Frame, insulate, drywall, electrical, flooring, finishes. Add a suite, gym, theatre, or office. Code-compliant, livable space — top to bottom.
BuildMan finishes and renovates basements across Toronto and the GTA, including family rooms, bedrooms with egress, bathrooms and legal second suites, with permits and inspections handled. A standard family-room finish typically costs $45,000–$85,000, a bathroom adds $25,000–$50,000, and legal second suites run $90,000–$160,000. Most finishes take 4–8 weeks. Call (905) 660-9992 or request a free consult and fixed-price quote.
A finished basement adds 30–50% to your home's living area at a fraction of the cost of an addition. Our builder background means we get vapour barriers, ventilation, and egress windows right the first time.
Sound-isolated rooms, projector pre-wire, in-wall speaker conduit, ambient lighting plans.
Two-unit dwellings, separate entrances, fire-rated separations, soundproofing, full code compliance.
Below-grade plumbing with grinder pumps, full bath rough-in, kitchenettes, wine cellars.
Code-required egress windows cut and framed, proper headroom, full closet build-outs.
Rubber flooring, reinforced framing for equipment, proper ventilation, mirror walls.
Hardwired Ethernet, dedicated circuits, soundproofing, double doors for privacy.
A renovation is a major investment in your home. Here's the experience and accountability behind every BuildMan project.
15+ years building and renovating GTA homes from the ground up — not a general handyman doing renovations on the side. That structural knowledge is why our finishes last.
Full liability insurance and WSIB coverage on every trade on your site, so your home and our crew are protected throughout the build.
Registered with Ontario's Tarion new-home warranty program — a bar most renovators never have to meet.
A single all-in quote and one point of contact from demo to sign-off. No open-ended hourly billing, no chasing five separate trades.
Real, verified reviews from GTA homeowners — read them on our Google listing.
We file, schedule and pass every required building, plumbing and electrical permit and inspection — you never deal with the city.
The finishes are the easy part of a basement. What decides whether a Toronto basement stays dry and passes inspection is everything behind the drywall. Older homes in the Annex, Leslieville and East York often have rubble-stone or block foundations, low ceilings and a single floor drain. Post-war bungalows in Scarborough and Etobicoke usually have block or poured walls and a bit more height. Newer homes in Vaughan, Markham and Brampton have the most headroom, but their builder insulation blankets need to come off before proper framing goes up.
Bathrooms below grade add their own sequence: cutting the slab, new drain rough-ins, an ejector or sump pump if fixtures sit below the sewer line, and an inspection before the concrete is poured back. New circuits go to a licensed electrician under ESA rules, scheduled around the framing inspection.
If you are thinking about rental income, decide before construction starts. A legal second suite needs fire separation between units, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, safe exits and sound-rated assemblies, and retrofitting those into a finished basement costs far more than building them in. It is also worth confirming the house has a backwater valve, which protects a finished basement from sewer backup during heavy storms. For full budgets, see our basement renovation cost guide, and for a bathroom upstairs too, our bathroom renovation team handles both.
4–8 weeks typical for an unfinished basement to fully finished living space. Larger projects with kitchens, bathrooms, and second-suite legalization run 8–12 weeks.
Yes — almost always. Any time you build walls, run new electrical, or add a bathroom, Toronto building permits are required. We handle the entire permit and inspection process.
Yes. We design and build to Ontario's Two-Unit Dwellings standards (separate exits, fire separations, sound transmission, ventilation). Local zoning approval is required first — we can review feasibility.
$45,000–$85,000 for a standard family-room finish. Add $25,000–$50,000 for a bathroom. Legal second suites run $90,000–$160,000 depending on existing layout and finishes.
Finishing makes the space livable — framing, insulation, drywall, flooring and lighting. Legalizing it as a second suite adds code requirements: egress windows, fire separation, sound assemblies, ceiling height and separate systems, plus city approval. We do both and tell you which you need.
Almost always — building walls, running new electrical or adding a bathroom all require a City of Toronto permit. We handle the entire permit and inspection process.
Yes. Below-grade plumbing usually needs a sump or a sewage-ejector/grinder pump to lift waste up to the main drain, plus new rough-ins in concrete. It's one of the more involved parts of a basement, and it's squarely in our wheelhouse.
