05 / 05Selected work
Full unit turnover
A tower apartment stripped back to slab and structure and rebuilt — an open kitchen where a closed galley had been, a new bathroom, new flooring and finishes throughout, and services reworked behind the walls.
- Project type
- Whole-unit renovation
- Client sector
- Multi-unit residential
- Location
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Status
- Completed
Before and after
A tower apartment due for turnover
An apartment in a Vancouver tower: a galley kitchen closed off behind a partition wall, a bathroom tiled floor to ceiling in beige, and finishes throughout that had reached the end of their life. The unit was empty and due to be turned over.
A fixed date in a shared building
A turnover has a date attached to it, and the unit earns nothing while the work runs, so the schedule matters as much as the finishes. The unit was empty but the building was not: every load of debris and every sheet of drywall went through a lobby, an elevator and a corridor other residents were using. The slab, the structure and the building’s own services were fixed in place — the layout could change, but not where the building runs.
Unit renovation scope
Strip-out to slab and structure, a new kitchen opened to the living area with an island and a dropped bulkhead, a new bathroom, new flooring throughout, walls and ceilings prepared and sprayed, new lighting, and plumbing and electrical reworked behind the finishes.
Stripping to the slab first
Taking the unit back to the slab first is what made the rest of the job knowable. What sat behind the walls stopped being a guess, the new layout could be set against what was actually there, and every trade that followed worked to measurements rather than assumptions — which is what keeps a fixed turnover date from slipping in week three.
Grouping the disruptive days
Strip-out, then services, then the surfaces that cover them, then finishes — booked in sequence so nothing had to be opened twice. Demolition and delivery days were grouped together rather than spread across the schedule, so the elevator and the corridor were tied up on fewer days than the job would otherwise have needed.
An open kitchen where a galley was
An open kitchen with an island, a chimney hood and integrated appliances where the closed galley had been. A new bathroom in large-format tile. Wood-look flooring running unbroken from the living area through the hallway to the bedrooms, and every wall and ceiling refinished.
What the owner got back
The unit came back as a current apartment rather than a tidied-up older one. Opening the kitchen gave the main room its full width and its window line, and the floor now runs through without a change of material at the kitchen — both visible in the before and after photographs, not just in the specification.