Renovation cost ranges are the easiest thing in the world to find and among the least useful. Every guide will tell you an Ottawa kitchen runs somewhere between thirty and a hundred thousand dollars, which is true and tells you almost nothing about your kitchen.
The useful question is which end of the range your house sits at, and that is decided by six or seven factors that are all knowable before anyone quotes. Here are the published numbers, and then the things that actually move them.
What gets published for Ottawa
These are third-party figures rather than our quotes, and they are the ballpark most Ottawa homeowners are working from.
Whole-home renovation. Ottawa contractors publish a general range of roughly $150 to $350+ per square foot, with high-end custom work and additions running well above that (Renos Group Ottawa pricing guide).
Kitchens. A minor refresh, meaning cabinet refinishing, counters and backsplash, publishes around $15,000 to $30,000. A mid-range remodel around $35,000 to $65,000. A full custom kitchen with structural changes starts around $75,000 and climbs.
Bathrooms. A standard bathroom renovation publishes around $10,000 to $22,000, with primary bathrooms considerably higher.
Basements. Ottawa basement finishing publishes at roughly $50 to $90 per square foot, with typical totals in the $32,000 to $75,000 band (HomeStars Ottawa basement price guide). Add a bathroom, a wet bar or a secondary dwelling unit and it moves sharply, because plumbing, fire separation and a separate entrance are structural costs, not finishing costs.
Now the part the ranges do not tell you.
1. Does anything wet move?
This is the biggest single lever in any renovation, and it is a yes-or-no question with a very expensive answer.
Keeping a sink, toilet or shower drain where it already is means connecting to existing rough-in. Moving it means opening floors, re-running drain lines at the right slope, and in a basement it can mean breaking concrete. The finishes are identical either way. The cost is not.
We go into this in detail in the Ottawa bathroom renovation cost guide, and the principle transfers directly to kitchens.
2. What is behind the wall
Ottawa’s housing stock spans about a century, and what a demolition uncovers is the main source of genuine surprise on a renovation.
Older Nepean, Westboro and Almonte properties turn up knob-and-tube remnants, undersized panels, plaster over lath, and framing that is not where drawings say it is. Newer Barrhaven, Kanata and Stittsville builds are more predictable but have their own habits, especially where a previous owner finished a basement without permits and everything behind that drywall now has to be brought up to code.
The honest way to handle this is an allowance in the quote, visible as a line, rather than a low number and a difficult conversation in week three.
3. The permit question
Work that moves plumbing, alters structure or finishes a basement generally needs a City of Ottawa building permit, and a basement bedroom brings egress window requirements with it. That is time and drawings as well as fee.
The cost of skipping it is worse. Unpermitted work surfaces when you sell, and the buyer’s home inspector is a much less flexible audience than the City. Our Barrhaven basement guide covers the permit, moisture and egress sequence, and the backyard permits guide covers exterior thresholds.
4. HST, and whether the quote includes it
Ontario’s 13% HST applies to renovation labour and materials. On a $60,000 basement that is nearly $8,000, which is more than enough to make a cheaper-looking quote the expensive one.
Ask every contractor whether their number is before or after tax, and compare like with like. This single question resolves a surprising share of apparent price differences.
5. Allowances, and what they are hiding
An allowance is a placeholder for something you have not chosen yet: tile, fixtures, cabinetry, lighting.
Allowances are legitimate and necessary early on. They are also where an optimistic quote hides. A $4,000 cabinet allowance and a $14,000 cabinet allowance produce very different-looking totals for what appears on paper to be the same kitchen, and the difference surfaces at the showroom, not at signing.
When you compare quotes, compare the allowances first. It is the fastest way to see whether you are looking at the same project twice or two different projects.
6. Demolition, disposal and the boring line items
Tear-out, bin rental, disposal fees, protection of the rest of the house, daily cleanup, and the final clean. None of it is interesting and all of it costs money.
These are the items most often left off a quote that is trying to look competitive, and they do not go away. They simply reappear, either as an extra or as a job site you end up cleaning yourself.
Ontario requires a written renovation contract over $50 to specify, among other things, who is responsible for cleanup. If a quote is silent on it, that is worth a question.
The 10% rule that caps the overrun
Here is the protection most Ottawa homeowners do not know they have. Under Ontario consumer protection rules, the final price cannot exceed the original estimate by more than 10% unless you have agreed to new work or a new price (Ontario.ca).
That changes what an estimate is. It is not a hopeful opening number; it has a ceiling attached. Which is precisely why a contractor who spends an hour in your house before quoting is behaving differently from one who emails a figure the same afternoon.
The same guidance recommends a deposit of no more than 10% and getting at least three written estimates. We cover the full vetting checklist in how to choose a renovation contractor in Ottawa.
Where the money is well spent
Two places, consistently.
The things you cannot change later. Layout, plumbing locations, structural openings, waterproofing, insulation, electrical capacity. Getting these right is what the renovation is actually for, and every one of them is disruptive and expensive to revisit.
The things you touch every day. Drawer hardware, tap quality, the door you open a dozen times. These cost little in the context of the total and are what the renovation feels like afterward.
Where money is most often wasted is in the middle: upgrades that are neither structural nor daily, chosen because they were on the next page of the catalogue.
Getting a real number for your house
Nothing above replaces a site visit, and any contractor willing to quote your renovation from a description over the phone is guessing at the six factors that decide the price.
We quote fixed price rather than time and materials, after seeing the space. You can see our scope on the interior renovations page and how we work in Nepean, Barrhaven and Stittsville.
Book a free on-site assessment and we will tell you which end of the range your project sits at, and why.
Published August 24, 2026 by ALM Construction & Landscaping. General information for Ottawa-area homeowners, not a substitute for the City's determination on your specific project.