Jarvis Contracting designs and builds home additions, second storeys, basements, and whole-home, kitchen and bathroom renovations across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area. The firm is based in Ajax, Ontario, and has been working since 2007. James Jarvis runs construction and the design is done in-house, so one team takes a job from the first floor plan to the keys. It is rated 4.9 from 28 Google reviews, accredited A+ by the BBB, and a RenoMark renovator.
Hiring a renovator is a bigger decision than hiring most trades. A crew will be in the house for months, the walls will come open, and the bill runs to six figures. Almost everyone has heard about a contractor who disappeared halfway through a job. So the homepage starts with the work and the people doing it. Eight short films from real jobs walk through finished rooms, show James explaining what was done, and let a Greenwood homeowner say in her own words why she'd recommend them. Each film has its own page and a full transcript. Every photo on the site is of their own work.
Old houses hide things, and that's where renovation budgets fall apart. The site says so plainly. One section tells the story of a main floor where the crew found asbestos on the pipes and risky wiring left by a previous owner. The owners heard what each problem was and what it would cost before anyone touched it, and the job still finished on the agreed date. The process page walks through all eight steps, from the first site visit to handover. The price is fixed and the contract signed before design begins.
Then there's the number most contractors won't put in writing. The pricing page gives 2026 ranges for every service: about $350 to $600 a square foot for an addition in the GTA, and $300,000 to $800,000 for a second storey of 600 to 1,200 square feet, before HST. It says what pushes each number up or down and what the ranges leave out. The reviews page links every named review to where it was posted, and it mentions the one two-star rating too. A licensing and warranty page explains which permits and warranties cover which work in Ontario, and where to check.
Behind the homepage there's enough for people to find the firm without knowing its name. There are eight service pages and seventeen project pages. Seven of the projects are full case studies, like West Lynde, a Whitby bungalow taken to two storeys in four and a half months. Fourteen guides answer what homeowners look up before they call: what an addition costs in Ontario, whether a basement needs a permit in Durham, and what a legal basement apartment requires. The areas page covers 26 towns, each with its local permit rules and the nearest finished jobs. The 22 posts from the old blog came across too.
Everything is written plainly enough for ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI answers to repeat it. Ask one of them who builds second storeys in Whitby, or what an addition costs in Durham Region, and Jarvis Contracting's own answer is there to quote.
