Vancouver

How a condo renovation differs from a house renovation

A condo renovation is the same building work as a house renovation, done inside a building you share with other owners. That changes who approves the work, what you are allowed to move, how materials reach the unit, and who pays if water reaches a neighbour.

Condos are a large part of Vancouver housing. In the 2021 Census, Statistics Canada counted 305,335 occupied private dwellings in the City of Vancouver. Of those, 112,105 were condominiums. The same count found 94,815 apartments in buildings of five or more storeys and 95,120 apartments in buildings under five storeys.

In a house, the owner decides what to build and the City checks the work that needs a permit. A condo adds a second decision maker. The strata corporation is all the owners of the building together, and it acts through an elected strata council. The council reads your request and answers in writing.

The table below compares the two. Each condo entry names the law or the public page it comes from.

Who must approve a condo renovation

The strata corporation must approve most condo renovation work in writing before it starts. Under the Standard Bylaws, the approval list in Bylaw 5(1) includes the structure of the building, exterior windows and doors, common property inside the unit, and the parts of the unit the strata must insure.

That last item covers most kitchen, bathroom and flooring work. The Strata Property Act makes the strata insure the fixtures the original developer installed, and the Strata Property Regulation defines fixtures as items attached to the building, including floor and wall coverings and electrical and plumbing fixtures. Replacing the original versions of those items is an alteration that needs approval first.

Your building may have stricter bylaws than the default set, and it may have its own application form. Ask the strata manager or the council for the current bylaws, the rules and any renovation form before you plan the work.

Our strata guide explains the whole process: what to send, what conditions a council can set, the deadlines in the Act, the fines for work done without approval, and the steps after a refusal. This guide covers the rest of a condo renovation and refers you to the strata guide for approval questions.

What can and cannot be moved in a condo

You can change most things that sit inside your unit and serve only your unit, once the strata has approved the work. The parts that hold the building up, and the parts that serve other units, belong to all the owners together. Changing them needs the strata's written approval, and the strata can refuse.

Start with the edges of the unit. Section 68(1) of the Strata Property Act puts the boundary midway through the walls, floor and ceiling that separate your unit from a neighbour or from the common property, unless the strata plan shows a different line. The strata plan is the registered drawing of the building. Ask for it before you plan to open a wall.

Drains and water pipes come next, because they decide where a sink, a toilet or a shower can go. The Act's definition of common property includes pipes for water, sewage and drainage that sit inside a boundary wall, floor or ceiling. It also includes pipes that run inside a unit when they can serve another unit or the common property. A vertical drain that carries water from the units above is common property where it passes through your bathroom wall. Before we price moving a fixture, we find out where its drain joins the shared pipe and how far the new position is from that point.

Walls need two questions answered. The first is whether the wall is part of the building's structure, because Standard Bylaw 5(1)(a) requires written approval for an alteration that involves the structure of a building. If your floor and ceiling are concrete slabs, treat them as structure until the building's drawings say otherwise. The second question is whether pipes, wires or ducts that serve other units run inside the wall. Ask the strata for the building's drawings and have the wall checked before you design around its removal.

Ducts and wires follow the same test as pipes. The definition of common property names wires, cables, chutes and ducts for electricity, heating and cooling. A bathroom fan or a kitchen hood that joins a shared duct is joining common property, so the request to the strata should say where each fan will connect.

Electrical supply has a limit set by the building. The Province of BC says almost all strata corporations have finite electrical capacity, and it requires strata corporations with five or more units to obtain an electrical planning report, a document that records the capacity of the building's electrical system and the demands on it. The deadline for buildings in Metro Vancouver is December 31, 2026. The Province adds that when an owner wants to add equipment that will increase electrical demand, the strata needs to ensure a qualified professional selects the equipment and confirms the electrical capacity. Plan for that check if your new kitchen adds a large electric appliance.

