What we build downstairs
- Full basement finishing: framing, insulation, drywall, flooring, lighting, trim
- Rec rooms, home offices, gyms and media rooms
- Basement bathrooms (rough-in or new plumbing, permitted)
- Legal secondary suites: the change-of-use permit, fire separation, egress, smoke/CO interconnection and HVAC separation that make a rental unit actually legal
- Moisture correction before finishing: grading, sealing, sump and drainage issues addressed before a stud goes up
"Half the basements I quote in Brantford have someone else's finishing over an unfixed water problem. Beautiful vinyl plank, mould behind the baseboard. We test for moisture before we frame, because a finished basement over a wet one isn't a renovation, it's a burial."
Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.
The legal-suite difference
A "finished basement with a kitchenette" and a legal secondary suite are different projects with different price tags, and quotes that blur that line are how landlords end up with illegal units. Legal means: change-of-use permit, fire-rated separation between units, compliant egress, interconnected smoke and CO alarms, and usually HVAC separation. Those items are why legal suites cost roughly $120 to $200 per square foot in current Ontario data while a basic finish runs $40 to $60; the full sourced breakdown is in the published Ontario cost data. If a quote for a "rental suite" looks like a rec-room price, the missing money is the legal part.
Permits, handled
Basements trigger permits more than any other renovation category: plumbing, structure, egress, and always the change of use for a suite. We pull the permit ourselves (in Cloudpermit for Brantford addresses, the county system for Paris, St. George and the rest of Brant), and you can verify it exists before we start. Why that matters, and what unpermitted basement work does to insurance and resale, is laid out in what unpermitted basement work costs later.
How the build runs
The full nine-stage sequence, and which inspections gate which stage, is set out in our step-by-step basement playbook.
Moisture assessment → written scope and contract → permit → framing and rough-ins with inspections → insulation inspection → drywall, flooring, trim → final inspection and walkthrough. Payments follow those stages, never the other way around; the schedule structure we use on every job is the one described in our contracts and payments guide.
Serving all of Brantford and Brant County
Brantford · Paris · St. George · Burford · Mount Pleasant · Cainsville · Onondaga. Century-home basements with stone foundations are a specialty conversation of their own; bring us the weird ones.