‘It has been a nightmare’: Hamilton renovations take longer, cost more during pandemic
When Carly Weir and her husband Keelan Giesinger bought a single-family home on the Hamilton Mountain in September 2020, they knew it needed renovation in pretty much everything."
The couple also planned to convert the Delmar Drive property into a legal duplex.
But the renovation took them way longer than anticipated - almost two years, in fact. It's now expected to wrap up this June.
We've done this before and it usually takes us about six to eight months from start to finish," Weir, who works as a realtor, told The Spectator.
What went wrong? Weir said everything.
It has been a nightmare," she added.
Delays began with receiving permits from the city, which took at least eight months as opposed to 10 business days as it had in the past, Weir said. Because of the long wait, their hired contractor moved to another assignment.
In 2021, permits for residential renovations jumped 27 per cent in Hamilton, while the city reached a historic $2 billion worth of construction permits in one year.
As permit applications jumped last year, so did the demand for contractors, skilled workers, materials and supplies.
Statistics Canada's 2022 quarterly construction index showed costs for residential building construction increased 5.6 per cent, the highest jump since the second quarter of 2021.
The federal agency cited a rise in labour costs and a surge in vacancies for skilled construction workers as reasons for the hike in prices, alongside rising fuel prices and transportation costs associated with shipping building materials.
Weir said the budget she and Giesinger had decided on in 2020 ended up being almost twice as much in 2022."
To put it in perspective, Weir's initial renovation budget of $120,000 expanded to almost $280,000. Weir added that the increased cost would be reflected in the rent they charge for the property.
We reached out for quotes from separate contractors. Some didn't get back to us, and those who did were well over what we could afford," she said.
Eventually, Weir and her husband, who works as a plumber, decided to renovate the house themselves. They subcontracted smaller projects like windows, doors, and basement steps for twice the amount that we had budgeted."
Ben Allen, a general contractor who owns Camden Construction in Hamilton, told The Spectator he's booking new clients as far out as the end of the year due to his busy schedule. While he said he would provide a quote within a few days, he's unlikely to start working on a new project for at least three to six months.
He noted it has been extremely busy" since the onset of the pandemic as many Hamiltonians are adding basement units for multi-residential spaces, or fixing roofs or decks.
Amid the renovation boom, prices of renovation and construction materials, especially lumber, also shot up. The cost of lumber jumped 30 per cent year over year, a report from Opta said.
And the renovation boom isn't going away any time soon.
Pre-pandemic, one in every 50 homes across Canada had renovations underway. Within two years, the renovation industry has seen a consistent rise, with nearly one in every 20 homes undergoing significant renovations, a report from Opta on the first quarter of 2022 revealed.
The demand for renovations comes at a time when Ontario is already looking at blossoming and growing" commercial, institutional, and industrial infrastructure, combined with big investments," said Adam Melnick, program director at the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.
For instance, a report by Build Force noted in its forecast that engineering construction is expected to rise rapidly in 2023 with the Hamilton LRT and the ongoing expansion of the Barrie GO rail corridor, requiring the hiring of an additional 2,100 trade workers.
Meanwhile, a large number of trade workers are nearing retirement, with fewer new talents to offset the gap. At least 56,300 workers across Ontario are expected to retire by 2027.
To keep up with the demand, at least 15,500 additional trade workers will be required to join the construction industry between 2022 and 2027.
Melnick told The Spectator that in the past two to three decades, fewer workers joined the skilled workforce or apprenticeship programs, losing an entire generation of workers that were steered a different direction."
The provincial and federal government are increasingly investing in skilled trades training, and campaigning to attract more youth to the jobs. So far, the provincial government has contributed at least $200 million through the Skills Development Fund.
Melnick noted the gap might not close in the coming decade. Hopefully, with all these efforts from the provincial and federal governments, our construction training (would streamline) education sector to help build pathways for apprenticeships."
Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com