Cutting or drilling concrete has its own rules. A concrete floor or wall may be structure, so the approval rule above applies, and the dust is a health hazard that the law controls. WorkSafeBC says cutting, breaking, drilling or grinding concrete releases silica dust, which can cause silicosis, a serious lung disease that cannot be reversed. Under section 6.112 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, an employer must have a qualified person complete a risk assessment before workers do work that may expose them to this dust. Ask your contractor how the dust will be captured at the tool and kept out of the hallway.

Testing for asbestos and other hazardous materials in older buildings

Have the unit inspected for hazardous materials before any demolition, and before you fix the price. In BC the inspection is a legal duty that the owner shares with the contractor.

Section 20.112 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation says that before work begins on the renovation of a building, all employers responsible for the work, and the owner, must ensure that a qualified person inspects the building and the worksite to identify the hazardous materials, if any. The regulation's list of hazardous materials includes material that contains asbestos, lead or any other heavy metal, and toxic, flammable or explosive material.

The qualified person takes samples of the materials the work will disturb, has each one identified, and writes a report. The report gives the location of each sample, states whether it is hazardous, and gives the location and the approximate quantity of each hazardous material found. The employers and the owner must make sure the report is available at the worksite.

The age of the building is the main sign that asbestos may be present. WorkSafeBC says asbestos was used in more than 3,000 building materials from the 1950s to the 1990s, and that a home built before 1990 is likely to contain some. Its list of materials that often contained asbestos includes drywall, textured ceiling coating, insulation, vinyl flooring and window putty. A kitchen or bathroom renovation disturbs several of those. WorkSafeBC also says you cannot tell by looking at a material whether it contains asbestos.

Many Vancouver homes fall in that age range. The 2021 Census counted 167,325 occupied dwellings in the City of Vancouver built in 1990 or before, out of 305,335. That count covers every dwelling type together.

If the report finds hazardous materials, they are contained or removed first. Under section 20.112(7), no renovation work that may disturb them can be carried out until they are safely contained or removed, and a qualified person must confirm that in writing. Since January 1, 2024, a contractor who removes or contains asbestos must be licensed to operate in BC, and the workers who do it must hold certificates issued by WorkSafeBC. WorkSafeBC publishes a list of licensed contractors. Check that the company you hire for this step is on it.

Material found later is handled the same way. If someone discovers a suspect material after the written confirmation, section 20.112(6) requires a qualified person to sample it, identify it and report in writing before the work around it continues.

Send the inspection report to the strata with your renovation request, and keep a copy in the unit's file. It shows the council how dust and waste from the unit will be controlled.

Permits for a condo renovation in Vancouver

Strata approval and a permit come from two different bodies, and you may need both. The strata applies its bylaws. The City applies its building rules.

For electrical and gas work, Technical Safety BC is the body that runs BC's Safety Standards Act. It says that 10 municipalities issue their own electrical or gas permits, and its list includes the City of Vancouver for both electrical and gas. A condo owner in Vancouver therefore deals with the City for these permits.

Technical Safety BC's pages also show which work needs an electrical permit under the provincial rules. Its examples include installing or moving light switches or electrical outlets, replacing light fixtures, and connecting permanently installed equipment such as a dishwasher, a range hood or a heat pump. For gas, the examples include installing or replacing a gas range or cooktop and installing or replacing gas piping.

A strata owner hires a licensed contractor for this work. Technical Safety BC states that owners of a strata "cannot obtain homeowner permits and must hire a licensed contractor". It also says that when you hire a licensed contractor, the contractor applies for the permit on your behalf, and it advises you to check that a permit is in place before work begins. Contractor licensing stays with Technical Safety BC across the province, including in Vancouver.

For building permits, ask the City of Vancouver directly. The City has its own building by-law and sets its own permit rules, fees and processing times. Call or write to the City with your scope of work and ask which permits it needs. Then ask the strata whether it wants a copy of any permit before work starts.

We confirm the permit question with the City for each project before we give a start date.

