Renovation in Laval
Houses that never followed the lives of the people in them.
The buildings here
Bungalows and split-level homes from the sixties to the eighties, set on generous lots. Many of these houses have belonged to the same owners for a long time: your needs have changed, the house has not followed.
The more recent stock, condos and townhouses, raises questions of another order, closer to those downtown.
What we're asked for most
Opening the kitchen onto the living room, because the partition between them dates from a time when people did not entertain the way they do today. Reworking a basement to take back the equivalent of a full storey. Extending to the back rather than moving, which is more and more often the soundest calculation.
Laval's own challenge
The split-level. It is a structural puzzle all its own, and it is everywhere here. The half-levels frequently rest on the very walls you want to remove, and the load transfer has to cross two offset floors before coming down to solid support. The result is achievable, and often spectacular! But it is calculated and sealed before a single sledgehammer swing.
The basement of that generation. Headroom just under the comfortable threshold, original drain at the end of its useful life, no ventilation planned. Those three points are checked before the quote, never after.
So, what are we working on?
Eight questions, two minutes. We call you back to talk it through, and we tell you frankly whether it's a project for us or whether you'd be better served elsewhere.