You are underpinning to get additional height in basement? With all of the work, including removal of concrete and soil, those may be the range of expected costs. I assume you're in a typical Toronto attached house with very little access from street or backyard. Hauling construction debris out of a basement can be time-consuming. Yes plan your extension along with this work.

Thanks for the reply we have side land way which is good for vehicle to come

in can we do addition first and wait for underpinning a year or so ? its due to budget reason if structurally nothing harm then we prerer to reno main and second floor first thanks

At the price quoted, I'd be seriously looking at selling and buying a house that better meets your needs. Living in the house during extensive demoliton and renovation will be awful, and if you move elsewhere, there's the rent to add to your costs.

The housing market is not likely to remain crazy (besides, if it does, you'll get a crazy price for your sale) and tnose planned renovations are going to take at least a year.

I find it hard to believe you will get your money back, not to mention a profit with such an extensive rehab. And the inconvenience will be huge.

I find the price incredibly low for the proposed project. By at least 50%.

What do you mean? what exactly

is quoted low you think?

Hey, I'm in Toronto having my 18x30 semi underpinned right now. Lots of folks on here will tell you underpinning is crazy and never worth it because they don't live in our housing market. It's a really common and rational reno to do here.

We're doing our project together with our neighbours. Our basement was empty, no finishing and no demo required but I watched the crew demo my neighbour's semi-finished basement and they had it done in two hours. That said, from your picture I think you have more framed walls, drywall and flooring that my neighbour did. Is there any possibility they're going to run into asbestos as they demo? That's something to be wary of too as asbestos abatement is $$.

While the demo quote sounds a tiny bit high (my own random guess would be more like 5k) I think the rest is on a similar scale to what we're paying (a little more, but your space is bigger). Good idea to get some competitive quotes though. Underpinning and basement finishing are two different skill sets so you could talk to different contractors who specialize in each of those areas -- doesn't have to be one company for the whole job.

I don't really understand your addition plan -- are you adding something on the back/side of the house or a second story on top of the existing first storey?

Thank you so much denkyem for your detailed reply i really app it!

this photo is current layout

yes so we are planning to do 2nd story addition on existing main floor we already have a basement addition as well . nothing more is expanding its adding just on top

we may have some more frames in basement but nothing crazy it was finished 70% and unfinished 30%

if demolition will be done in few hours.. paying $10k seems crazy to me

how is your contractors? are they good? how long did it take for your underpinning?

Btw do you use people who does underpinning only? not general contractors?

I have a general contractor I've worked with before and he can do underpinning -- but that means he's subcontracting to underpinning specialists and we'd be paying his commission on that part. We really like his work but know he is prone to running behind schedule, and the underpinning part is so disruptive we wanted it over as quickly as possible. So we are contracting the underpinning directly with an underpinning specialist, then will have a separate contract with our main contractor for the rest of it. Our underpinning specialists seem great (on day 4 of the project right now!) and if you DM me I can share their name.

Our start date was pushed back by about two months because of a permit hold-up and then a scheduling issue, but now it has started we've been told we will have a completed, clean, waterproofed space down there ready for finishing in six weeks or less. Having that part be done ASAP was a top priority for us because then we can plug our laundry machines back in -- a very high priority because we have young children.

I agree with doing seperate contractos as they are specialzed diffrently yes i woud love to get info but i dont seem to find the way to dm you could you kindly dm me? thanks:)

And how excitng now they finally started!’ hope it gets done properly and fast!

Why not just move and buy what you want?

@Yun Kim

I think I just turned on private messaging if you want to try.

And @strategery for some context on this housing market -- in order to secure this house there's a good chance the buyer has been through several bidding wars and spent a million or significantly more (depending where -- in some parts of the city this footprint would be closer to 2 million). If they wanted something similar with a finished full-depth basement it could be years before the won the right thing in a bidding war, and they'd likely be paying a 200k premium anyway. House prices here went up about 15% year over year last year and they just keep climbing. Given the intent to put in a kitchen, Yun Kim might be planning to rent out the space. Depending on location and how nice the apartment ends up being, there's a fair chance they can charge 2k/month in rent, recouping the investment in 8ish years even without selling.

These are canadian dollars which are worth about 80 cents US right now -- but it's still as nuts as it sounds.

If the addition includes a basement, there could be savings in not having to underpin the common wall. It could be removed and a beam installed in its place. Check with your architect.

@Seabornman basement addition is already there and we are doing addition on 2nd floor on top of them

not sure if i got your comment right.. where to put beam and avoid underpin?

@denkyem

yes I did go through bidding war for the whole year.. and here in toronto if i do full reno including addition and underpinning I can still make money just by doing reno…

yes I am thinking of making 2bedroom m rental unit and its a prime location so it will easily get $2k or more a month!

@Yun Kim These non-Toronto folk don't understand the pain of all those lost bidding wars! It's a special kind of insanity here. We're not planning to rent our basement at the moment, but we're spending a little extra on our reno to ensure it would be an easy and inexpensive conversion in the future. That way if we're ever in a tight spot financially we have an easy additional income source, and the value is there for a future buyer if we decide to sell.

@denkyem that sounds like a great plan underpinning seem always get valued and money back is pret much gauranteed if not more

yes thats what i would do to

underpin first before finishing the basement it makes sense… as long as financially can afford it