Canada Cost Guides
How Much Does Furnace Replacement Cost in Canada?
Typical cost in Canada
$7,000
$4,000 low · $13,000 high
All-in replacement price: new furnace, labour, old-unit removal & permit · Updated July 2026
Replacing a furnace in Canada costs $4,000 to $13,000 installed, and most homeowners pay around $7,000 for a high-efficiency natural gas furnace. These are installed replacement prices: the new furnace, labour, venting and gas reconnection, hauling the old unit away, and the permit. A like-for-like swap in a townhouse mechanical closet sits at the bottom. A large detached house where the venting no longer suits what's going in sits at the top, and that gap is mostly venting and sheet metal, not the furnace itself.
This guide covers prices by job type, by province and by city, exactly what a quote should include, a calculator for your setup, how the work goes step by step, and how to avoid overpaying.
Canada-wide figures currently reflect British Columbia — the first province we've priced. Licensing, permits, and rebates vary by province; the province guides carry the local specifics.
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By the PlumbingCosts.ca team — we track published contractor rates, supplier pricing, and permit fees across Canada because you deserve to know a fair price before anyone's in your basement.
Price by Job Type
| Job | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-efficiency gas furnace (80% AFUE) | $4,000 | $5,600 | $7,500 |
| High-efficiency gas furnace (95%+ AFUE) | $4,800 | $7,000 | $9,500 |
| Condo or townhouse install | $5,500 | $6,500 | $7,500 |
| Large or complex detached install | $9,000 | $11,000 | $13,000 |
Cost by Province
Labour rates swing province to province — open your province for local prices, permit notes, and a market-tuned estimate.
- British Columbia $4,000–$13,000 · 21 cities
- Alberta Next up
- Ontario Next up
- Quebec Planned
- Manitoba Planned
- Saskatchewan Planned
- Nova Scotia Planned
- New Brunswick Planned
- Prince Edward Island Planned
- Newfoundland and Labrador Planned
What's in the Price — and What Isn't
In the price
- The new furnace, sized to a heat-loss calculation rather than to whatever was sitting there before
- Disconnecting, dismantling, removing, and disposing of the old furnace, metal recycling included
- Reconnecting gas and electrical, and setting up the thermostat
- Venting connections, plus the condensate drain or pump on a condensing unit
- Sheet-metal transitions to tie the new cabinet into the existing supply plenum and return
- Start-up: gas manifold pressure, temperature rise across the exchanger, airflow, and a combustion and CO check
- The gas permit and the inspection that closes it
Costs extra
- Chimney relining or a new sidewall vent when the switch to condensing orphans your water heater (+$500–1,500)
- Duct repairs, resizing, or new runs beyond the plenum transition (+$500–1,500)
- Electrical upgrades where a dedicated circuit or panel work is needed (+$1,000–2,000)
- Asbestos abatement on old duct tape or furnace cement, which turns up in pre-1990 homes
- Adding an air conditioner or a heat pump coil in the same visit
Two lines tell you whether a furnace quote is honest: the exact model number, and what happens to the venting. A quote that drops in a condensing furnace without saying a word about the chimney and the water heater still using it is a quote with a change order folded inside.
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What Moves the Price
- Efficiency tier
- Moving from an 80% mid-efficiency unit to a 95%+ condensing furnace is about $800–2,000 more in equipment. It also changes how the thing breathes: condensing furnaces exhaust through plastic pipe out a sidewall instead of up the old chimney.
- Venting and the orphaned chimney
- The sleeper cost on older BC homes. Once a condensing furnace stops using the chimney, the gas water heater is left alone on a flue sized for two appliances, which no longer drafts properly. Relining or re-venting runs $500–1,500.
- House size and ductwork
- Duct condition and blower matching are what separate a $5,500 townhouse job from a $12,000 detached one. Undersized return air is common in 1960s to 1980s stock and usually gets corrected while the cabinet is out.
- Gas permit
- Technical Safety BC charges a contractor $116 for a gas permit covering one or two appliances in 2026, or $164 if a homeowner pulls it. Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Kelowna, North Vancouver, and Maple Ridge run their own gas programs on their own fee schedules instead.
- Electrical and condensate
- A condensing furnace produces acidic condensate that needs a drain or a pump, and some older installs turn out to need a dedicated circuit. Budget $1,000–2,000 where the electrical side has to be upgraded.
- When it fails
- A furnace that quits in a January cold snap gets replaced at January terms. The trade is booked solid, overtime is real, and you have no room to collect three quotes and compare model numbers.
Where a typical $7,000 job goes:
- Materials
- 61% · ~$4,270
- Labour
- 36% · ~$2,520
- Permit & disposal
- 3% · ~$210
How the Job Actually Goes
-
Sizing and assessment
The contractor measures heat loss, checks the ducts and the return air, and looks at how the current unit vents. Because most BC furnaces installed before 2000 are badly oversized, the replacement is often smaller than what's coming out.
Included in the quote
-
Shut down and pull the old furnace
Gas and power get isolated, the cabinet is disconnected from the plenum, the vent, and the gas line, and it goes out the door. Thirty-year-old units leave in pieces more often than in one piece.