The order of work, and why a condo job takes longer

A condo renovation follows the same building steps as a house, with more steps before demolition and tighter limits on each working day.

Our published durations show how long the building work itself takes in a house. For a house on the North Shore, we publish 10 to 16 weeks from demolition to completion for a kitchen renovation with permits, and 4 to 6 weeks for a single bathroom. Those figures were written for houses. They hold no time for strata approval, and they assume a crew that can work a full day and bring materials to the door.

Four conditions add time in a condo, listed first below. Each one depends on your building, so ask for its rules in writing before you agree to a schedule. The numbered steps after the list are the order we follow.

• Approval. Work starts after the strata's written approval arrives. The Act gives a council 4 weeks to hold a hearing once an owner asks for one in writing, and one more week to give a written decision (Strata Property Act, s. 34.1).
• Working hours. Your building's bylaws, rules or alteration agreement set the days and hours when work is allowed. Fewer working hours in a day mean more days on site for the same work.
• Elevator bookings. Materials, tools and waste travel by elevator. If your building requires a booking, every delivery and every waste removal has to fit a booked time.
• Deliveries and storage. A house job can use the driveway and the garage. A condo has a loading area shared with every other owner and no place to store a full kitchen, so deliveries arrive in smaller loads on the day they are needed.

1. 1

   Get the building's documents

   Ask the strata in writing for the bylaws, the rules, any renovation form or alteration agreement, and the contractor requirements. The strata must provide bylaws and rules within one week of an owner's request (Strata Property Act, s. 36(3)).

2. 2

   Inspect the unit

   We look at the unit after reading the building's documents: where the drains and ducts run, what the floor and walls are made of, where the electrical panel is and what it supplies.

3. 3

   Have hazardous materials identified

   A qualified person inspects the areas the work will disturb and writes the report that section 20.112 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation requires before renovation work begins.

4. 4

   Fix the scope, the drawings and the products

   Decide the layout and choose the flooring, fixtures and appliances. The strata request needs product information, so these choices come before the request.

5. 5

   Send the strata request and wait for written approval

   Send the scope, drawings, product sheets, contractor documents and planned dates. Standard Bylaw 5(1) requires the written approval before the alteration is made.

6. 6

   Settle the permits

   Confirm with the City of Vancouver which permits the work needs. The licensed electrical and gas contractors apply for their own permits.

7. 7

   Order materials and book the building

   Order the items with the longest wait first. Our published wait for a cabinet order is 8 to 12 weeks. Book the elevator and the loading area for the delivery days, following the building's rules.

8. 8

   Protect the common areas and remove hazardous materials

   Cover the hallway and elevator surfaces the building asks to be protected. Any hazardous material named in the report is contained or removed first, and a qualified person confirms that in writing (s. 20.112(7) and (8)).

9. 9

   Demolition, then plumbing and electrical work inside the walls

   Demolition waste leaves by the route the building allows. Plumbing and electrical work is done and inspected before the walls are closed.

10. 10

    Finishes, cleaning and the unit's file

    Flooring, cabinets, tile, fixtures and paint follow. At the end, give the strata the documents its approval asked for and keep your own file: approval letter, drawings, permits, the hazardous materials report and photos of the pipes and wiring taken before the walls were closed.

What a condo renovation costs

We price a condo renovation after a site visit and a read of your building's bylaws, because the building's rules change the amount of labour. We have no published condo price list, so this guide gives no condo figure.

These are the conditions in a condo that add work. We check each one before pricing.

• Shorter working days, where the building limits the hours of work.
• Time spent moving materials and waste through a booked elevator in small loads.
• Protection for hallways, the elevator and the lobby, put up and taken down as the building requires.
• Parking and loading that must be arranged for each trade and each delivery.
• The hazardous materials inspection, and removal by a licensed contractor where the report finds asbestos.
• Documents the strata asks for: drawings, product data, insurance certificates and a WorkSafeBC clearance letter.
• Fees or deposits the building charges under its bylaws or rules.
• Sound-rated layers under new flooring, where the building's bylaws require them.
• Checks on shared pipes, ducts and electrical capacity before the layout is fixed.

