Renovation Planning and Design Services in Pickering
Make Sense of a Split-Level Before You Start Moving Walls
Pickering is a backsplit and sidesplit town. The stock built through the 1960s, 70s and 80s across Amberlea, Liverpool and Bay Ridges delivered a lot of house for the money, and left behind the design problem that brings most owners to us: four or five half-levels, short runs of stair, low headroom below grade and sightlines chopped into pieces. Fixing that is a planning exercise before it is a construction one.
905 Reno measures the existing levels, works out which walls and beams are structural, and produces drawings prepared to the Ontario Building Code and City of Pickering Building Services requirements — so the plan that solves the layout is also the plan that gets a permit.
Why Pickering Homeowners Start With Design
Split-level renovations fail on paper long before they fail on site. Removing a wall between two half-levels changes a load path, a floor framing direction and often a stair code requirement all at once, and none of that is visible from inside the finished house. Our designers survey the existing structure across Pickering’s housing stock — splits and two-storeys through Amberlea and Brock Ridge, waterfront-adjacent bungalows in West Shore and Bay Ridges, larger wooded lots in Rougemount and Highbush — and plan around what is actually there.
What a Pickering homeowner gets from a 905 Reno design package:
Licensed and insured renovation design professionals working throughout Pickering
Split-level and multi-level layout specialists for Durham Region housing stock
Complete pre-construction service from level survey through permit submission
Drawings prepared to the Ontario Building Code and City of Pickering requirements
Scoped design fees with clear deliverables and agreed timelines
Finish and material schedules confirmed before trades price the work
We take the project from site measure through permit-ready drawings, so your Pickering contractor starts with the levels, the structure and the budget already resolved.
What Design-Stage Work Saves in Pickering
On a split-level, the costly surprises are structural and they show up the day a wall opens. Planning moves those discoveries to a stage where the fix is a revised drawing.
Build to the Number You Approved
Accurate level drawings and a finish schedule let trades quote identical scope, so a budget agreed in Amberlea or Highbush is still the budget when the framing is exposed.
Clear Conservation and Zoning Review First
TRCA-regulated land along Duffins and Petticoat Creek, Rouge Park boundary conditions and Pickering setback rules all get confirmed at design stage, before a permit is filed.
Sequence the Trades Before Demolition
A coordinated set lets your general contractor order structure, mechanical and finishes in sequence — the difference between a tidy split-level rebuild and one that stalls at every level change.
Ready for City of Pickering Submission
Each drawing set is built to Ontario Building Code and City of Pickering Building Services standards, so permits are issued without a revision cycle.
Design Directions That Work in Pickering Homes
A 1970s backsplit in Amberlea, a bungalow two streets from the lake in West Shore and a newer build out toward Seaton each start from a different structure, so every project begins with a measure, an as-built set and a conversation about how the levels should actually connect.
Where Pickering projects most often go:
Backsplit and sidesplit reconfiguration for Amberlea, Liverpool and Village East
Rear and above-garage additions planned around Pickering lot coverage and setbacks
Single-floor and aging-in-place layouts for West Shore and Bay Ridges bungalows
Legal secondary-suite design with compliant ceiling heights, egress and separation
Kitchen relocation and open sightlines across split levels in Brock Ridge and Dunbarton
Where We Work Across Pickering
905 Reno plans and designs renovations throughout Pickering — across Amberlea, Rougemount, and Highbush, through Liverpool, Brock Ridge, and Village East, out to West Shore, Bay Ridges, Dunbarton, and Rosebank.
Geography drives the review path here. Properties along the Duffins and Petticoat Creek corridors sit on TRCA-regulated land, and lots bordering Rouge National Urban Park carry their own constraints — both of which need confirming during design, not at permit intake. Older neighbourhoods near the lake also tend to have additions built over decades, so the drawings on file rarely match the house standing today.
Why Planning Decides What a Split-Level Costs
Pickering homeowners regularly discover that a structural change found after demolition costs five to ten times the design-stage equivalent — and that an incomplete drawing set can hold a project at the City of Pickering’s Committee of Adjustment through a full variance cycle.
A complete pre-construction package removes that exposure and puts every trade on the same set.
905 Reno Manages Every Step of Your Renovation Planning and Design, Including:
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Site measure of every level, structural review and accurate as-built drawings.
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Concept layouts, beam and load-path strategy, and 3D views of reworked levels.
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Design development, finish schedules and material selections costed before sign-off.
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Permit drawings assembled for City of Pickering Building Services submission.
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Contractor handoff, trade coordination and design support through the build.
Plan Your Pickering Renovation Properly
Settle the levels, the structure and the budget before anything is demolished. 905 Reno’s design team can plan your Pickering renovation — whether that is opening a backsplit in Amberlea, adding a rear extension in Rougemount, or reworking a West Shore bungalow for single-floor living.