If you watch home renovation television shows, you know renos don’t always go as planned—in fact, there are a multitude of issues that could (and often do) go wrong. If it’s not unreliable contractors, it’s shoddy workmanship costing homeowners an incredible amount of time, stress and dollars. The thing is, more and more houses are aging, it’s harder to find a home in some of the more popular areas and homeowners are desperate for reliable renovation work. “More than 40 percent of homes in Ontario were built before 1980 and are now outdated—the average lifespan of a subdivision home is 40 years. There are more than a million substandard homes that now need alteration, expansion or repair,” says Gene Maida, founder and president of Georgian Renovations. “Many of these structures can be worked with, but they need improvements to bring them up to today’s building code standards and modern living standards. Homeowners are plagued with inexperienced contractors and seduced by cash deals. Customers want solutions, not Band-Aid renovations. Band-Aid renovations have gone the way of the plastic sofa covers.”
That’s why Maida and his team at Georgian created a smarter way to renovate homes. The SmartReno offers customers a luxury experience that’s perfect for those in cookie-cutter homes showing wear and tear. “Assembly-line-type of production relied on quick stick construction, thin brick veneer, speedy drywall systems and poor-quality, prefabricated roof trusses, stairs and kitchen cabinets. Subdivision homes were built for speed, not quality or longevity,” Maida explains.
The SmartReno offers homeowners predesigned packages perfect for updating typical subdivision homes. “We offer fixed-price, full-floor renovation packages to suit popular subdivision floor plans, as well as bespoke custom solutions curated by our designers, in three styles—traditional, transitional and modern,” he says. “The traditional way of renovating a home can be complex. SmartReno starts with demolishing the full floor right down to the drywall. We then rebuild and transform the first floor into a modern, functional space using beautiful design and premium materials. We bring new solutions to old problems.” Not only is the service simple and fast for clients, it’s reliable—Georgian stands behind their work, and there’s more than 10,000 homes in their portfolio. “Homeowners book a consultation, choose a colour palette and style and we get going. There are production meetings along the way and a pre-delivery inspection at the end,” says Maida.
“In the past, it was out with the old and in with the new. When families outgrew their homes
or when major repairs were required, they sold and bought a new place, leapfrogging up the buyer ladder. We changed that—now families can make their present home their forever home that they’re never going to leave.”
Photography by Larry Arnal