Construction & Renovation Services in Northeast Communities

Yes, but the ceiling height determines your options. Alberta Building Code requires a minimum 1.95 metres (6 feet 5 inches) of clear ceiling height in habitable rooms of a secondary suite. At 7 feet (2.13m), you have enough headroom to meet code without lowering the floor, but it will be tight once you account for the thickness of the finished ceiling assembly — drywall plus framing plus the fire-rated assembly required between the suite and the main floor above. The fire separation between units requires 5/8-inch Type X drywall on resilient channel, which consumes approximately 2 inches of headroom from the underside of the floor joists. If your joists are exposed and you're starting from the raw 7-foot measurement, your finished ceiling will be approximately 6 feet 8 inches — workable but compact. If any ductwork or pipes run below the joists, you'll need to either reroute them within the joist cavity or create soffits that will locally reduce headroom. For comparison, underpinning (lowering the basement floor to gain headroom) costs $40,000-$80,000 depending on the scope and soil conditions. For a Pineridge bungalow valued at $420,000-$480,000, this is a significant investment that's hard to justify purely on resale value. Most NE homeowners opt to work within the existing ceiling height unless the floor plan or layout makes the space unusable otherwise. One practical approach: design the suite so that the bedroom and living areas use the maximum available headroom, and concentrate any soffits for ductwork and plumbing in the hallway and bathroom where lower ceilings are less noticeable. An experienced basement developer will route the mechanical systems to preserve ceiling height where it matters most.

In most northeast communities, the math favours renovation over teardown, and the reason is straightforward: land values in the NE aren't high enough to justify the cost of demolition plus new construction. Consider the numbers for a typical 1970s bungalow in Temple or Whitehorn. Purchase price: approximately $450,000. Demolition cost (including asbestos abatement if required): $20,000-$40,000. New home construction on the existing lot: $300-$450 per square foot, so a 1,400 sq ft bungalow would cost $420,000-$630,000 to build. Total investment: $890,000 to $1,120,000 for a home in a neighbourhood where comparable new builds (if they exist) might sell for $600,000-$700,000. You'd be significantly underwater. By contrast, a comprehensive renovation — gut kitchen and bathrooms ($60,000-$90,000), replace windows ($15,000-$25,000), new roof ($12,000-$18,000), furnace and hot water ($8,000-$14,000), and develop the basement as a suite ($55,000-$80,000) — totals $150,000-$227,000. Added to the $450,000 purchase price, you're at $600,000-$677,000 total investment in a renovated home that's livable for another 30+ years and generates rental income from the suite. That math works. The exception: if the foundation has severe structural failure requiring complete replacement, or if the lot is large enough and well-positioned enough (e.g., corner lots on Marlborough's main corridors) that a multi-family development is feasible under R-CG zoning, teardown may make financial sense. But for the standard 50-foot residential lot, renovation is the NE playbook.

Several northeast communities — Whitehorn, Vista Heights, and portions of Pineridge and Temple — sit under or adjacent to the flight paths for Calgary International Airport's parallel runways. Aircraft noise is the primary concern, and it affects both everyday livability and renovation decisions. The City of Calgary publishes Noise Exposure Forecast (NEF) contour maps that show the predicted noise zones around the airport. Properties within the NEF 30+ contour (the highest residential exposure level) may have land title caveats acknowledging aircraft noise. This doesn't prevent renovation, but it should inform your choices. Windows are the single most effective noise mitigation investment. Replacing the original aluminum-frame double-pane windows with triple-pane vinyl or fiberglass units reduces sound transmission by 8-12 decibels — enough to make a meaningful difference in the perceived interior noise level. For bedrooms facing the airport, consider asymmetric glazing (different thicknesses of glass in the triple-pane unit) which disrupts sound transmission more effectively than symmetric glass. Budget: $900-$1,600 per window opening for quality triple-pane units. Insulation improvements (particularly in the attic and exterior walls) also reduce noise transmission as a side benefit of their thermal function. Blown-in cellulose insulation is slightly better at sound attenuation than fibreglass batts due to its higher density. Outdoor living spaces are where airport proximity is felt most. There's no practical way to reduce aircraft noise outdoors, so design choices should acknowledge the reality: covered patios with solid roofing materials attenuate noise slightly, and strategic placement of outdoor living areas on the side of the home opposite the dominant flight path helps. If you're building a detached garage or workshop, orient windows and doors away from the flight path. An important practical note: while airport noise is a factor, property values in these communities already reflect this discount. Buyers who accept the noise exposure get access to well-located homes at prices $50,000-$100,000 below comparable properties in communities without airport proximity. From a renovation investment perspective, you're not fighting the noise discount — it's already baked into your purchase price.

This is one of the most common — and most commonly done incorrectly — renovation projects in northeast Calgary. Many NE households do extensive cooking that requires serious ventilation: tandoori cooking, wok cooking, deep frying, and other high-heat methods that produce heavy grease and moisture loads far exceeding what a standard 200 CFM builder-grade range hood can handle. The solution is a commercial-style range hood rated at 600-1,200 CFM, vented directly to the exterior through a dedicated duct (not recirculating — recirculating hoods are almost useless for this type of cooking). Here's what you need to know to do it safely and to code. Duct sizing: a 600+ CFM hood requires a minimum 8-inch round duct to the exterior. Many homeowners try to connect powerful hoods to the existing 6-inch duct — this creates back pressure, reduces effective airflow to a fraction of the rated capacity, and increases noise dramatically. Run new 8-inch or 10-inch rigid duct through the wall or roof. Makeup air: this is the critical safety issue. Alberta Building Code Section 9.32 requires makeup air provisions for any exhaust system exceeding 75 litres per second (approximately 160 CFM). When a 900 CFM range hood removes air from the home, that air has to be replaced from somewhere. In a tight home without makeup air, the negative pressure can reverse the draft in the furnace flue or water heater vent, pulling carbon monoxide and combustion gases back into the living space. This is a life-safety issue, not a building code technicality. Makeup air solutions: a motorized damper on a dedicated outside air duct that opens automatically when the range hood operates (interlocked electrically with the hood's fan switch). The damper admits fresh outdoor air to replace what the hood exhausts. In winter, this means cold air entering the home — which is why some installations include an inline duct heater ($300-$600) to temper the incoming air. Total cost for a properly installed 900 CFM range hood with dedicated duct and makeup air system: $3,000-$6,000 including electrical and ductwork. Permitting: replacing a range hood is not typically a permit-required project, but installing new ductwork through the building envelope is. If you're cutting a new hole in an exterior wall or roof for the exhaust duct, pull a building permit. If you're adding a makeup air system with an inline heater, that's also permit territory. The cost of the permit is trivial compared to the liability of an incorrect installation.