Bathroom renovations in Kanata and Stittsville

Kanata covers a wide range of building years and the bathroom work splits accordingly. Kanata Lakes, Bridlewood, Morgan's Grant and most of Stittsville are 1990s and later, with modern copper or PEX supply, ABS drainage and straightforward renovations. Beaverbrook and the older Katimavik streets date to the late 1960s and 1970s, and those bring the full set of older-house surprises.

The specific Beaverbrook-era issues are worth naming. Cast iron drain stacks, which are heavy, sometimes corroded at the base and awkward to cut into. Copper supply with galvanised sections spliced in, which corrode at the joint. And original bathroom layouts of about 3.7 square metres with the tub, toilet and basin in a line along one wall, which is efficient plumbing and a cramped room. Opening that up almost always means moving a fixture, which means a permit.

Kanata also has more split-level and back-split houses than most Ottawa suburbs, and in a split the bathroom is often over a garage or over a crawl space rather than over heated space. That changes the insulation detail under the floor, and a bathroom floor over an unheated garage in an Ottawa February is a real comfort and freezing risk if the supply lines run through that cavity.