Removal and disposal, priced around $225 where it's itemized
-
Set the new unit and adapt the sheet metal
The furnace is levelled, tied into the supply plenum and the return, and connected to gas, power, and the thermostat. The transitions are cut and made on site, which is why the labour hours look the way they do.
$1,500–3,500 of the labour on a standard install
-
Venting and condensate
A condensing furnace gets a plastic intake and exhaust pair out a sidewall plus a condensate route to a drain or pump. A mid-efficiency unit stays on the existing chimney, which then gets checked for whatever is left venting into it.
$500–1,500 when venting has to change
-
Fire, balance, and test
The gasfitter sets manifold pressure, measures temperature rise across the heat exchanger, checks combustion and CO, and leak-tests every joint. Those numbers belong on your invoice.
Included
-
Permit inspection
The gas permit gets closed out by Technical Safety BC or by the city, depending on who runs the program where you live. TSBC allows 180 days from permit issue to request the inspection.
$116 contractor or $164 homeowner through TSBC; municipal programs set their own fees
Do It Yourself or Hire a Pro?
Doing it yourself
- You can trim real money off the edges: clearing the mechanical room, hauling the old cabinet to scrap, and handling the finishing work afterward
- Equipment can be bought outright, with a mid-range unit around $3,000–4,500 and an entry-level one from $2,000
- A homeowner gas permit only covers a single-family home you own and live in — strata, duplex, and home-business properties are barred from it outright and need a licensed contractor by rule
- Venting and combustion are the parts that hurt people. Improper venting on a mid-efficiency unit spills flue gas into the house, and carbon monoxide gives no warning
- Every major furnace brand ties its warranty to licensed installation and registration
- Sizing by replacing like for like carries forward whatever mistake the last installer made, and most BC furnaces from before 2000 were oversized by a wide margin
Hiring a licensed pro
- A licensed gasfitter is what Technical Safety BC and your insurer both expect to find on the paperwork
- Combustion analysis at start-up, which is the difference between a furnace running to spec and one running rich for a decade while you pay for it
- The old unit leaves the same day, the permit is pulled, and the inspection is booked
- Manufacturer warranty registered and intact, with workmanship coverage layered on top
- Labour and permit add roughly $1,500–3,500 over the equipment on a standard job, and $3,500–5,000 on a complex one
- During a cold snap the entire trade is booked and pricing has no give in it
Our take: A BC homeowner can legally pull a gas permit for a single-family home they own and occupy, which makes furnace DIY technically possible in a way that strata work never is. It's still the wrong call. Venting and combustion mistakes are the kind that fill a house with carbon monoxide overnight, and no major manufacturer will honour a warranty on an unlicensed install.
Signs It's Time to Replace
- The furnace is past 15 and the latest repair quote is creeping toward a third of what a replacement costs
- Rooms that were never cold are cold now, and the blower runs almost continuously to keep up
- The burner flame is yellow and lazy instead of steady blue, or there's soot around the burner compartment
- A cracked heat exchanger has been red-tagged — that's a shutdown, not a repair conversation
- Gas bills climbing with no change in the weather or the thermostat schedule
- Short cycling: it fires, runs a few minutes, shuts off, and does it again twenty minutes later
How to Keep the Cost Down
- Replace it in July, not January. A furnace bought during a cold snap is bought on the contractor's schedule and at the contractor's price
- Get a heat pump quoted in the same visit. It handles cooling as well and carries CleanBC and BC Hydro rebates that a gas furnace does not — the net numbers often land closer than the sticker prices suggest
- Don't wait for a FortisBC furnace rebate. The dual-fuel program closed on December 18, 2025, and the remaining Connect to Natural Gas rebate of up to $3,800 applies only to homes converting off oil or propane
- Match efficiency to the venting you actually have. Where re-venting is expensive, an 80% unit that keeps the chimney honest can beat a 95% unit plus $1,500 of chimney work
- Insist on the model number on every quote. Two bids $1,800 apart usually turn out to be two different furnaces, not two different labour rates
- If cooling is coming within a couple of years, add the coil now. The plenum is already open and the sheet metal is already being cut
Questions to Ask Before You Hire
- Are you licensed with Technical Safety BC for gas work, and is the permit inside this price?
- What heat-loss figure did you size this furnace to?
- If this is a condensing unit, what happens to my chimney and to the water heater venting into it?
- Is removal and disposal of the old furnace included, or a separate line?
- Will the combustion and temperature-rise readings go on my invoice?
- How long is the workmanship warranty, and do you register the manufacturer warranty for me?
While the Plumber Is There
Call-out time is a big share of any bill — if one of these applies to your home, pricing it in the same visit usually beats a separate appointment.
The other half of this decision, and the only half with rebate money attached. Get both priced on the same house before you sign anything.
The cheapest moment to add a cooling coil and a line set is while the furnace is out and the plenum is already open. Doing it two summers later means paying for that access twice.
A new condensing furnace leaves your gas water heater alone on a chimney built for two appliances. That's a drafting problem, and often the moment it makes sense to do both.