Insurance and the risk of damage to neighbours

Call your insurance broker before the work starts and again when it ends. A renovation changes what your policy needs to cover, and a leak during the work can lead to a claim for the strata's deductible.

Two policies cover a condo. The strata corporation must insure the common property, the building and the fixtures the original developer installed in each unit (Strata Property Act, s. 149(1)). The Province of BC's page on owner insurance lists what that policy leaves to the owner: personal liability, household contents, the cost of living elsewhere after a loss, and paying the strata's deductible. The same page lists improvements to the unit, made by the current and previous owners, as something an owner's policy covers up to a stated limit.

A new kitchen that is better than the original is an improvement. Tell your broker what you are installing and what it cost, so the limit on your policy matches the unit after the work.

The deductible is the larger risk. A deductible is the first part of a claim that the insurer leaves the insured party to pay. The Province says strata corporation deductibles can range from $100,000 to $750,000 or higher. Under section 158(2) of the Act, the strata can sue an owner to recover the deductible if the owner is responsible for the loss or damage. The Province's page states that an owner can be held responsible for a loss without having been negligent, and gives the example of a dishwasher hose that breaks and sends water into other units.

During a renovation, water is the main danger to neighbours: an open supply line, a drain left uncapped, or a new connection that fails under pressure. Ask your broker whether your policy covers the strata's deductible and whether that cover applies while the unit is under renovation. Ask your contractor for proof of liability insurance in the amount your building's bylaws or alteration agreement set.

The owner is also responsible to the strata for the contractor's conduct. Section 130(1) of the Act lets the strata fine an owner when a bylaw or rule is contravened by a person the owner admitted to the premises for business reasons. Give your contractor the bylaws and rules before the first day.

Living elsewhere during the work

Plan to live somewhere else for a full kitchen, a full bathroom in a one-bathroom unit, or any work that removes hazardous materials. A condo has no second kitchen, no garage and no yard to move into while a room is closed.

Three facts decide it. A unit with one bathroom has no working toilet or shower while that bathroom is rebuilt, and our published time on site for a bathroom in a house is 4 to 6 weeks. A kitchen under renovation has no sink or cooking for the length of the work. And under section 20.112(7) of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, work that may disturb an identified hazardous material waits until that material is contained or removed.

Budget for the stay yourself. The Province of BC describes an owner's cover for additional living expenses as applying in the event of an insured loss, and gives a fire as its example. A planned renovation is your own choice, so ask your broker in writing whether your policy pays anything toward it.

Flooring alone, painting, or a second bathroom can often be done while you live in the unit. We tell you at the quote stage which rooms will be closed and for how long, so you can decide before you book a place to stay.

How we prepare a condo renovation

We read the building's bylaws, rules and alteration form before we quote. They set the working hours, the insurance documents and the protection the building expects, and each of those changes the price and the schedule.

We visit the unit and check the things a condo adds. We find where the drains and ducts run and which ones serve other units. We look at what the floor and walls are made of. We look at the electrical panel and ask the strata what its electrical planning report says about capacity. We ask the strata for the building's drawings where a wall or a pipe is in question.

We arrange the hazardous materials inspection before the price is fixed, so the cost of any removal is in the quote from the start.

We write the scope once and use the same words in the contract and in the strata request, so the council approves the work that will be built. The request names us as the contractor and attaches the documents your building lists.

We set the start date after the written approval and after the permit question is settled with the City. Deliveries and waste removal are scheduled around the building's elevator and loading rules.

During the work we protect the common areas the building asks us to protect, keep the hazardous materials report in the unit, and photograph pipes and wiring before the walls are closed. Those photos go in the file you keep for the unit.