Every Page on This Site

Overview of underpinning and bench footing, how the work is sequenced, and which method suits which basement.

Permits, party walls on semis, sequencing, timelines, and why winter is the good season to book.

How much headroom you can realistically gain, and what actually limits it: the sewer, the water table, the soil.

The cheaper alternative to underpinning, and the floor width it permanently costs you.

One basement priced under three published Toronto rate structures, producing totals from $35,000 to $180,000.

Interior versus exterior compared, with a cutaway diagram and verified Toronto prices for both.

Excavation to the footing, membrane, dimple board and new weeping tile. $150 to $300 per linear foot.

Breaking the slab, laying drain at the footing, routing to a sump. $80 to $150 per linear foot.

The six causes of a wet basement and what each costs. Four are cheaper than a waterproofing system.

Tracing a leak to its entry point, and telling a point-source leak from a drainage failure.

How the four parts of a drainage system fit together, and which ones attract City subsidy.

Why 1950s clay tile fails differently from 1970s fibre pipe, and what a proper replacement includes.

Surface water in the yard, which is a different job from foundation drainage.

$650 to $4,000 installed, with up to $2,250 subsidised by the City of Toronto.

Stopping sewer backup during a surcharge. Up to $1,600 per device subsidised, two devices maximum.

Reading a crack by direction and width, and when the problem is structural rather than cosmetic.

Polyurethane and epoxy injection at $450 to $1,100 per crack, and why surface patching fails.

Vapour barrier, rim joist air sealing, and why venting a crawl space in this climate makes it wetter.

Every price on this site on one page, grouped by waterproofing, drainage and underpinning.

$8,000 to $15,000 interior, $15,000 to $35,000 exterior, and what moves a quote within the range.

$75,000 to $150,000 broken down line by line, with a worked example for a 600 sq ft basement.

What the $6,650 covers and what it does not. Waterproofing receives nothing.

The failure modes nobody in this trade publishes, and how to spot them.

Eleven questions that make two quotes genuinely comparable.

Etobicoke, Toronto, North York, York, East York and Mississauga, and how the housing differs across them.

Old housing on narrow lots is the defining constraint here. It decides which waterproofing method is even possible on your house, long before it decides the price.

North York’s housing is mostly post-war and mostly detached on generous lots. That combination makes it one of the few parts of the city where exterior waterproofing is usually still possible.

York sits inside the Toronto district with the highest share of pre-1981 housing anywhere in the city. Almost every original weeping tile here is now past its service life.

East York’s access constraints decide the method before anything else does. On a lot with a mutual drive, exterior waterproofing is often physically impossible rather than merely expensive.

Only 38% of Mississauga housing predates 1981, the lowest share we serve. When these basements leak it is usually not the weeping tile - and the Toronto subsidy does not apply here.

Etobicoke and York hold the highest share of pre-1981 housing in Toronto. That is a very large number of basements built for a furnace rather than for people.

North York’s post-war bungalows have the largest unused floor plate and the lowest ceilings of any housing we work on. That combination is what makes underpinning pay here.

Mississauga is in Peel, not Toronto. Different building department, different fee schedule, and a housing stock where only some neighbourhoods have the low basements underpinning solves.

How we price, how we diagnose, and what we are honest about.

66 Jutland Rd, Unit 89, Etobicoke. Phone, map and a free assessment request form.

Where our reviews live, and why we have not written any ourselves.

What to ask any contractor about warranty terms.