Most renovations in Toronto have two parts. Someone draws the house, and later someone else builds it. Design-build puts both parts under one roof. The people who draw your plans price them, get the permit, and then build what they drew. At Woodsmith Construction we have worked this way since 2001, on more than 200 projects, almost all of them in older East-End homes. This page explains what design-build is, how it works with us, and why we think it is the right way to renovate a house that is a hundred years old.
What design-build means
Design-build is a way of delivering a project. One firm takes responsibility for the design and the construction under one agreement. You have one team, one point of contact and one party answerable for whether the drawings can be built at the price you were told.
The traditional route is often called design-bid-build. A designer produces the drawings, the drawings go out to contractors for prices, and a builder is hired to carry them out. That route can work. But the person who drew the house and the person who builds it are separate, and they have separate interests. Whatever the drawings did not anticipate turns into a question of who pays for it.
In design-build that question has one answer. The drawings are ours, so what they missed is ours too.
How design-build works at Woodsmith
Every project moves through the same stages. Each stage ends with a decision you make before we spend your money on the next one.
- Site meeting and walk-through. We look at the house the way a builder does: foundation, framing, the age and condition of the services, signs of past work, and the lot itself. This is where an older home starts telling us what it will need.
- Design agreement. Design is a defined service with a set fee, agreed in writing before any drawing begins, and it carries the project through to permits. You know what the design phase costs and what you get from it. Interior design and 3D renderings stay open the whole way through: you can revise them as often as you need, at no extra charge.
- Measured drawings and concept. We document the existing house, then develop the layout with you. A carpenter’s eye is in the room from the first sketch, so the ideas on the table are ones we know how to build.
- Pricing as the design develops. Because we build what we draw, we price the design while it is still flexible, not after it is finished. If a choice moves the budget, you hear about it while it can still change.
- Zoning review, permit drawings and approvals. We prepare the permit set and manage the application with the City. Where the zoning review raises variances, we take you through the Committee of Adjustment as well. Our guide to the Toronto permit process covers that stage in detail.
- Construction. The team that designed the house builds it. Questions on site go to the same people who made the design decisions, often on the same day.
- Inspections and close-out. We book the City inspections through to the final inspection that closes the permit, then hand over the house.
For a main-floor renovation or an addition, the design phase usually takes about three to four months before the permit drawings go to the City.
Why we design and build under one roof
This is the core of how we work, and we hold it as a position, not a sales line.
We know what things cost because we build them. A design that has not been priced by the people who will build it is not finished. Our drawings come with numbers we have to stand behind on site, because we are the ones on site.
We live on the other end of the drawing. Our designer is a Red Seal carpenter. Knowing how a beam is carried, how a stair actually fits, or what an old wall will look like once it is opened is not something we have to look up. That knowledge goes into the plans from the start.
The designer and the builder are the same people. On a renovation, the gap between drawings and construction is where most change orders, delays and disagreements begin. In design-build that gap does not exist. Nobody on the job blames the drawings, because the drawings are ours.
Modern design depends on precise costing. Open floor plans, long spans, large windows and stacked bathrooms are all possible in an older house. Each comes with structural and mechanical consequences that have to be designed and priced together. Doing one without the other is how a renovation ends up redesigned halfway through.
Pretty pictures do not equal good buildings. A rendering shows how a room could look. It does not show whether the joists can carry it, where the ductwork goes, or what the job will cost. We are interested in the house you will live in, not the image of it.
Why it matters most on a century home
Much of Toronto’s East End was built a century ago or more: brick-and-rubble foundations, balloon framing, additions with no permit history, and clay soil that holds water. On a house like that, knowing what to expect matters more than being able to draw.
When design and construction sit with the same team, the person planning the work has opened walls like yours many times before. Allowances for what might be behind the plaster go into the design and the price from day one, not into a change order later. When something unexpected does turn up, the person who finds it on site can change the design that afternoon, because there is no one else to coordinate with.
Some examples of what design-build lets us plan for at the design stage:
- Foundations. Whether a lower basement needs underpinning, a bench footing or neither is a design decision with a large cost attached. It belongs at the start of the project, not halfway through.
- Undocumented past work. Older additions and conversions often have no paperwork. That affects the zoning review, and sometimes it means a Committee of Adjustment application before a permit can be issued.
- Services. Knob-and-tube wiring, old galvanized plumbing and undersized electrical service usually need replacing. Planning for that early keeps the walls from being opened twice.
A recent example: on a Simpson Avenue house in Riverdale, lifting the original hardwood showed floor joists that needed repair on both storeys, and once the excavation for the rear addition opened, summer rain flooded the hole twice. Because the team that designed the addition was the team digging it, the joist repairs went straight into the scope and the excavation was re-dug and pumped before the footings were poured, with no round-trip to a separate designer and no stalled site. You can see how that house turned out on the Simpson Avenue project page.
Who can design your home in Ontario
Homeowners often ask whether they need an architect. For most house renovations the answer is no, and the law is clear about it.
