Renovation Electrician in North Vancouver
Fully Licensed & Insured Electrician
We Pull the Permit, In Writing
Itemised Quotes, Not One Line
We Work to Your Trade Schedule
The Electrical Side of Your Renovation
Almost every renovation turns into an electrical project at some point. You move a wall and the switch is now behind a cabinet. You add an island and it needs outlets. You open the ceiling and find wiring nobody has touched since the fifties.
Greenvolt Electric handles the electrical on renovations across North Vancouver and the North Shore. Kitchens, bathrooms, basements, whole floors, suites and additions. We work directly for homeowners and as the electrical trade for general contractors and designers.
The two things that go wrong most often on renovation electrical are permits and timing. We handle the first, and we plan around the second so you are not sitting with framing done and no electrician available.
Renovation Electrical by Room
Kitchen renovations
Kitchens have the heaviest electrical scope of any room. Dedicated circuits for the range, oven, dishwasher and fridge, island outlets that meet code, GFCI protection at the counters, under cabinet and task lighting, and often a panel that has to be checked before any of it goes in.
If your kitchen is being reconfigured rather than refreshed, nearly all of the wiring changes.
Bathroom renovations
Bathrooms are small but code heavy. GFCI protection, correctly rated fixtures for wet locations, exhaust fan circuits vented properly to the exterior, vanity lighting, and heated floor circuits that have to be right before the tile goes down, because after that they are not accessible.
Basement renovations and finished basements
Finishing a basement usually means adding a significant number of circuits to a service that was sized decades ago.
Lighting, outlets, egress requirements, smoke and CO detection, and a hard look at whether the existing service can carry the extra load.
Whole floor and whole home renovations
Larger projects are where old wiring surfaces. If knob and tube or ungrounded circuits turn up, a renovation is by far the cheapest time to deal with them, because the walls are already open.
Focused on the lighting rather than the whole room? Our lighting page covers pot lights and fixtures on their own.
Building a Basement Suite? You Need a Licensed Electrician.
This one is not a recommendation, it is how the rules work in BC.
Homeowners in British Columbia can apply for a homeowner electrical permit and do work on their own principal residence. That exception does not extend to rental suites, even when the suite is inside the home you live in. Basement suites, laneway houses, coach houses and any part of a property that gets rented out have to be wired by a licensed electrical contractor.
Suite electrical also has its own requirements beyond ordinary renovation work, including proper circuit separation between the suite and the main house, smoke and carbon monoxide detection that meets suite requirements, and often a service that has to be reassessed for the added load.
We do this work regularly across North Vancouver. If you are at the planning stage, talk to us early, because the service capacity question is much easier to answer before framing than after.
Do You Need an Electrical Permit for a Renovation?
Usually yes, and the test is simpler than people expect. A permit is triggered by a change in scope, not a change in appearance.
Swapping a light fixture for another one in the same spot is different from adding a new circuit. Replacing a vanity where it stands is different from moving it two feet and relocating the outlet with it. The moment new wiring is run, a circuit is added, or something moves, you are almost certainly in permit territory.
Two different permits
Renovations often need two, and they come from different places. The electrical permit comes from Technical Safety BC. A building permit, if your renovation needs one, comes from the City or the District of North Vancouver depending on where you are. They are separate processes with separate timelines.
We pull the electrical permit and coordinate the electrical inspections. If you have a general contractor, they typically handle the building permit side.
If someone tells you no permit is needed
Check it. It is a common thing to hear on a renovation and it is not always right. Unpermitted electrical work causes problems later, most often when you sell or when your insurer starts asking questions about renovations with no paperwork behind them. That situation is covered on our electrical inspection page.
Renovating a condo
Strata approval is a separate process from a municipal permit, and for most condo kitchen or bathroom renovations in Metro Vancouver you need both. Build the strata timeline into your planning, since councils meet on their own schedule.
What a Proper Renovation Electrical Quote Looks Like
If you are collecting quotes, here is a way to compare them fairly. A renovation electrical quote should separate out:
- Rough in labour
- Materials
- Fixtures, if the electrician is supplying them
- Permit fees
- Inspection costs
- Finish and trim out labour
A single line that says “Electrical: $X” tells you almost nothing. It usually means the job was estimated quickly, and it makes it impossible to know whether two quotes are covering the same work.
You should also get it in writing who is pulling the electrical permit and when. That one sentence prevents a surprisingly common problem where everyone assumes someone else did it.
Our quotes are broken out this way as standard. If you are comparing us against another quote and something does not line up, ask us and we will explain the difference honestly, even when it is not in our favour.
Timing, Trades and What We Find Behind the Walls
When we come in
Renovation electrical happens in two visits, not one. Rough in goes in after framing and before drywall, then we come back after paint and finishes for devices, fixtures and final connections. Missing the rough in window is the single most common cause of renovation delays on the electrical side, so we lock our dates against your schedule rather than the other way around.
Working with your contractor
If you have a GC or a designer, we coordinate with them directly. If you are managing the project yourself, we will tell you plainly when we need to be there and what has to be done before we arrive.
When something turns up
Opening walls in an older North Vancouver home occasionally reveals knob and tube, ungrounded circuits, or work that was done without a permit at some point. We stop, show you what we found, explain whether it has to be dealt with now or can wait, and price it separately. It does not get quietly absorbed into the job or silently added to the invoice.
While the walls are open is also the cheapest moment to add capacity you might want later, whether that is a circuit for a future heat pump, a charger in the garage, or wiring for smart controls. If the service itself needs more capacity, that is covered on our panel upgrade page.
What Our Clients Say
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do I need an electrical permit for my renovation?
In most cases yes. The test is whether the scope changes, not whether the room looks different. New wiring, added circuits or anything being relocated generally requires a permit. We pull it and coordinate the inspection.
2. Can I pull a homeowner permit and do the work myself?
Only on your own principal residence. The homeowner permit does not cover rental suites, including a basement suite inside your own home, or laneway and coach houses. Those legally require a licensed electrical contractor.
3. When in the renovation do you need to be there?
Twice. Rough in after framing and before drywall, then finishing after paint. Booking the rough in window early matters more than almost anything else on the electrical side.
4. What happens if you find knob and tube behind the wall?
We stop and show you. Then we explain whether it has to be dealt with now or can wait, and give you a separate price. It never just appears on the final invoice.
5. Can I live in the house during the renovation?
Usually yes for a single room. Power will be off in the work area and occasionally to the whole house for short stretches, and we tell you in advance when that is happening.
6. Do you work with my general contractor or designer?
Regularly. Send us the drawings and we will coordinate directly with them on sequencing so you are not relaying messages between trades.
7. My condo strata needs to approve the renovation. Does that affect you?
It affects the timeline more than the work. Strata approval is separate from the municipal permit and councils meet on their own schedule, so build that into your planning. We can provide the documentation your council needs.
8. Does a kitchen renovation need a panel upgrade?
Sometimes, but not always. It depends on how many new circuits the kitchen needs and what capacity your service has left. We do the load calculation before quoting so you find out early rather than mid project.
9. How should I compare electrical quotes?
Look for one that breaks out rough in labour, materials, fixtures, permit fees, inspection and finishing separately. A single line total makes it impossible to tell whether two quotes cover the same work.
Planning a Renovation?
Tell us which rooms and roughly when you are starting. The earlier we look at it, the fewer surprises there are once the walls are open.