Home Renovations in Burnaby

What we usually find in a Burnaby home from the 1950s to 1970s

Burnaby's single-family streets filled in over about three decades after the war, and the houses share a family resemblance. Post-and-beam or conventional framing that is still doing its job. Full basements, often with low headroom. Single-pane windows. Electrical panels sized for a household that did not own a heat pump, an induction range or two cars that plug in.

That combination is why so many Burnaby renovations turn into bigger projects than the owner first pictured. The finishes are the visible problem, but the envelope, the electrical service and the mechanical system are the expensive one. We open up a small area early, look at the framing, the insulation and the panel, and give you a scope based on what is actually there rather than on what the listing said.

• Envelope: insulation levels, air sealing, windows and any past water damage at the rim joist
• Electrical: panel capacity and whether the service to the house needs upgrading at all
• Mechanical: whether the existing ducting can carry a heat pump or needs replacing
• Structure: what can be removed to open a plan, and what is carrying load

Where a renovation stops and a rebuild starts, and why the line matters

This is the single most useful thing to understand before you renovate an older Burnaby home, and most homeowners have never been told it.

Under BC's Homeowner Protection Act, a "new home" is not only a house built on bare ground. The definition in section 1 also covers a home that is, or is being, substantially reconstructed. Section 22(1) says a person must not build a new home unless it is registered for home warranty insurance. So a project large enough to count as substantial reconstruction has to carry the 2-5-10 warranty, the same as a brand-new house.

A normal renovation of an existing home does not carry that warranty. Neither do additions or renovations done after you have already moved in. If your project is drifting toward the substantial reconstruction line, that changes who can legally do the work, what it has to be registered for, and what protection you end up with. It is much cheaper to find this out during feasibility than halfway through demolition.

We look at that question early and tell you which side of the line your project sits on. Sometimes the honest answer is that you should stop renovating and rebuild instead. We would rather say that in the first meeting.

Additions and second-storey work

Adding floor area is the most common request we get in Burnaby, because the lots are often big enough to support it and the existing houses are often smaller than a family needs now.

Two things decide whether it is realistic. The first is whether the existing foundation and framing can carry another floor, which is a structural question and needs an engineer, not an opinion. The second is what the zoning allows on your specific lot in terms of floor area, height and setbacks. On Burnaby's sloped lots, height is measured in a way that can surprise people, and it is worth checking before you fall in love with a plan.

Where a second storey does not work, a ground-level addition often does, and on some lots the better answer is neither. We run that comparison before design fees start.

Asbestos and hazardous materials on older Burnaby homes

Asbestos was widely used in BC building materials until the early 1990s, which covers essentially the whole era of Burnaby's single-family stock. It turns up in places people do not expect, including floor tile, sheet flooring backing, drywall joint compound, textured ceilings, pipe insulation and roofing.

WorkSafeBC's rules here are not optional and they are not a formality. If asbestos is suspected, work stops and a qualified professional completes a survey. Since January 1 2024, asbestos abatement contractors must be licensed to operate in British Columbia and the people doing the work must hold WorkSafeBC certification. A notice of project has to be submitted to WorkSafeBC for all asbestos work.

We build the survey into the schedule at the start instead of discovering the problem the week demolition begins. A renovator who tells you not to worry about it on a 1965 house is telling you something useful about how they run their sites.

Permits, protected trees and the city's process

Burnaby reviews carefully, and renovation work is not exempt from that. As of January 2026, building-permit applications are filed through the city's online My Permits Portal, and paper applications are no longer accepted.

Trees matter more than most owners expect. On a property subject to a development application, any tree 20 cm in diameter or larger counts as a Protected Tree under the Burnaby tree bylaw. Removing one requires a tree-cutting permit, a tree management plan prepared by a certified arborist, and replacement planting. On an addition, the position of two or three protected trees can decide where the new footprint can go, so we get an arborist to walk the lot before anyone draws it.

We map the permit steps into your schedule at the start and keep you told about where the application actually sits. We do not promise approval dates that are not ours to give.

What the Energy Step Code does and does not require on a renovation

Burnaby requires Step 3 of the BC Energy Step Code plus EL-4 of the Zero Carbon Step Code for new Part 9 homes. Owners often assume the same targets automatically apply to a renovation of an existing house. In general they do not, because those requirements are written for new construction.

That does not mean energy performance stops mattering. When the walls are already open, improving insulation, air sealing and window performance costs far less than doing it as a separate job later, and it is the difference between a house that is quiet and even in temperature and one that is not. We will show you which envelope upgrades are worth doing while access is free, and which ones are not worth the disruption.

If your project crosses into substantial reconstruction, the code picture changes. That is another reason to settle that question early.