In Toronto, building permit drawings must be prepared by a qualified designer unless the owner has the skills to do it themselves. The City says a qualified designer is someone who holds a Building Code Identification Number (BCIN) or a professional designation, such as an architect or an engineer (City of Toronto, BuildSafeTO). The province qualifies and registers BCIN designers by technical exam, in categories that include House and Small Buildings (Ontario, Become a registered building practitioner). Our designer holds the BCIN Small Buildings qualification. Read more in What is a BCIN designer?
Under Ontario’s Architects Act, a residential building of up to three storeys with one dwelling unit, or two attached units each built directly on grade, can be designed without an architect (Ontario Association of Architects, Professional Requirements for the Built Environment in Ontario, Dec. 2025). That covers almost every single-family and semi-detached house we work on.
When we bring in an engineer or an architect
Design-build does not mean doing everything in-house. Part of the job is knowing when another professional is required, and bringing them in early.
- Structural engineering. Some work needs an engineer’s design and site review. In Toronto, for example, a foundation built below the footing of an adjacent building, as underpinning often is, must be designed and reviewed on site by a Professional Engineer, with sealed drawings and a Commitment to General Reviews form filed with the permit (City of Toronto, Residential Underpinning). We coordinate the engineer as part of the design, so their requirements are in the drawings and the price from the start.
- Larger multi-unit buildings. The Architects Act exemptions have limits on storeys, on the number and arrangement of units, and on area. A conversion to several stacked units can cross them, and then an architect is required. We say so at the first meeting. Our post on multiplex conversions in older Toronto homes covers where that line falls.
- Projects outside our lane. Commercial assembly spaces such as restaurants, and work at a scale beyond houses and small buildings, belong with an architect-led team. We would rather tell you that up front.
Suites such as basement apartments, and laneway or garden suites, follow the same design-build process when they are part of a house project.
How pricing works in design-build
Design-build changes when you learn what your project will cost. Prices arrive while the design can still respond to them, instead of after the drawings are finished.
That doesn’t stop once construction starts. If you change your mind partway through the build, or a selection comes in over budget or turns out to be unavailable, we show you what the change will look like and what it will cost before any work goes ahead, so you decide with the numbers in front of you. Changes to the interior design and renderings are included. If a change means revising the permit drawings, there is a small revision fee, and more only when the change is a large one. Design is a fixed price; construction is cost-plus and open-book, so you see the real cost of every change. We explain how that works in changing your mind as part of the plan.
The design phase has its own agreed fee, through to permits. Construction is priced from drawings we prepared, so the price reflects decisions made by the people who will carry them out. We explain how we price in fixed price vs cost-plus, and why two quotes for the “same” job can differ so much in why renovation quotes vary.
For current ranges by project type, see our Toronto Renovation Cost Index. A whole-home renovation in 2026 typically runs $350 to $560 per square foot. Where a house falls in that range depends on its condition, the structural work it needs and the finishes you choose.
Is design-build right for your project?
Design-build fits best when:
- you are renovating an older house and want the unknowns planned for, not discovered;
- the work is structural or spans several rooms or floors, such as an addition, a third-floor addition, a main-floor opening or a basement lowering;
- you want one party accountable for the design, the price and the build;
- you would rather make decisions with real numbers in front of you.
If you already have permit drawings from someone else, we can still build them. We will review them the way a builder does before we price them.
When you are ready, book a site visit. Or read more about our design-build services.
Frequently asked questions
Design-build is a way of delivering a project in which one firm handles both the design and the construction under one agreement. You work with one team from the first sketch to the final inspection, and that team is accountable for both the drawings and the build.
Design-build changes when you learn the cost, more than the cost itself. Because the design is priced as it develops, you can adjust scope before the drawings are finished, instead of finding out at the bidding stage that the design is over budget. Design is billed as its own agreed fee through to permits. After that, interior design and rendering revisions are included, and revisions to the permit drawings carry a small fee.
For most single-family and semi-detached homes, no. Ontario’s Architects Act exempts residential buildings of up to three storeys with one dwelling unit, or two attached units each on grade. A BCIN-qualified designer can prepare the permit drawings. An architect becomes necessary for some larger multi-unit buildings and for non-residential uses such as restaurants.
A designer who holds a Building Code Identification Number and has passed the provincial technical exams for their category, such as House or Small Buildings. The City of Toronto accepts permit drawings from BCIN designers. Read more.
We do. We prepare the permit drawings, manage the zoning review and the building permit application, take the project through the Committee of Adjustment when variances are needed, and book inspections through to the final inspection.
Yes. We review them first, the way a builder does, and tell you what we see before pricing them. Bringing us in during design is still usually the better value, because cost and buildability are hardest to change once the drawings are finished.
We work across Toronto’s East End, including Leslieville, Riverdale, the Danforth, the Beaches, East York and Leaside, from our offices on Redwood Avenue and in East Leaside.
Sources
- City of Toronto, BuildSafeTO: Learn about building permits
- City of Toronto, Residential underpinning (including basement entrances)
- Government of Ontario, Become a registered building practitioner
- Ontario Association of Architects, Professional Requirements for the Built Environment in Ontario (Dec. 2025)
