Planning electrical work in a renovation

March in Montreal is renovation season on paper. The snow is still melting, the contractor you want is already booking for June, and the drawings for the kitchen, the basement or the extension are starting to look real. Somewhere on those drawings there is wiring. This article is about that part.

Electrical work is the trade people plan last and regret first. It hides inside walls, it is regulated more tightly than any other part of a renovation, and it is the one system where a shortcut does not just look bad. Planned early, it is a quiet line on the budget. Planned late, it reopens finished walls. Here is how to get it right before demolition starts.

Count the loads before you count the pot lights

A renovation almost always adds electrical load. An induction range, a wall oven, a heat pump, new baseboard heaters, a finished basement, a spa, an EV charger in the garage. Each one draws current, and your panel and service entrance have a fixed capacity.

The first step is a load calculation. An electrician adds up what the house draws today, adds what the renovation brings, and checks the result against your service. Many older Montreal homes still run on 100 amp service, and some on less. A kitchen renovation alone can push one past its limit.

This is the most expensive electrical surprise in a renovation: discovering in July that the service cannot carry the kitchen you designed in March. Upgrading a panel or service entrance involves Hydro-Québec, scheduling and sometimes masonry work, so you want it identified at the drawing stage, not mid-project.

Permits, and who is allowed to do the work

Quebec is strict about this, and it is worth understanding before you sign anything.

• The renovation itself usually needs a permit from your borough or municipality. Rules vary from one territory to the next, so check before demolition.
• Electrical work in Quebec is reserved by law for licensed electrical contractors. This is not a guideline. A general contractor cannot do it, and neither can you.
• Your electrician declares the electrical work to the Régie du bâtiment du Québec. You do not manage that part, but you can confirm it happens.
• If the service entrance changes, Hydro-Québec is involved for the disconnection and reconnection.

Any contractor licence can be verified on the RBQ website in minutes. If someone quotes your renovation wiring and cannot give you an RBQ number, that is the whole answer.

When the code requires an upgrade

The electrical code, as applied in Quebec, follows a simple principle: what you touch must meet the current code. What you leave alone can usually stay as it is.

In practice, a renovation triggers upgrades in predictable places:

• New circuits are built to today’s requirements, including grounding and the tamper resistant outlets the code now calls for.
• A panel that is opened up for new circuits may need correcting if it was already at capacity or badly wired.
• Fuse boxes and aluminum wiring deserve special attention. Quebec insurers have refused new policies and renewals over aluminum wiring, fuse boxes and missing grounding. A renovation is the natural moment to deal with them, while the walls are open.
• Major new loads, an EV charger or electric heating for example, require the load calculation described above and sometimes a service upgrade.

None of this is the electrician inventing work. It is the difference between a renovation that passes inspection and insures cleanly, and one whose defects surface at the worst possible time: at claim time or at resale.

Sequence the trades or pay twice

Electrical work happens in two visits, and the schedule has to respect that.

The rough-in comes after framing, alongside plumbing and ventilation: cables pulled, boxes set, circuits run back to the panel. That is also when conflicts between trades get resolved, because a duct and a cable sometimes want the same wall cavity. Then the walls close: inspection, insulation, drywall, paint. The electrician returns at the end for the finish: outlets, switches, fixtures, appliance connections, panel labelling.

The rule inside that sequence: every electrical decision is cheap while the walls are open and expensive after. An outlet moved during rough-in costs minutes. The same outlet moved after paint costs a patch, a repaint and a second visit. Decide your layout, your lighting and your appliance positions before the drywall goes up, not after.

The DIY question

Every renovation budget eventually meets the temptation to do some wiring yourself. Two facts belong in that decision.

First, the risk is not imagined. A Leger survey found that 56% of Canadians are concerned about poorly repaired or installed electrical wiring, and that 72% consider doing electrical work in the home somewhat to very hazardous. The public instinct here is correct. Bad wiring does not fail on the day it is installed. It fails quietly, inside a wall, years later.

Second, in Quebec the question is already settled: the law reserves this work for licensed contractors. Wiring you did yourself is wiring an inspector can flag, an insurer can refuse and a buyer’s inspector will question. On a renovation you are paying good money for, that is a poor trade against the cost of a few circuits done right.

Paint the walls yourself. Leave the wiring to someone whose licence number you can verify.

If a renovation is on your drawings this year, have the electrical side reviewed before the walls open. Lighthouse Electrique has planned and wired Montreal renovations since 2007, from a single added circuit to a full panel upgrade with an enlarged service entrance. Call (514) 909-3773 and describe what you are building. You will get a clear answer on what the electrical side needs, and what it does not.