Quick-Service Restaurant Build-Out — Toronto | GTA Commercial Renovation Case Study

Project type

Full interior build-out of a quick-service restaurant, taken from a vacant retail shell to an opening-ready store.

Location

Toronto, Ontario.

Approximate scope

Nine weeks from demolition to handover. Front-of-house dining room with self-order kiosks and a front service counter, a separate mobile and delivery pickup station, a full commercial cook line, walk-in cooler and freezer, dry storage, staff areas and two accessible washrooms.

Completed quick-service restaurant dining room, self-order kiosks and front counter in Toronto — The finished store on handover — dining room, self-order kiosks and front counter.

Where we started

The unit came to us vacant: an old ceiling grid, a bare slab and none of the services a restaurant needs. Everything below and above the finished surfaces had to be built new.

Vacant retail unit in Toronto before a quick-service restaurant build-out by Buildup Contracting — Before — the unit on day one, still carrying the previous tenant's ceiling and finishes.

Concrete slab with restaurant layout lines marked out after demolition in a Toronto QSR build-out — After demolition — the slab swept clean and the full kitchen and dining layout snapped out before a single wall went up.

Scope of work

Demolition of the existing ceiling, partitions and finishes
Layout of the equipment and partition grid directly on the slab
Saw-cutting and under-slab sanitary and grease waste plumbing, then backfill and slab patching
Steel stud framing throughout the front- and back-of-house
Electrical distribution, panels and device rough-in
Kitchen exhaust hood, make-up air and HVAC ductwork
Suspended T-bar ceilings and washable back-of-house ceiling systems
Drywall, taping and paint, including brand bulkheads and accent walls
Porcelain tile flooring and full-height tile in the washrooms
Front counter and mobile-pickup millwork with tiled facing
Walk-in cooler and freezer, dry storage shelving and tankless water heaters
Kitchen equipment set, connection and commissioning
Two washrooms with accessible fixtures and grab bars

The work under the slab

On a restaurant build-out the schedule is decided underground. Every floor drain, grease line and sanitary run was cut in, laid and backfilled before framing started, because once the walls and the cook line are in, getting back into the slab costs weeks.

Under-slab sanitary and grease waste plumbing rough-in for a Toronto quick-service restaurant — Sanitary and grease waste roughed in below the slab — the work nobody sees, and the work the rest of the schedule sits on.

Steel stud framing through the back-of-house of a quick-service restaurant build-out in Toronto — Steel stud framing through the back-of-house, set off the layout marked on the slab rather than off drawings alone.

The tightest zone: above the ceiling

The ceiling cavity of a QSR carries the exhaust hood, make-up air, HVAC, sprinklers, electrical and the ceiling grid itself — all inside a few hundred millimetres. Coordinating that plenum early is what keeps the hood, the lighting and the finished ceiling line from fighting each other later.

Commercial kitchen exhaust hood and make-up air ductwork roughed in above the ceiling grid — Kitchen exhaust hood and make-up air ductwork coordinated with the ceiling grid before board went up.

Board, tape and finish paint complete, with the brand bulkheads formed and the space ready for equipment.

The finished store

Front-of-house was built around throughput: kiosks and counter separated from a dedicated mobile and delivery pickup station, so app orders and walk-in orders do not collide at the same window. Back-of-house was set out around the cook line, with the equipment fixed to the layout that was marked on the slab in week one.

Finished front service counter and mobile and delivery pickup station in a Toronto QSR — Front service counter and the separate mobile-and-delivery pickup station.

Finished commercial kitchen cook line with stainless equipment in a Toronto quick-service restaurant — Finished cook line — stainless equipment set, connected and commissioned, ready for staff training.

Timeline

Nine weeks from the start of demolition to handover, with under-slab plumbing, framing, mechanical rough-in, board, tile and equipment sequenced so no trade sat waiting on the one ahead of it.

Outcome

An opening-ready quick-service restaurant delivered in nine weeks. QSR build-outs run harder and cost more per square foot than office fit-outs, because the money sits in kitchen ventilation, gas, under-slab drainage and health-department requirements rather than in finishes — and because almost none of it can be resequenced once the slab closes. If you are pricing a restaurant build-out in Toronto or the GTA, that is the part of the schedule worth planning around.

Quick-Service Restaurant Build-Out — Toronto