Home Renovations in Kanata: What a 1960s, 1980s or 2000s House Needs

Kanata is unusual among Ottawa’s suburbs because it was planned as a whole. Bill Teron bought the farmland, and the first street, Tiffany Crescent in Beaverbrook, was built in 1964. Kanata became a city in 1978 and joined the amalgamated City of Ottawa in 2001, and building carried on the whole time: Katimavik from the early 1970s, Bridlewood from the 1980s, and Morgan’s Grant from the late 1980s, with much of it built between 2000 and 2009.

So home renovations in Kanata cover sixty years of houses. A 1966 Beaverbrook home and a 2006 Morgan’s Grant two-storey have very little in common behind the drywall. Here is what each era tends to need, and what to check before anyone gives you a price.

Beaverbrook and early Katimavik: 1964 to the late 1970s

Teron built Beaverbrook as a planned garden city, known for its hedged houses and community facilities, and Campeau began the Chimo Drive area of Katimavik in the early-to-mid 1970s. The lots are mature and the houses are generally well built. They are also at the age where two things need checking before any wall is opened.

Aluminum wiring. Ontario’s Electrical Safety Authority says a home built between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s may have aluminum wiring. The known failures are at connections and terminations, which can overheat without warning, partly because aluminum oxidizes and does not suit devices made for copper. The code still permits aluminum wiring when it is terminated correctly, so this is an assessment, not an automatic rewire. It does matter to a renovation, because new circuits and moved outlets mean new connections, and some insurers will not renew coverage without an ESA inspection. Get a Licensed Electrical Contractor who is experienced with aluminum wiring to look at it before the scope is final.

Asbestos. Health Canada advises that building materials such as insulation, exterior siding and floor or ceiling tiles may contain asbestos, and that vermiculite insulation produced before 1990 should be assumed to possibly contain it. Left sealed and undisturbed it is not considered a risk. Demolition disturbs it. Testing by a qualified asbestos professional belongs before the quote is finalised, not after the first ceiling comes down.

Beyond those two checks, houses of this era share the renovation profile we described for Nepean’s mid-century homes: kitchens walled off from the living space, original windows, insulation well below today’s standards, small bathrooms, and electrical panels sized for a household that did not own a heat pump or an EV.

Later Katimavik, Hazeldean and early Bridlewood: the 1980s to the early 1990s

Through the 1980s and early 1990s, developers built out the area west of Castlefrank Road and between Kakulu and Hazeldean roads, while Bridlewood grew south of it. These houses are now thirty-five to forty-five years old, and that is the age when:

• Original kitchens and bathrooms reach the end of their life all at once, cabinets and plumbing fixtures together.
• Windows are due, along with the comfort and heating-cost problems they cause.
• Basements finished decades ago need taking back to the studs. An old panelled rec room rarely has the insulation, moisture protection or permits a basement finished today should have.

Health Canada’s pre-1990 caution applies specifically to vermiculite insulation, but other materials of the period can also contain asbestos, so testing before demolition is still sensible on any house built before 1990.

Morgan’s Grant, Kanata Lakes and newer Bridlewood: the 1990s and 2000s

Minto began expanding Morgan’s Grant north in the mid-to-late 1990s, and Kanata Lakes grew out from the land around its golf club. These are production-built two-storeys, and most of them follow a familiar layout: kitchen open to the dining area, a powder room on the main floor, and a basement left unfinished, often with a bathroom roughed in.

The structure is modern, so the renovation is about replacing builder-grade finishes that were never meant to last twenty-five years:

• Kitchens. The layout usually works. The cabinet boxes, counters and lighting do not. Our guide to renovating a builder kitchen in Barrhaven applies almost word for word, because the houses were built the same way in the same years. Many houses of this age across Ottawa also share a plumbing question, which we cover in home renovations in Barrhaven.
• Ensuites. The builder soaker tub that nobody uses, converted into a proper walk-in shower. See bathroom renovations in Stittsville and Barrhaven.
• Basements. The cheapest square footage in the house, and permitted work. A bedroom needs an egress window, and the rough-in has to be checked against where you actually want the bathroom. The City’s basement finishing permit page sets out what is required, and our guide to basement renovations in Stittsville and Nepean covers what a 2000s basement needs before framing.

Many houses of this age are framed with engineered floor joists, which limits where new plumbing and ductwork can pass. That is a design question to settle early, sometimes with an engineer, not something to discover with a saw.

What to check before anyone prices the job

A useful quote on a Kanata renovation starts with a short list of facts:

1. When the house was built, which tells you whether to look for aluminum wiring and whether to test for asbestos.
2. What the electrical panel can take, before adding a kitchen’s worth of circuits, a heat pump or an EV charger.
3. What was done before, and whether it was permitted. Finished basements and removed walls from past decades are not always what they appear to be.
4. Moisture, especially in any basement that is about to be closed in.
5. Which walls are load-bearing, if the plan involves opening a layout.

A contractor who prices without asking about these is pricing a guess, and in Ontario that guess matters: the final price cannot exceed the estimate by more than 10% unless you agree to new work or a new price. Our guide to choosing a renovation contractor in Ottawa covers that rule and the other protections Ontario gives you, including deposits and your 10-day cancellation right on contracts signed at home.

Permits and licensed trades

Kanata is within the City of Ottawa, so the City’s building permit rules apply. Basement finishing, structural changes and new plumbing generally need a permit, and cosmetic work generally does not. Confirm your scope with City Building Code Services at 613-580-2424.

Two trades are licensed separately. In Ontario, electrical work you hire out must be done by a Licensed Electrical Contractor, who files the notification with the ESA, and a general contractor without that licence has to subcontract it. Moving a gas range or fireplace is work for a TSSA-certified gas technician. We coordinate both as part of the job, so you have one point of contact.

The order to do it in

The rule is the same in every era of house: nothing that will be opened later gets finished first.

1. Anything causing damage now, especially water.
2. Hazards and systems: asbestos testing and abatement, wiring, plumbing, the panel.
3. Envelope: insulation and windows, while the walls are open.
4. Layout: walls, beams and plumbing moves.
5. Finishes last.

Planning outdoor work as well? Do it after the interior, because renovation deliveries, a bin on the driveway and trades crossing the yard will undo a new patio or lawn. Our Kanata hardscaping and Kanata landscaping guides cover the outside of the same houses.

Renovating in Kanata

We work across Kanata, from Beaverbrook and Katimavik to Bridlewood, Morgan’s Grant and Kanata Lakes, on a regular weekly rotation. The full scope is on our interior renovations page, the local detail on our Kanata renovations page, and published Ottawa price ranges in what a home renovation costs in Ottawa.

Book a free on-site estimate. We will walk the house, tell you honestly what we expect behind the walls for its age, and send a written, fixed-price scope.