From quadruplex to single- family home
Plateau 4- plex transformed into spectacular, light- filled single- family home
A former 1893 Plateau quadruplex has been transformed into a twostorey single- family home with natural light pouring in from an impressive 35- foot- wide skylight into the open- concept main floor that’s finished with white oak.
In the 1970s, the quadruplex was turned into a duplex, said general contractor David Tiedje of Point Carré, who was responsible for the latest redesign and transformation.
Tiedje bought the duplex in 2014 from an owner who lived upstairs and kept more than 20 cats downstairs. The early contractors who entered that lower apartment, Tiedje said, would turn their heads and gag when they walked in since cats had sprayed the shag carpet and faux- wood panelling for years.
The Point Carré renovation was influenced by the Plateau’s 2013 bylaw that charges 10 per cent of the property’s value if more than 30 per cent of the structure is destroyed.
“We wanted to avoid having to pay that,” Tiedje said, and the plans were to demolish that upper limit of 30 per cent.
“The city was very vigilant about making sure ( we) didn’t demolish more,” he continued. “They were there often.
“Structure- wise it made the most sense for us to basically cut the house in half,” he explained.
Now, a half- cylinder double- paned acrylic skylight runs the width of the house. The airy opening beneath it separates two second- floor areas: two kids’ bedrooms and an office accessed from an open corridor with steel- panelled railings; and on the other side, a laundry room and bathroom, and then the master bedroom and bathroom. A glass- railed bridge spans those two second- floor areas and overlooks the kitchen and dining areas of the open main floor.
“That bridge hides the structure that holds up the building,” Tiedje said. It, and the corridor, look to a cedar- enclosed room that has the impression of floating above the dining room and poking out the back of the home.
“It gives that Habitat 67 feel of having different blocks,” Tiedje said of the cantilevered structure finished in western red cedar. It contains the kids’ bathroom, master walk- in closet and master bathroom.
The master bedroom straddles the original second- storey footprint and a 10- by- 17- foot addition to the back of the house. This bedroom’s ceiling of hemlock planks is intersected and supported by hemlock beams.
“It’s a nod to the old way of doing things — that’s how all the old roofs were done,” Tiedje said, noting people have seen the ceiling and assumed it was part of the home’s old structure.
The master and first- floor living space — which includes a white kitchen with an island and white oak accents — look westward into a backyard with a 22- foot- long cedar deck and a grassy lawn in summer.
“With 36 feet from lot to lot, the backyard was a huge focus of the design,” Tiedje said, noting such a lot size is rare for the Plateau, where 20 to 25 feet is the norm.
“When you live in the Plateau and you’re stuck between two homes, you have to get light from the back of the house.”
Main floor windows to the backyard include a nine- foot- high sliding glass door that opens to the deck, two stacked windows the width of the stairs that stretch up two storeys from the base of the stairwell, a glass door from the extension to the deck, and three windows in the extension.
The extension’s exterior is finished with concrete panels that meet the cedar- covered structure housing the second- storey bathrooms.
A discrete stairwell in the extension descends to a basement with a TV room, an electrical room, and heated concrete flooring.
“We had to bring the facade up to a historical reproduction,” Tiedje said, adding this included wroughtiron railings on the front porch and balcony, the staircase up to that balcony, the doors and windows, brickwork and the cornice.
The original metal cornice no longer existed, Tiedje explained, and a wooden replica was made to match the original decoration at the top of a neighbour’s facade.
The home, finished in late summer 2015 with input from its new homeowners, has a central gas furnace, air conditioning and, in the open living room, a gas fireplace.
“In terms of energy efficiency, insulation is always No. 1 on my list,” Tiedje said.
The roof structure has seven inches of urethane foam, he said, and the interior walls are insulated with urethane, while the exterior has one- inch foam board.
“The R- value is pushing 32,” he said, while 24.5 is the standard.
Tiedje, 34, launched Point Carré two years ago and is now working on his fourth transformation of a Plateau home.
He began in carpentry during the off- season while otherwise working as a ski guide in B. C.
“After I had my family, working as a mountain guide was too tough,” he said, and he switched to full- time carpentry in Montreal, and apprenticed with a contractor.
He credits his wife with many of the design choices for this and other Point Carré projects.
While she’s not officially part of the business, he said, “I couldn’t run my business without her.”
Tiedje has Point Carré’s design plans drawn up by an architect, he said, and he oversees the renovations and Point Carré’s four other workers.
“The whole idea behind my renovations is I try to source as much as I can locally,” he said. “I try to build green.”
For a homeowner who is interested in a comparable transformation to this Plateau home, Tiedje estimated $ 200 per square foot, but noted that figure was variable based on factors like existing structure and final finishes.
... I try to source as much as I can locally. I try to build green. DAVID TIEDJE