Restoration & Specialty Work — Muskoka & Georgian BayThe jobs other contractors turn down.
Starting from — our real book rate
What restoration costs here
$135/ hr + HST
Typical project $2,320 – $8,70016–60 hours of carpenter-plus-helper structural work
05 specs14 photographs on file
Custom restoration in MacTier, Torrance & across cottage country
Sheet A-208 — The work
Restoration done properly
Older cottages come with odd problems: settled porches, rotten sill beams, failing cribs, heritage details nobody makes anymore. We take them on the same way every time — careful diagnosis, honest options, and repairs that respect the original build. Our longest-running job is a marina rebuild: 330+ hours on its docks and piers, each pier laser-levelled.
Specification — Restoration
- A-208.01Structural repair: porches, beams, posts, and decks
- A-208.02Boathouse and dock-adjacent carpentry
- A-208.03Heritage and character detail matching (trim, rail, cladding)
- A-208.04Rot, water, and pest damage remediation
- A-208.05One crew for the strange, multi-trade jobs that don't fit a category
The question — How the work is billed
What's actually wrong?
Materials are supplied at cost plus 15 percent. Once a problem is open and measurable, we will fix a price in writing if you prefer.
Sheet A-208 — rates from the bookPer unit
Structural repair
$145/ hrCarpenter and helper, with a running hour log you can read whenever you like.
Heritage detail matching
$135/ hrWe take a clean section of the original profile and reproduce it. Patient work.
Sill beam and post replacement
$225/ ftPer linear foot, once the run is open and measurable.
Book rates, supplied and installed. Your written quote is measured from your site and shows HST as its own line.
Sheet A-208 — Process note
How restoration runs
First we open it up and find the truth — you can't price rot from the lawn. We shore anything carrying load, then put the options in writing: what must happen, what should, what can wait. Structural and unknown-scope work runs time-and-materials with a running hour log you can read any time — our marina pier rebuild has run past 330 logged hours, and every one of them is on paper. Repairs respect the original build: matched species, matched profiles, and piers laser-levelled before anything new bears on them.
Materials we trust
Matched-species lumber, so repairs move with the original structure instead of against it. Structural fasteners and connectors sized to the repair, not to what happens to be on the truck. Preservative-treated material wherever wood meets ground or water. For heritage details — trim, rail, cladding — we match the profile itself, because close reads as wrong from the porch.
Sheet A-208 — Site conditions
Before we can put a number on it
Four things decide a restoration quote. We walk them with you on site — bring what you have and we'll find the rest.
Diagnosis first, shoring second, repair third. We reply within one business day, always.
No self-serve estimate
Nothing here is priced until it is open. We quote the diagnosis, then the repair in writing once we can see it.
- A-208.01Open it up
- You can't price rot from the lawn. We open it, shore anything carrying load, and put the options in writing: what must happen, what should, what can wait.
- A-208.02Urgency
- If something is actively carrying people over a drop, have it looked at before the next long weekend. Temporary shoring is cheap insurance while decisions get made.
- A-208.03Water and season
- Cribs, sills over water and boathouse framing come with their own rules — we plan around water levels and ice-out, not against them.
- A-208.04Holdback
- Ontario's Construction Act has no small-job or residential exemption: you hold back 10 percent of each payment until lien rights expire. Our quotes and invoices are written to line up with it.
Record photographs — Restoration
Restoration we've built
Real projects photographed as jobs wrap up — towns named, clients never.
Rebuilt dock deck in pressure-treated lumber, with vertical facing boards carried around the slip and out to the mooring post. — Georgian Bay, Ontario New decking carried along the shoreline, the next boards stacked and ready. — Georgian Bay, Ontario Rebuilt dock deck framed tight around the piling, with a cleat set flush at the edge — Georgian Bay, Ontario New decking run along the boathouse on the water side — Georgian Bay, Ontario Flagstone patio part way through pressure washing, with the cleaned stone showing against the untouched section. — Georgian Bay, Ontario Existing flagstone patio under pressure washing, weeds and debris pulled out of the joints. — Georgian Bay, Ontario
Sequence of work — 04 steps
Four steps, one point of contact
- 01Survey
Quote
We visit, measure, and send a written quote with HST shown — price honoured as quoted.
- 02Prep
Design & materials
We settle the layout together and price your material options side by side.
- 03Build
Build
One crew, a scheduled start date, and a tidy site every day we're on it.
- 04Finish
Walkthrough
We walk the finished work with you — it isn't done until you say it is.
We build restoration across MacTier, Torrance, Rosseau, Georgian Bay Township, and Bracebridge — and everywhere north of Barrie. See our full service area.
Cost schedule — real book rates
What restoration costs here
Structural repair runs $145 an hour for a carpenter and helper, with materials at cost plus 15 percent. Sill beam and post replacement is $225 a linear foot. Heritage trim and detail matching is $135 an hour. For unknown scopes we quote the diagnosis first, then price the repair in writing once it is open. These are our real book rates. Your written quote is measured from your site and shows HST as its own line.
Straight answers
Questions we get about restoration
How do you price work you can't see yet?
Honestly: we don't, until we can see it. Exploratory and structural work runs time-and-materials — $145 an hour for a carpenter and helper, materials at cost plus 15 percent — with a running hour log you can read whenever you like. Our marina pier rebuild has run past 330 logged hours, and the owner can account for every one. Once a problem is open and measurable, we will fix a price in writing if you prefer.
Is my sagging porch an emergency?
Sometimes, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. If something is actively carrying people over a drop, have it looked at before the next long weekend. Most settling moves slower than it feels — but diagnosis is the only honest answer, and temporary shoring is cheap insurance while decisions get made.
Do you work on boathouses and cribs?
Yes — dock-adjacent and marine carpentry is a regular part of this trade for us. The marina rebuild above was pier and dock reconstruction, laser-levelled through the whole run. Cribs, sills over water, and boathouse framing come with their own rules and seasons, and we plan around water levels and ice-out, not against them.
Does the Construction Act really apply to a cottage repair?
Yes. Ontario's Construction Act has no small-job or residential exemption — holdback and prompt-payment rules apply to a porch repair the same as to a condo tower. Practically, the Act requires you to hold back 10 percent of each payment until lien rights expire, and our quotes and invoices are written to line up with it rather than ignore it. We would rather you know the rules than be surprised by them.
Can you match trim nobody makes anymore?
Usually, yes. We take a clean section of the original profile and reproduce it — heritage detail matching runs $135 an hour. It is patient work, and it is the difference between a repair that disappears and one you see every time you walk past. Bring us the saddest piece of trim on the building; that is the one we will match.
How fast will you respond when something has failed?
We reply within one business day, always. How fast we are on site depends on the season and how urgent the failure is — we triage honestly, and we will tell you straight if someone closer can help you faster.
Sheet A-500 — Request for quote
Get a number you can hold us to.
No obligation. A written quote with HST shown — price honoured as quoted.