Renovation Contractor in White Rock, BC
White Rock
Renovation Contractor
Ali's Old To New General Contracting is a renovation contractor working in White Rock and the surrounding South Surrey neighbourhoods. We handle kitchens, bathrooms, additions, wood rot repair, and full interior renovations on the older homes and hillside lots this city is built on. Fully insured, BBB accredited, and building here for over a decade. Free quotes.
Get a Free Quote in White RockYour Renovation Contractor in White Rock
Ali's Old To New General Contracting has worked as a renovation contractor in White Rock and South Surrey for over a decade. We are a fully insured, BBB accredited, registered British Columbia contractor, and we run the whole job instead of leaving you to chase five separate trades. Kitchens, bathrooms, interior renovations, additions, flooring, painting and finishing, insulation, HVAC and plumbing all go through one point of contact. Our shop is at 8972 Fleetwood Way in Surrey, a short drive from Five Corners, so a site visit does not turn into a scheduling problem. Most White Rock calls start the same way. Someone has an older house near the beach, a tired bathroom or kitchen, and a rough idea of what they want. We come out, look at the real conditions rather than guessing from photos, and give you a written scope and a free quote before anything gets torn out. Call (778) 861-6482 to book a walkthrough.
Hillside Lots, Access, and Views
White Rock is built on a steep south facing slope running down to Semiahmoo Bay, so a large share of properties here are hillside lots. That changes the job before a single wall comes down. Driveways are short and steep, streets are narrow, and there is often nowhere to set a bin close to the house. Material sometimes has to be carried down stairs by hand, and concrete or excavation work can need a pump or a smaller machine instead of standard equipment. We price that access honestly at quote stage rather than discovering it halfway through. Hillside lots also bring retaining walls, drainage paths, and sloped grades that have to be respected when you add square footage or cut in a new door. If the view is the reason you bought the place, we plan window sizes, deck rails, and roof lines around keeping it. Access usually adds time to demolition and delivery days more than to the finishing work.
Salt Air, Wood Rot, and Dry Rot Repair
Living a few blocks from the water is hard on a building. Salt air, wind driven rain, and long damp stretches mean White Rock homes see wood rot and dry rot far earlier than inland houses. The usual places we find it are window sills and the framing under them, fascia and roof edges, deck ledgers where they meet the wall, stair stringers, door thresholds, and the bottom of exterior trim on south and west facing walls. If paint is blistering, trim feels soft under a screwdriver, or there is a dark stain under a window, the damage is already inside the wall. Window seal failure is the other common one. Once a sealed unit fails you get fog or condensation between the panes and the window stops insulating. We open the affected area, cut back to sound framing, replace sheathing, correct the flashing and the water path, and prime every face of the new material before it goes on. Fixing the water is the actual repair. New trim over wet framing only hides it for a couple of years.
Renovating White Rock's Older Homes
Most of White Rock's housing stock was built between the 1950s and the 1980s, with newer low rise condos filling in around Five Corners and the waterfront. Homes from that era are usually framed well but dated in the parts that matter. We commonly deal with thin or settled insulation in walls and attics, original single pane or early aluminum windows, undersized electrical panels, galvanized supply lines narrowed by scale, and heating that was never balanced for a renovated floor plan. Layouts are closed off, with a small kitchen walled away from the living space people now want opened up. Anything built before 1990 in BC needs a hazardous materials survey before demolition, because asbestos can be present in old flooring, ceiling texture, and drywall compound. We plan for that step instead of tripping over it. Once the walls are open we upgrade insulation, wiring, and plumbing while access is easy, which is the cheapest that work will ever be.
Aging in Place Renovations in White Rock
White Rock has an older population than most of Metro Vancouver, and much of what we do here is about keeping people in the house they already like. It usually starts with the bathroom. A curbless walk in shower with a linear drain, a bench, and a handheld sprayer on a slide bar, plus solid blocking in the walls for grab bars now or later, removes the most dangerous room in the house. Comfort height toilets, lever handles, and better lighting are small changes that matter every day. Past the bathroom, we widen doorways to 34 or 36 inches for walkers and wheelchairs, flatten thresholds, improve stair lighting and handrails, and convert main floor rooms into a bedroom or laundry so the stairs become optional. On a hillside lot we look at the approach from the street too, since the walk from the car is often the hardest part. All of it costs less done while a bathroom or floor is already open.
Kitchen and Bathroom Renovations, and What Drives Cost
Bathroom renovations in White Rock generally run $15,000 to $50,000 and up. Kitchen renovations generally run $25,000 to $80,000 and up. Where your project lands depends on a short list of things. Size and layout come first, because moving plumbing or taking out a wall costs more than replacing fixtures where they already sit. Materials are next, with stock cabinets and porcelain tile at one end and custom cabinetry and stone at the other. Condition is the third factor and the one that surprises people here. In older homes near the water we regularly open a bathroom wall and find rot, failed waterproofing, or supply lines that have to be replaced before anything new goes in. Access on a steep lot adds labour hours. We quote in writing with the scope spelled out, so you can see what is fixed and what depends on what we find once the walls are open. Home additions run roughly $200 to $400 per square foot.
City of White Rock Building Permits
White Rock is its own municipality, not part of Surrey, and that catches people out. The City of White Rock runs its own building department with its own applications, fees, and inspections. A permit pulled through Surrey means nothing on a White Rock address, and the two cities do not process applications the same way or on the same timeline. Structural work, additions, moving or removing walls, new or relocated plumbing, electrical upgrades, and window openings that change size generally need a permit. Straight cosmetic work such as paint, flooring, or swapping a fixture in place usually does not. On a sloped lot where retaining walls or drainage are involved, expect more review and sometimes drawings stamped by an engineer. We tell you at quote stage which permits your scope needs, roughly how long the city takes, and who is pulling them. Skipping a permit is the kind of shortcut that shows up years later when you sell.
Commercial Renovations on Marine Drive and Five Corners
We also handle commercial renovations in White Rock, mostly the smaller storefronts, offices, clinics, and restaurants along Marine Drive and around Five Corners. Those spaces come with their own constraints. Parking and loading on Marine Drive are tight, many buildings share walls and services with neighbouring tenants, and the older commercial stock needs the same rot and water checks as the houses do. The part that matters most to an owner is staying open. We phase the work so trades run in the order that keeps the space usable, schedule demolition and noisy work outside business hours where the building allows it, and build temporary partitions to separate the work zone from the serving area. Tenant improvements usually mean coordinating with both the landlord and the City of White Rock, so we sort approvals out before mobilizing. Typical scope covers layout changes, flooring, painting and finishing, lighting, HVAC adjustments, plumbing, and accessible washrooms. Call for a walkthrough and a written quote.
Get a Free Quote in White Rock
Ready to start your renovation project in White Rock? Contact us for a free consultation.
Request a QuoteCall: +1 (778) 861-6482
Email: info@oldtonew.ca
Our Services in White Rock
Renovation Services Available in White Rock
FAQ
Questions About Renovations in White Rock
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