Areas We Serve
The Neighbourhood Decides
What You Can Build
Toronto is not one place to build in. The housing stock, the lot, and the approval route change street by street, and all three are settled before a price means anything. These are the neighbourhoods we know best.
The Neighbourhoods
Where we work, and what we are working on there.
Each one has its own page, because each one has its own housing stock, its own lot rules and its own history at the Committee of Adjustment.
Mid-century homes on mature lots, replaced by architecturally serious new builds.
Victorian semis, Arts and Crafts detached homes, and frame cottages built for summer.
Edwardian homes on narrow, deep lots, and basements never built for how families live now.
Ravine lots on the Bluffs, where TRCA setbacks and slope stability decide the design.
Century brick semis taking rear and third-storey additions, and laneway suites behind them.
Georgian and Tudor estates, mature streets, and heritage-sensitive design.
1930s brick bungalows turned into homes that hold a family for thirty years.
Wide lots and mature trees between Avenue and Bathurst, being rebuilt with care.
Teardowns, rebuilds and renovations across an area with a different rule in every pocket.
Heritage Conservation Districts, century masonry, and ravine approvals.
The busiest teardown-and-rebuild streets in the city, on wide lots near the Yonge line.
Why The Address Matters
Three things change between one street and the next.
A builder who works everywhere quotes the same house everywhere. The number that comes back is a guess about your lot, and it moves once the drawings meet the zoning bylaw. Before we price anything we settle three things, and all three are local.
What you are starting from.A 1930s Leaside bungalow, an Edwardian semi in Bloor West and a 1960s Willowdale side-split fail in completely different ways once the walls are open. Knowing the stock is knowing what is behind the plaster before we open it.
What the lot will carry.Frontage, depth, coverage, the height envelope, and whether a rear addition eats the setback. Two houses that look alike from the street can have entirely different room to grow.
Which approval route you end up on.As-of-right, Committee of Adjustment, or a heritage permit on top. That choice is worth months, and it is decided by the lot and the district, not by how the drawing looks.
The Approval Route
Three ways a Toronto project gets permission.
Most of the difference between a six-month project and an eighteen-month one is decided here, before construction is even discussed. Which route you are on is something we can usually tell you at the site visit.
The design stays inside the zoning bylaw, so no hearing is needed and the application goes straight to a building permit. The fastest route, and the one we design toward wherever the lot allows it.
Where the design needs more than the bylaw allows, a minor variance is applied for and neighbours are notified. Expect a hearing and several months, and expect the outcome to depend on what has already been approved on nearby streets.
In a Heritage Conservation District, and on individually listed properties, the elevation, materials and window pattern are reviewed as well as the size. It is workable and we work in it regularly. It is not something to discover after the drawings are done.
Talk to us about your project.
Free, no obligation. You get a clear, fixed price.
What We Build Here
The same six services, wherever the site is
The neighbourhood decides the constraints. It does not change the contract, the team, or the way the price is set.
Further Out
Beyond the listed neighbourhoods
We also work in Danforth Village, Don Mills, Downtown, East York, Eglinton West, Leslieville, Old Toronto, Richmond Hill and Oakville. These do not have a page of their own yet, which says nothing about whether we build there.
Distance is not the question we ask. Whether we can staff the site properly and be on it when it matters is, and past a certain drive that stops being true. Ask about your address and you will get a straight answer rather than a maybe.
Homeowner Reviews
Clients across the city, in their own words.
“We used Grand Design Build for a reno of our semi in Leslieville. The team did quality work on budget and were very responsive afterwards. They guarantee their work. We were delighted with the results and would recommend them.”
Ivo Gonzalez-Vucina, Leslieville“Just completed a kitchen renovation and basement finish with Grand Design Build at our place in North York and the whole experience was great. Communication was solid throughout, the crew was respectful of our home, and the finishes are top quality.”
Robert, North York“From day one, the team listened, understood, and genuinely cared about making things right. They walked with us through every step and educated us, and honestly, the finished home speaks for itself.”
Mark F., Full Home Renovation4.9 average on Google.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about where we work.
Probably. A neighbourhood gets its own page here once we work in it often enough to have something specific to say about it. The list of areas we serve is longer than the list of pages. Send us the address and we will tell you either way, rather than taking the job and running it badly from an hour away.
Not as a travel surcharge. It changes the price through the work itself: a ravine lot with TRCA setbacks, a heritage district that decides your window pattern, or a narrow street with no room for a bin all cost real money. Those are priced into the scope, visibly, rather than added at the end.
For the neighbourhoods on this page, usually yes, and it matters more than people expect. What has been approved and refused nearby is the best available evidence for what your application will meet. Where we do not know a street, we look it up before we advise you, not after.
No, and it is more common than people think in Rosedale, Forest Hill and parts of the Beaches. It adds a review of how the house looks from the street, and it constrains materials and window patterns. It rules out some designs and it has never ruled out a project.
Sometimes, and it is usually an advantage for both: the same trades, the same inspector, and a crew that already knows the local conditions. What we will not do is take a second site if it means the first loses its coordinator.
The process is the same and the rulebook is not. Every municipality has its own zoning bylaw, its own committee, and its own permit timelines. We will tell you what is different about yours before you commit to anything.
Start With The Address
Tell us where the house is. That is where the real answer starts.
- Zoning and lot checked before any price
- Committee history read, not guessed at
- A straight yes or no on your area