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Service Design

GridOne

Work in progress

A tailored building-maintenance & consulting firm — one scan carries all the way through to a signed contract.

Year
2026 / Jun
Type
Service Design
Scope
6-step service pipeline
Status
Under construction
🚧
This case study is under active construction. The stages below open on click. The research foundation — problem, demand, stakeholders, and system architecture — is in place; the 16:9 thumbnails are placeholders for stage walkthrough videos still in production.
6
Steps in one pipeline — scan to signed contract
$61B
2025 Canadian residential renovation spend
32%
Ontario homeowners hit by renovation scams
Design StrategyThree-horizon roadmap — scroll through H-1 to H-3
Three Horizons · H-1 → H-3
Strategy · Contracts · Regulatory · Platform
Horizon 1 · 0–12 moNow · Establish
Land the Toronto wedge
Scan-to-contract MVP for aging-home owners
  • Strategy — direct-to-consumer, single-city beachhead in Toronto
  • Contracts — onboard verified consultants & Toronto-registered contractors; standardized scope & e-sign templates
  • Regulatory — map OBC + Toronto by-laws; engage City of Toronto Building & ESA on the code checklist
  • Tactics — transparent Aging-Index estimate; consultant fit-score matching
  • Digital platform — launch iOS/Android capture app; owner-side entry point
Horizon 2 · 12–36 moNext · Expand
A two-sided maintenance marketplace
Recurring upkeep & contractor network across the GTA / Ontario
  • Strategy — two-sided marketplace with recurring maintenance subscriptions
  • Contracts — framework agreements with contractor networks, property/condo managers; insurer referral partnerships
  • Regulatory — PIPEDA data governance; instrument-calibration standards; accreditation with TSSA / ESA
  • Tactics — subscription upkeep plans; bundled inspections; retrofit-incentive navigation
  • Digital platform — open API + BLE instrument ecosystem; partner integrations
Horizon 3 · 36 mo+Later · Transform
The trusted building-data layer
Predictive maintenance & condition data across Canada
  • Strategy — become the data infrastructure for building condition & predictive maintenance
  • Contracts — enterprise & municipal contracts; insurance / mortgage underwriting data deals
  • Regulatory — shape retrofit standards; partner on provincial/federal retrofit programs; contribute to code modernization
  • Tactics — Aging-Index benchmarking; embedded retrofit financing
  • Digital platform — platform-as-infrastructure; data licensing; national coverage
Problem Definition
Preview coming soon

Owners approach renovation
with almost no leverage

GridOne targets the three structural frictions that break trust in the process — and dissolves each one with data.

01
Information asymmetry
Estimates arrive as a black box. Owners can't see how a number is built or whether it's fair, and cost overruns surface only after work begins.
Black boxNo transparent, measured basis for the price
02
Trust
Contractors go unverified. It's hard to know which professional or firm actually deserves the job — and the fallout is widespread.
32%of Ontario homeowners admit being scammed; only 15% think enough is done to prevent it
03
Regulatory complexity
The Ontario Building Code and Toronto by-laws are near-impossible to self-assess — covering structure, energy, plumbing, and fire safety.
4–12 wkstypical Toronto permit review; incomplete, non-compliant applications are the top cause of delay
Research
Preview coming soon

Toronto's housing stock is
old, and getting older

These homes are reaching end-of-service-life — wiring, plumbing, insulation, and structure all need modernization, which keeps renovation demand large and durable.

~60%
of Toronto's housing stock was built before 1981 — nearly 30% before 1960.
Source: City of Toronto housing data · Woodsmith, 2025
87%
of the GTA's purpose-built rental stock was built before 1980 — a deep, recurring maintenance backlog.
Source: BILD GTA, 2023
3
sides of the market GridOne must serve at once — demand, expert supply, and governance.
Stakeholder mapping

One pipeline, three sides
of the market

GridOne connects the owners who hold demand, the experts who verify and deliver, and the governance and instruments that make trust auditable.

DEMAND SIDE
Homeowners · primary
Aging-home & condo owners in Toronto / GTA needing renovation or maintenance
Property & condo managers
Recurring maintenance across multiple aging units
Face opaque estimates, unverified trades, and unreadable code — and carry all the risk.
EXPERT / SUPPLY SIDE
Verified consultants
Matched by fit score; run the on-site code check
Certified inspectors
Operate instruments; capture live measurement telemetry
Toronto-registered contractors
Receive the locked, signed scope and execute the work
Use GridOne as a working tool rather than a scatter of disconnected apps.
GOVERNANCE & INFRA
City of Toronto
Ontario Building Code & municipal by-laws — the compliance backbone
Instrument vendors
Leica DISTO, Protimeter, FLIR — BLE-paired hardware
Verification / data layer
Turns scans, readings, and checks into an auditable record
Provide the standards and signals that make every estimate defensible.
Market Analysis
Preview coming soon

Large, growing, and
structurally under-served

Renovation is now the majority of Canadian residential investment, and code-driven retrofits are accelerating it — yet no one owns the transparent, code-verified estimate.

