Should you demolish the house or renovate it?

A house earns a tear-down when fixing it means rebuilding it. Five situations come up again and again on GTA lots.

• The foundation is failing. Bowed block walls, settled footings, water every spring. Repairing it can cost as much as a new foundation.
• The basement ceiling is under seven feet. A 1950s bungalow with a six and a half foot basement never becomes a usable lower floor without lowering the slab, and by then the numbers favour a new house.
• The layout is beyond fixing. Bearing walls in the wrong places, a stair in the middle of the plan. When the fix touches most of the frame, you are paying renovation prices for new construction.
• The lot is worth more than the house. In Mineola, Lorne Park and Thornhill, the land carries the value and the house is a placeholder.
• The replacement needs a bigger footprint. A 3,500 square foot plan on a lot holding a 1,100 square foot bungalow leaves little worth keeping.

Renovation wins when the house holds something a rebuild cannot buy back.

• The structure is sound. Plumb walls, a dry foundation, a roof an engineer would sign off on. Spend the money on systems and finishes.
• Heritage designation or a heritage conservation district. Old Oakville, Unionville, Markham Village and Thornhill all have districts where a demolition can be refused or slowed for months.
• Budget. Renovation work can be phased. A tear-down is one cheque, then a builder's cheque behind it.
• You want to stay in the house. A staged renovation keeps you in place. A tear-down means renting for the length of the build.
• Mature trees and setbacks. A rebuild has to meet today's zoning, and a new footprint can trigger tree protection or lose a side yard the old house was allowed.

We do not price new construction. That number belongs to the builder: [builder's number, Kam or the builder confirms]. What we can price is taking things out, from a site walk, line by line.

Read these next to the builder's number, not instead of it. A renovation inside the existing frame saves the tear-down and most of the foundation. On a new house, demolition is a small line on the bill.

• Interior strip-out: the lightest line. Finishes, kitchens, bathrooms and non-bearing partitions out, down to the studs. Priced from square footage, wall material and access.
• Selective structural: heavier. Bearing walls out, floors opened, shoring in place while the new steel goes in. Priced from span, load and the engineer's drawing.
• Full tear-down: the heaviest line. Disconnects, the building down, the foundation out, the hole backfilled and graded. Priced from size, storeys, foundation and bin count.
• Permit line: its own line on the quote when Breaker pulls the permit and orders the locates, larger on a tear-down than on interior or structural work.

In the City of Toronto a residential demolition goes through demolition control. The City wants to know what replaces the house, and ties the demolition permit to a building permit for the new one or to conditions on the site.

Outside Toronto, the heritage question comes first. In Old Oakville, Unionville, Markham Village or Thornhill, a heritage conservation district can block or slow a demolition, and a designated property is harder still. Check the municipal heritage register before you pay for drawings.

Walk the house with three questions. Is the foundation dry, plumb and tall enough to live over? Does the frame carry a plan you would build today? Does the lot allow the house you want, trees and setbacks included?

Three yeses and you renovate. Three noes and you are shopping for a builder. One or two noes is where a written demolition quote and the builder's number earn their keep. Send us the address and the plan and you get a written demolition quote with the permit line broken out.