The Stratford General Hospital West Building Façade Restoration
At Stratford General Hospital, care never paused. Patients moved through the wards, staff worked their shifts, and families came and went through the doors. Several storeys above them, Renokrew renewed the building exterior.
Over two stages of work, Renokrew served as prime contractor on the exterior restoration of the West Building for the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA), working with consultant WalterFedy. The assignment was simple to describe and demanding to deliver replace aging windows, repair and re-clad the façade, and bring the building envelope up to a modern standard while the hospital remained fully operational.
A Hospital That Never Closed
Renovating the exterior of an acute-care hospital is more complex than renovating an empty building. Every decision starts with the people who occupy and are cared for in the facility.
Because the work touched an operating healthcare facility, infection prevention and control governed the site. Renokrew carried that responsibility directly, setting up hoarding, negative air, and sealed work areas wherever exterior work penetrated the interior. Interior disruption was kept to a minimum by design, so the wards below could continue operations.
The rest of the challenge was overhead. Krews worked at heights along the upper levels of an occupied building, staging boom lifts and scaffolding above active entrances and pedestrian routes. That meant sequencing the work elevation by elevation, protecting the areas below, and coordinating daily with hospital operations so that access, deliveries, and services were never affected. As a COR- and ISO-certified contractor, Renokrew treated this as a health and safety project first and a façade project second.
Construction Story
Project One: Levels 5 to 7
The first stage began in 2020 and was completed in 2021, focused on levels 5, 6, and 7 of the West Building. Renokrew replaced the exterior windows across the three levels, repaired the windowsills, and removed and replaced exterior doors and frames. In the areas called out on the drawings, the Krew carried out brick replacement and re-pointing, then installed new exterior metal cladding over the existing brick façade, finished with pre-finished metal cap flashing to match the existing building. To support the hospital's mechanical and electrical upgrades, krews relocated obsolete gas piping and conduits, and added new roof access ladders for safe long-term maintenance. This project also included roof replacements at various levels.
Project Two: The West Building Façade Restoration
Being asked back to do more is the clearest signal a client trusts your work. Tendered as the West Building Façade Restoration Phase 1 and completed in 2026, the second stage extended the envelope work across additional elevations of the same building: W-400 East and West at level 4, W-300 South at levels 4 and 5 with window replacement at levels 3 and 5, and W-200 East at level 5.
The work followed a clear sequence. Krews first addressed the existing brick, re-pointing and replacing masonry and repairing lintels where needed.
A steel sub-girt system was then anchored directly through the masonry sub-structure, building out a grid that would carry the new wall and create a drained cavity behind it. Semi-rigid mineral wool insulation went in next across the full height of the wall, tied into a new air and vapour barrier (AVB) system.
New aluminum window systems were installed into the openings as the insulation closed in around them. On the roof, new mechanical enclosures were framed and clad to match the rest of the wall.
The finished cladding is a two-tone rainscreen system, with insulated metal and ACM panels in red, and white ACM accent bands framing the windows, sealed with new joint sealants and tied into the existing roofing.
Why Re-clad Over Existing Brick
The approach on both stages renewed the wall as a modern, layered assembly rather than tearing the building down to the structure. The air and vapour barrier controls water and air movement through the wall. Sub-girts hold the new cladding off the substrate and create a drained, ventilated cavity behind the panels. Mineral wool insulation set outboard of the structure improves the wall's thermal performance and reduces the risk of condensation within the assembly. The red and white panel cladding acts as a rainscreen, shedding water, while the barrier behind it provides the seal. New aluminum windows tighten the openings, and careful cap flashing, parapet, and lintel detailing directs water away from the vulnerable edges. The result is a drier, warmer, more durable exterior, with a distinct new look, on a building that keeps its existing masonry bones.
Coordination That Kept The Doors Open
The technical scope is only half the story. The other half is delivering it without interrupting an active hospital. Renokrew phased the work elevation by elevation, kept entrances and services clear, and controlled dust and noise near patient areas. Overhead access was staged and protected so the public could keep moving beneath the work, including the hospital's outdoor patient courtyard, which stayed in use throughout construction. Throughout both stages, the Krew held to the standard the project demanded: modern envelope performance, delivered on an active healthcare site.
A Repeat Partner In Ontario Healthcare
The Stratford General Hospital restoration reflects the kind of work Renokrew is built for. It sits alongside a healthcare and institutional portfolio that includes hospice, shelter, and community-care facilities across Ontario, where the common thread is delivering complex construction in occupied, sensitive, and safety-critical environments.
Working with HPHA and WalterFedy across two stages, Renokrew helped extend the service life of a critical public building and gave the West Building a weather-tight, energy-efficient envelope for the decades ahead, without ever asking the hospital to close.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you restore the exterior of a hospital that remains operational?
The site is run as an infection-control project first. Hoarding, negative air machines, and sealed work zones separate the construction from clinical areas, interior disruption is minimized, and the exterior work is phased by elevation, so entrances, deliveries, and services stay available throughout.
What does a façade restoration involve?
It rebuilds the building envelope: repairing masonry, anchoring a steel sub-girt system to the existing wall, installing insulation and an air and vapour barrier, replacing windows, and finishing with a rainscreen cladding system, along with the flashing and sealant details that keep water out.
What is over-cladding, and why do it?
Over-cladding installs a new insulated rainscreen wall over the existing brick rather than demolishing it. It improves thermal performance and weather resistance, refreshes the appearance, and extends the life of the building while keeping the original structure in place.
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