The Right Order to Plan a Renovation in Metro Vancouver: What to Decide Before Demolition
Most renovations don’t go sideways because someone picked the wrong tile. They go sideways because the tile got picked too late — after the cabinets were built to a different spec, after the plumber had already set the rough-in, after the schedule had committed to a plan that was never fully written down.
In my experience managing renovations across Metro Vancouver, the order you make decisions in usually matters more than the decisions themselves. Before a wall comes down on a Northline project, we want the scope settled, the selections made, the long-lead materials on order, and the construction sequence agreed. What follows is the order those decisions actually need to happen in, and where getting it wrong tends to cost homeowners the most.
Start with scope, because everything else depends on it
Scope is the decision the whole project hangs on, and it is the one homeowners most often want to rush past. It is not “a new kitchen.” It is whether the layout changes, whether a wall moves, whether the island grows, whether the pantry you have always wanted means relocating a gas line. Those are scope, layout, and building-system decisions — sometimes structural, sometimes mechanical, often both — and they set the ceiling on budget and timeline before you have ordered a single sample.
The reason the sequence matters is simple: many of the costliest change orders start with a scope decision made too late. Once the plumbing is roughed in, moving that sink can mean reopening completed work, relocating services, revisiting inspections, and pushing the trades scheduled behind it. Decided up front, the same change is a line on a drawing.
Set a budget range early
The homeowners who stay on budget are the ones who commit to a range at the start and plan inside it. For the full-scope renovations we take on at Northline, that generally means planning from around $50,000 for a kitchen and $30,000 for a bathroom, with layout changes, cabinetry, finish level, and the condition of the existing home moving the number from there.
Two figures belong in the plan from day one. The first is a comfortable range — a range, not a single number, because a fixed figure tends to push the wrong trade-offs later in the project. The second is a contingency, commonly ten to fifteen percent, held in reserve for conditions nobody can see behind an existing wall. Older homes, structural work, and projects with more unknown conditions can justify a larger reserve; the point is to protect it rather than spend it on upgrades as you go.
Order the long-lead items during planning, not after
This is the step homeowners most often underestimate, and it is an expensive one to get wrong. Custom cabinetry commonly requires roughly eight to fourteen weeks depending on the fabricator, finish, and specification; some products are faster, and specialty or imported lines can take longer. Stone, specialty tile, appliances, and windows each carry their own lead times on top of that. If those orders wait until construction begins, the crew finishes demolition and then waits — for a countertop that is still being fabricated, for a window that has not shipped — and you pay for that gap in both time and money.
There is a distinction worth drawing here. Cabinet design, specifications, and procurement timing all belong in the planning phase. Releasing the fabrication itself is a separate step: it should happen as early as the project safely allows, but only once the dimensions it depends on are confirmed. On a straightforward kitchen that keeps its existing envelope, that can be early. On a project where walls are moving or framing is being corrected, it often means a field measure after framing rather than a release off early drawings — because a cabinet built to a dimension that later changes is exactly the kind of expensive mistake this approach is meant to avoid.
Make your selections before demolition, and understand what they actually control
There is a version of a renovation where finishes get chosen on the fly: the faucet picked the week the plumber needs it, the tile chosen while the installer waits. It is a stressful and expensive way to work, because every decision now happens under time pressure with a trade on the clock.
Selections are not only aesthetic decisions, either. They are construction inputs, and this is where homeowners are most often surprised. Your refrigerator model sets the cabinet opening and the panel requirements around it. A wall oven changes the electrical. A hood fan can change the cabinetry above the range, the duct routing, and sometimes the ceiling work needed to conceal it. Confirm those appliances late and the cabinet drawings built around them may have to change — which is why appliances get pinned down before cabinetry is finalized. Our planning guide walks through the rest of that sequence.
Plan around permits and the realities of older Metro Vancouver homes
Two local factors belong in the plan early. The first is permitting. Requirements and processing times vary by municipality and by the scope of the work, so the permit path needs to be identified before a construction start date is promised — not discovered after. If you are in a condo or townhouse, strata approval and working-hour rules belong in that same early conversation.
The second is the age of the house, and there are two separate points worth keeping straight. Before any renovation or demolition, WorkSafeBC requires a qualified person to inspect the building and identify hazardous materials. That obligation matters most in pre-1990 homes, which WorkSafeBC considers likely to contain asbestos in materials that renovation work can disturb — so a hazardous-materials survey before demolition is a genuine planning step on an older home, not an optional one. Beyond asbestos, opening up an older house can reveal knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring, galvanized plumbing, previous unpermitted alterations, or water damage behind finishes that looked fine. Planning does not make those things disappear, but it gets them identified early, priced with a contingency, and kept from stalling the project.
Before demolition, we want these answered
By the time we are ready to open up a home, this is the checklist we want closed out. It is a fair standard to hold any contractor to:
- Is the layout final?
- Are the appliance models confirmed?
- Are the cabinetry drawings approved?
- Are the plumbing fixtures selected?
- Is the lighting and electrical plan confirmed?
- Is the tile selected and available?
- Are the long-lead orders placed?
- Are the permit and strata requirements understood?
- Is the construction sequence established?
- Is a contingency set aside and protected?
The more of these that are settled before demolition, the fewer decisions get made under pressure once the trades are on site.
Why the order is the point
Put these decisions in sequence and the project becomes far more predictable. Scope sets the boundaries. The budget range and contingency set the money. Long-lead orders and fabrication are timed to the schedule. Selections are finished before demolition. When construction starts, it is executing a plan that already exists, which gives it the best chance of staying close to schedule and budget — and of absorbing the surprises that do come up rather than stalling on them. Reverse that order, start demolition and decide the rest as you go, and those surprises tend to compound instead of getting contained.
Still working through scope, budget, or timing?
That is the right moment to talk to us — before you have committed to drawings, products, or a construction date. A Project Fit Review is a short, no-pressure conversation where Ranbir or Satveer look at your scope, budget range, and timeline and give you an honest read on whether Northline is the right fit for the project.