How long does it take to build a house? We’ve built 50 of them and we have renovated over 300 others in the Downtown Toronto core. Modern new builds in neighbourhoods like Lawrence Park and Rosedale have given us a firm grasp on starting from the ground up.
It normally takes around a year to build a custom home and the typical renovation takes 4-6 months to completion.
Time To Build A House In Toronto
Here are a few factors to consider when estimating the build time of a house.
- cost per square foot
- options and selections
- building permits
What is the cost per square foot of your new build? Is it $100 per square foot, or $400?
A higher cost per square foot will likely correlate with a longer build time. Custom homes have a higher cost per square foot than personalized production homes, for example, and will for the most part take longer to build.
Before the build, permits that cover the construction work need to be submitted and approved by the city.
How long does it take to get building permits in Toronto?
It can normally take between 2-3 weeks to hear back from the city on the status of a submission. So, in under a month after you have submitted engineered stamped drawings you should have the issued permits. This assumes that there are no zoning minor variations. This process (Committee of Adjustment) can add up to 5 months to the process
The best time to start the permit application process is after the structural and space planning drawings are done and before you start building. This can be before all the interior drawings and specs are done because these items generally do not affect the building permit.
However, if you have time, best to undertake the interior set of drawings before beginning the build so you can understand the related costs and have better operations as a result of great planning.
Time To Build a Custom Home
Given this framework, we can normally estimate the construction time of a new build custom home to be around 1 year.
From our experience, the process in its entirety can usually vary anywhere between 10 and 16 months, but in general even if the project is a large residential build it should never exceed 16 months.
Below is a graph of survey data showing the average length of time to build a single-family home is normally around 11 months including the permit application period.
If you don’t have to do any demolition on-site – this is a time saver and should shave off a few weeks from the project timeline.
Unseen factors that can cause delays:
- Hostile weather conditions
- Land is unreasonable to build on
- Change orders
- Other things beyond a builders control
Of course the builder plays a role in the timely execution of a project as well. From start to finish a large part of the process is directed by the builder.
Conclusion
A custom build house will take roughly 1 year to build. If there are no zoning variances your planning process could take between 3-6 months. A typical renovation will take between 4-6 months.
30+ Years experience has given us a breadth of knowledge on the topic. Feel free to ask us more about the process.