Plan the work before it starts
Use these guides to prepare useful questions about your scope, access and site readiness. Property-specific design, material and approval decisions belong with the responsible professionals.
Start with these questions
Concrete Cutting vs Breaking: Which One Your Project Actually Needs
Cutting and breaking both remove concrete, but they suit different jobs. Here's how to choose based on edges, vibration, dust and what stays behind.
Read the guideDo I need a City of Mississauga permit to cut an opening in a foundation wall?
When Mississauga requires a building permit for a new or larger foundation wall opening, what the application needs and what happens before cutting.
Read the guideDoes a Designated Substance Survey apply to a cutting job in an occupied building?
How OHSA section 30 applies to concrete cutting in occupied Ontario buildings, what a survey covers and how asbestos and silica are handled.
Read the guide
Browse all planning guides
Every published guide remains available below, grouped by its existing topic.
Concrete Cutting
- Wall openings: rough size, finished size and installer approval
- Who sizes and seals a core-drilled service penetration?
- Prepare an anchor or dowel drilling brief
- Can concrete be cut where floor heating is embedded?
- What power and water should a cutting site provide?
- Quoting concrete removal when the thickness is unknown
- Who closes the floor after a basement plumbing trench?
- Can one concrete panel be removed while the rest stays?
- Prepare an opening schedule for core drilling
- When does a concrete cut need an engineer's sign-off?
- Cutting the slab for a sump pit and backwater valve in a Mississauga basement.
- Cutting a new stair or elevator opening in a suspended slab.
- Egress window openings for a Mississauga basement apartment: what the job involves.
- Do you need locates before cutting a driveway or slab-on-grade in Mississauga?
- Cutting a trench in a basement floor for a bathroom rough-in.
- Concrete cutting inside an occupied Mississauga condo: water, noise and vibration.
- What does concrete scanning find before a cut, and what can it miss?
- Can you core drill or cut a post-tensioned concrete slab?
- When does core drilling through a slab require an engineer's review?
- How are slurry and dust controlled when cutting concrete indoors?
- Can you cut a basement walkout opening in a poured foundation?
- What is the difference between wall sawing and hand breaking a wall?
- Concrete Cutting vs Breaking: Which One Your Project Actually Needs
- What Core Drilling Is For, and When It Beats a Sledgehammer
- Cutting a Basement Walkout Opening: How the Job Actually Goes
- Slurry, Dust and Water: What Happens When Concrete Gets Cut Indoors
- Wall Sawing for New Doors and Windows in Block and Poured Walls
Scope and Handover
- Selective removal or a full interior gut: how to choose
- Can the subfloor stay when tile and mortar come out?
- Removing hardwood or parquet: disposal or attempted recovery?
- Turn lease-end conditions into an agreed strip-out record
- Who confirms services are isolated before a strip-out?
- What should a demolition notice tell neighbouring businesses?
- Take a useful pre-demolition condition record
- Compare demolition quotes without comparing different jobs
- Can you stay at home during an interior strip-out?
- Which photos help a demolition contractor assess an enquiry?
- What should you check on a demolition contractor's documents?
- What does broom-clean mean after demolition?
- Removing a pool when you may build over it later
- Can deck posts or footings stay for the replacement?
- Agree a shared-fence removal before booking the work
- Who looks after a cleared lot before building starts?
- Can demolition equipment use the driveway you want to keep?
- Where should treated, painted and reusable deck wood go?
- Define ceiling removal around retained services
- Agree the substrate handover before flooring removal
- Mark drywall and plaster removal boundaries
- Write a keep list before kitchen demolition
- Define the layers in a bathroom demolition scope
- Separate basement finish removal from slab work
- Plan partition removal beside retained finishes
- Separate garage take-down from slab removal
- Decide what leaves with an old shed
- Define the handover when an addition is removed
- Arrange collection of another contractor’s renovation debris
- Record a concealed condition before changing the scope
- Coordinate the handover from structural removal to framing
Local Project Planning
Commercial
- A commercial strip-out tender that defines what stays
- Plan the handover between office strip-out phases
- Resolve fixture ownership before a retail strip-out
- Set equipment boundaries for a restaurant strip-out
- Use a punch list at commercial strip-out handover
- Prepare a loading and elevator brief for demolition
- Slab sawing a Mississauga warehouse floor for new plumbing, conduit and drains.
- Removing exterior concrete ramps and stairs at a Mississauga commercial unit.
- Do I need a permit to cut a doorway through a block wall in Mississauga?
- Removing curbs, islands and bollard bases in a Mississauga plaza parking lot.
- Cutting a dock leveler pit or trench drain into an existing warehouse slab.
- Removing a block wall in a Mississauga commercial unit.
Residential
- Will concrete cutting affect the shared wall in my Mississauga semi or townhouse?
- Concrete work in a Mississauga condo townhouse complex: board approvals, access and common elements.
- Can you remove the concrete pool deck and keep the pool?
- Does Mississauga's private tree by-law affect concrete removal in my yard?
- Clearing a Mississauga infill lot before construction: what comes out first.
- Do I need a permit to remove a deck or fence in Mississauga?
- Should the old garage slab come out before a new garage is built?
- Retaining wall removal: block, poured and timber, and what holds the soil afterward.
Concrete Removal
- Removing a basement slab before underpinning: the sequence.
- How does broken concrete get out of a basement?
- What is under an old concrete porch slab?
- Removing a concrete driveway or patio in Mississauga: what is under it and what goes back.
- How do you remove concrete from a backyard with no side access?
- Removing machine foundations and equipment pads in a Mississauga industrial unit.
- Can concrete cutting and removal go ahead in a Mississauga winter?
- Where does concrete rubble go in Peel Region?
- Removing a Concrete Slab Without Wrecking What Is Around It
Permits and Rules
Safety and Compliance
Turn the question into a scope
Browse the services or check your service area. When you enquire, tell us what needs to come out and where.