What's the Correct Order to Renovate a House? A Contractor's Walkthrough

Every couple of months, someone calls me halfway through a DIY project and asks if it is too late to fix the order of things. Usually the answer is no, but sometimes it is. The order you renovate a house in is not just preference, it is the difference between paying once and paying three times.

Here is the order we follow on every project, and why each step has to happen when it does.

The Short Version

If you only remember one rule: rough comes before finish. Anything that goes inside a wall has to be in place before the wall is closed. Anything that sits on a finished surface goes in last.

Now the longer version.

1. Planning and Design

Before any tools come out, the project gets planned on paper or screen. Layout, finishes, fixture selections, lighting, electrical, all of it. The reason this matters is simple. If you decide three weeks in that you want a pot filler over the range, a plumber has to come back and open the wall. If you wanted a beverage fridge and forgot to plan for the receptacle, an electrician comes back. Every change after demo costs more than it would have if it was on paper from the start.

Plan for 2 to 6 weeks here for an average project. Rushed planning is the most common reason renovations go over budget.

2. Permits

Once the plan is locked in, you pull the permit. In Toronto, that means the City of Toronto Building Division. Permits take 4 to 12 weeks depending on what you are building. Demolition can usually start once the permit is issued, sometimes earlier with a separate demo permit.

If your project does not need a permit (like-for-like cabinet swap, paint, flooring), this step is skipped. Most layout-change kitchens, all bathroom additions, and any structural work need permits.

3. Demolition

Now the real work starts. Demolition is fast and dramatic, which is why HGTV likes it. In real life, it is also when the surprises show up. We pull out cabinets, tear off drywall, lift flooring, and find out whether the walls are full of knob and tube wiring, whether the plumbing is lead solder, whether the joists are sagging.

Surprises here are why every project needs a contingency budget. If you do not have 10 to 15 percent set aside, an unexpected discovery during demo is a problem. With a contingency, it is just a phone call.

4. Structural Work

Anything that holds the house up gets handled now. Removing a load-bearing wall, installing a beam, sistering joists, foundation work, underpinning. The structural engineer’s drawings are followed exactly. The City inspects this stage before anything gets covered up.

If you skip this and try to drywall over a sagging beam, you end up tearing it all out later. We have seen it.

5. Rough Mechanicals

Three trades come in here, often back to back: plumber, electrician, HVAC. They run pipes, wires and ducts to where the fixtures will go. They do not install the fixtures yet. They just rough things in.

This is the most important sequence point in the whole project. Once drywall goes up, anything you missed costs five times more to add. Walk through the framed space with the trades and physically point at where every receptacle, switch, light, faucet and vent will go. Tape the floor if you need to. This is the moment to over-communicate.

6. Inspections

The City inspects rough plumbing, rough electrical and HVAC before the walls are closed. Each trade gets its own inspection. If something fails, the trade fixes it and the inspector comes back. Only after passing inspections can the next step happen.

7. Insulation and Drywall

Insulation goes between the studs. Vapour barrier goes over the insulation. Then drywall, taped, mudded, sanded. Three coats of mud is normal. The drywaller is messy, but a good one leaves the walls dead flat.

Drywall is when the project starts looking like a house again. Most homeowners get optimistic at this point. Resist the urge to rush. The drywall is the substrate for every finish that follows. Bumps and dips show forever.

8. Tile (Wet Areas)

In bathrooms and kitchens, tile usually goes in before cabinets and trim. Floor tile first, then wall tile in showers and backsplashes. The waterproofing membrane goes down first if it is a shower or bathroom floor.

Some contractors install cabinets first, then tile. Both ways can work, but tiling under cabinets means you can replace cabinets later without redoing the floor. We usually go cabinets-on-tile.

9. Cabinets and Built-Ins

Kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, built-ins. They are levelled, scribed to the walls, and attached. Cabinet installation takes 2 to 4 days for a standard kitchen.

10. Counters

Stone counters get templated after cabinets are in. Templating takes a couple of hours, then the slab is fabricated and installed 1 to 2 weeks later. Faucets, sinks and the cooktop go in after the counters are set.

11. Flooring (Dry Areas)

Hardwood, engineered hardwood, luxury vinyl plank, laminate. Goes in after cabinets and counters in most cases, because you do not want a refinisher’s machines banging into new cabinets. Some contractors do it before cabinets if the spec calls for hardwood under the cabinets. Either is fine, just pick one and stay consistent.

12. Trim, Doors and Paint

Baseboards, casing, crown moulding. Doors get hung. Then prime and paint. Most painters do a coat of primer, two coats of finish. Touch-ups happen at the end.

13. Fixtures and Finishes

Toilets, sinks, faucets, light fixtures, switch plates, hardware on cabinets. The plumber and electrician come back for the trim-out. This is fast, usually 2 to 4 days.

14. Final Cleanup and Walkthrough

The crew cleans the space. We walk through with you and write down anything that needs fixing. That list is the punch list. We work through it over the next 1 to 2 weeks. Once the punch list is done, the project is officially complete and the warranty starts.

What Order to Renovate Rooms In

Different question, same logic. If you are doing the whole house in stages, the smart order is:

1. Structural and mechanicals first. Anything that requires opening up the house should happen before finishes go in.
2. Kitchen. It is the biggest disruption and benefits from being done early so you can use the rest of the house while it happens.
3. Bathrooms. Especially the main one. Doing it second means you have a working bathroom while you renovate the kitchen.
4. Living areas. Lower disruption rooms last.
5. Basement and exterior. These can usually run separately from upstairs work.

Some people reverse this and do the basement first to create a temporary kitchen and bathroom downstairs while the upstairs is renovated. That works too if your basement was already partially finished.

Where People Go Wrong

The most common mistakes I see when homeowners DIY or hire piecemeal contractors:

• Putting drywall up before electrical is roughed in
• Tiling before plumbing is finalized
• Painting before trim is up (you will repaint anyway)
• Installing flooring before cabinet templates are confirmed
• Booking the kitchen install before counters are templated

Each of these mistakes costs days of rework and usually some material waste.

When You Hire a General Contractor

A general contractor’s job is mostly sequencing. The trades all want to be there at the same time, but there is only one space. Good GCs use a project schedule to slot each trade in at the right moment, with buffer for inspections and surprises. When you see a chaotic renovation site with five trades stepping on each other, that is a sequencing failure.

If you want to see how we run a project from estimate to handover, our home renovation Toronto and whole home renovation pages walk through the full process.

For pricing on the work itself, see kitchen renovation cost, bathroom renovation cost, or basement renovation cost.

If you want a free estimate, contact us. We will visit your home, walk through the project, and follow up with a written itemized quote.