$61B
Canadian residential renovation expenditure in 2025 (+2.9% YoY) — roughly 56% of all residential construction investment.
Source: IBISWorld · Statistics Canada, 2025
1.2M
pre-1980 units targeted by 2025 building-code retrofit mandates, pushing that segment to a ~5.2% CAGR.
Source: Mordor Intelligence · CHBA, 2026
5.2%
CAGR for retrofit-driven renovation through 2033 — durable, regulation-backed demand growth.
Source: Mordor Intelligence, 2026

From a $105B sector to a
Toronto beachhead

GridOne narrows a national market to a defensible entry wedge: Toronto owners of aging homes who want a transparent, code-verified path from estimate to contract.

TAM — TOTAL ADDRESSABLE MARKET
$105B
Canada — renovation, maintenance & repair
The full national residential renovation, maintenance & repair sector — the outer boundary of the opportunity GridOne addresses.
$61B
Renovation expenditure, 2025 (+2.9% YoY)
~5%
Retrofit-driven CAGR through 2033
Sources: Made in CA · Statistics Canada · IBISWorld, 2025–26
SAM — SERVICEABLE ADDRESSABLE MARKET
~$30B
Ontario — residential renovation & maintenance
Ontario is Canada's largest provincial renovation market, powered by the oldest, densest owner-occupied stock — annualized from Q1 2026 spend.
$7.58B
Ontario renovation spend, Q1 2026 alone
$11,560
Avg. spend per Ontario homeowner
Sources: Wood Industry (Q1 2026) · Made in CA
SOM — SERVICEABLE OBTAINABLE MARKET
~360K
Toronto — aging owner-occupied homes
The scan-to-contract beachhead: owner-occupied Toronto homes built before 1981 that need modernization and can't self-assess code.
601,652
Owner-occupied Toronto dwellings (51.9%)
~60%
Built before 1981 → the target segment
Sources: City of Toronto census · Point2Homes, 2024
Prototyping
Preview coming soon

Four layers, one continuous
data handoff

Each layer transforms the one below it and passes structured data up. Nothing is re-entered — the scan captured in Layer 1 is still doing work at the contract in Layer 4.

L1
Capture Layer
A 3D polygon scan is built from smartphone camera footage — real-world terrain and spatial data extracted as vertex geometry. This measured mesh is the single source of truth for everything downstream.
Smartphone capture3D polygon scanVertex geometry
→ passes up: measured spatial mesh
L2
Analysis Layer
Area, ceiling height, and openings are auto-extracted from the mesh. An Aging Index plus latent plumbing, electrical, and insulation risk are quantified into an instant, transparent estimate range — and a fit-scored consultant match.
Auto measurementAging IndexRisk quantificationFit score
→ passes up: measured scope + estimate range
L3
Verification Layer
On site, a 10-item Ontario Building Code & Toronto by-law checklist verifies compliance, while BLE-paired instruments stream live telemetry that AI reads and ranks into scored repair recommendations.
OBC · by-law checklistBLE telemetryLeica · Protimeter · FLIRAI scoring
→ passes up: verified, code-checked findings
L4
Contract Layer
Verified results are locked into a standard contract and closed with an e-signature, then matched to a Toronto-registered contractor to begin work — the whole chain traceable back to the original scan.
Standard contractE-signatureRegistered contractorsAudit trail
→ output: signed, auditable scope of work

Six steps, one pipeline

Capture → auto-analysis → transparent estimate → code check → measurement → contract, handled continuously inside one app. Each step inherits the data the previous one produced.

01
ScanInput — smartphone camera footage

A 3D polygon scan built from smartphone camera footage. Real-world terrain and spatial data are extracted as vertex geometry — the measured foundation everything downstream is built on.

3D polygon scanVertex geometrySmartphone capture
02
MatchInherits — scan mesh

Area, ceiling height, and openings are auto-extracted from the scan mesh, then a verified consultant is matched against the scope of work with a fit score.

Auto measurementFit scoreVerified consultants
03
EstimateInherits — measured scope

An Aging Index plus latent plumbing, electrical, and insulation risk are quantified to produce an instant, transparent estimate range — not a black box.

Aging IndexRisk quantificationInstant range
04
CodesInherits — estimate + site visit

On the consultant's site visit, a 10-item checklist grounded in the Ontario Building Code (OBC) and Toronto by-laws verifies compliance before anything is committed.

OBCToronto by-laws10-point checklist
05
InspectInherits — code-checked scope

Measurement instruments pair over BLE and stream live telemetry. AI reads the readings and recommends repairs by score, turning raw instrument data into a ranked action list.

Leica DISTOProtimeterFLIRBLE telemetryAI scoring
06
E-signInherits — verified inspection

Verified results are locked into a standard contract and closed with an e-signature — then connected to a Toronto-registered contractor to start the work.

Standard contractE-signatureRegistered contractors

Resolve asymmetry, trust, and
complexity — with continuity

When capture, analysis, estimate, code check, measurement, and contract all live in one flow, the owner stops chasing a different person at every step — and every price becomes a measured, auditable claim rather than a black box.

Sources  ·  City of Toronto Housing Data · Woodsmith — Toronto aging housing · IBISWorld — Residential renovation expenditure · Mordor Intelligence — Canada residential construction · Newswire — Ontario renovation scam survey · City of Toronto — Building permits & OBC