Simcoe & Dufferin · Within an hour
Permit drawings, engineering and inspections in Barrie. We check each lot against By-law 2009-141, or the older by-law some transferred land keeps, and file with the City of Barrie Building Services.
P.Eng · BCIN · Barrie
Six services under one P.Eng and BCIN team, each with its own Barrie page: what it covers, who reviews it here, and what to send to start.
Renovation underway
Renovations, legal basements, additions and custom homes, measured, drawn and taken through the city.
City requests
Handled at no extra charge
Office fit-out
Change of use, alterations and new commercial builds, kept compliant with zoning by-laws and the Ontario Building Code.
Reviewed for
Zoning + Ontario Building Code
Roof trusses
Wood, concrete and steel design stamped by a licensed P.Eng, from a single beam to a full framing package.
Stamped by
Licensed P.Eng (PEO)
Ductwork & lighting
HVAC, plumbing and electrical design, coordinated with the permit package so the trades build from one set.
Deliverable
Permit-ready MEP drawings
Driveway & grading
Grading, drainage and site alteration approvals for driveways, pools and full lot regrades.
Deliverable
Grading & site plans
Front entrance
Pre-purchase and pre-renovation inspections read by an engineer: structure, mechanicals and code, not just surfaces.
Inspected by
Our engineering team
Design · permit · build
We draw it, permit it and build it. When something unexpected turns up behind a wall, the engineering call gets made on site.
Walnut kitchen
Open up a floor plan, rework a kitchen or bathroom, and update the systems behind the walls.
Recent project
Richmond Hill · 2,700 sq ft
Basement suite
Turn a basement into a legal second unit that earns rental income and adds property value.
Recent project
Vaughan · 1,100 sq ft
Suite framing
Detached backyard suites for family or rental income, from the zoning check to the finished build.
Recent project
Richmond Hill · 1,250 sq ft
Addition framing
Additions and new units tied into the existing structure, with the beams, columns and mechanicals worked out first.
Recent project
London · duplex unit
Rear deck
Decks, porches and canopies designed to code, with footings sized for the load.
Recent project
London · 570 sq ft porch
Finished exterior
Custom homes with the architectural and engineering work coordinated by one team.
Recent project
Haldimand County · 1,750 sq ft
Case files
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
A compact two-storey suite in a Toronto backyard. Architectural and structural drawings, zoning review and a framing package that makes every square foot count.
Delivered
New living space on a lot the owners already had.
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Structural walls came out and rooms were added to open the plan. Beam and column design, permit drawings and renovation coordination through to final inspection.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
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A code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
Delivered
A legal second unit that brings in rent and adds property value.
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A new build taken from the client’s sketch to occupancy, with the architectural, structural and mechanical design done by one team.
Delivered
Built to the client’s own plan, with one team answering for every discipline.
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A two-storey garden suite laid out to get the most usable space from the footprint, designed and permitted as a rentable unit.
Delivered
Rental income and a higher property value.
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A dental office converted into a supermarket. Interior renovation, a new plumbing system and fire separations upgraded to the Ontario Fire Code.
Delivered
A dental office reopened as a supermarket, compliant with the Ontario Fire Code.
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A custom covered porch that turns the front of the house into usable outdoor space. Addition design and structural drawings for the permit.
Delivered
More usable outdoor space and added home value.
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Site grading to manage drainage and prepare the land for a new driveway, drawn as a grading plan for the site alteration permit.
Delivered
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Additions, basements, kitchens, new builds and commercial fit-outs. Drag a row to scrub through it, or open any photo full size.Tap any photo to see it full size.
21 platesResidential, commercial & new build
The drawing set
Framing schedules, wall assemblies, dimensions and a city review stamp, as issued. Client title blocks are trimmed off to protect the people we drew them for.
Drawing set
Sheets in this set
Sheet title
Existing basement plan
The existing house recorded before any design: beams, joists and bearing walls.
Drawing no.
2 of 5
Service area
From the office we cover the whole GTA, north to Barrie and Orillia, east to Peterborough and Cobourg, west to Kitchener and Brantford, and down through Niagara.
46 across 8 regions
York Region
Toronto & Peel
Halton
Durham
Simcoe & Dufferin
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
Kawarthas & Northumberland
Past the 90-minute line
We've also completed projects in London and Strathroy. Farther out than that? Call (416) 990-9179 and ask.
Permits filed with municipalities including
Before you call
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179The City of Barrie Building Services. We submit under our own BCIN and P.Eng credentials and stay on the file until the permit is issued.
Yes. Barrie regulates excavation, filling and regrading under its own by-law, separately from the building permit, so a pool, a walkout or a regraded yard can need its own application with a grading plan. We prepare and file it.
Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) covers Barrie. It regulates work near watercourses, valleys, wetlands and floodplains, and its permit comes before the City of Barrie Building Services issues the building permit. The west of the city is under the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority. We check the regulated-area mapping for a Barrie lot at the zoning stage.
All of it, including Allandale, Painswick, Holly and Ardagh Bluffs. Barrie is within an hour of our Richmond Hill office, and the first consultation is free.
For most of the city, Comprehensive Zoning By-law 2009-141, which Council approved in August 2009. Two kinds of land are treated differently: the Allandale Major Transit Station Area, where a Community Planning Permit System is used instead, and land the City took over from Innisfil, Springwater and Oro-Medonte, some of which is still zoned under those municipalities’ own by-laws. We confirm which one governs your lot before the City of Barrie Building Services sees a drawing.
No. Inside the Allandale Major Transit Station Area the system stands in for Zoning By-law 2009-141, so the planning rules a project there must meet come from it rather than from the zoning by-law. The building permit is a separate step under Ontario’s Building Code Act, and the City of Barrie Building Services still has to issue one before construction starts. For a lot in that area we settle the planning side first, then file the permit set, through APLI for a house.
For a house, online through APLI, the City’s application tool, which takes your forms and drawings for the City of Barrie Building Services. Zoning is part of that review, so we test the design against By-law 2009-141, or the by-law that still applies to your lot, before anything is uploaded. When we prepare the drawings, the filing is ours too, and the City’s questions come to us.
Yes. APLI shows the status as the review moves and sends you an email when something changes, so you do not have to phone the City to find out. If the City of Barrie Building Services has comments on the drawings, we answer them and upload the revised sheets to the same application. Where the lot also needs an LSRCA or NVCA permit, that file runs on its own and we follow it alongside.
On a typical house lot, no. Barrie’s Private Tree By-law 2014-115 reaches only trees that form part of a woodlot of half an acre or more, so the trees in an ordinary yard in Painswick or Holly fall outside it. That changes when the work is part of a development application, where a tree permit can come into it even on a residential lot. For a building permit we still mark the trees near the work on the site plan the City of Barrie Building Services receives.
Up to four in a residential zone: the house plus as many as three additional residential units. They can be inside the house, attached to it or in a separate building, and a coach house or a garage can hold one, provided the lot meets its zone’s standards in By-law 2009-141 or whichever by-law applies. Each new unit needs a building permit from the City of Barrie Building Services, so if you plan more than one, we lay out the first with room left for the others.
Searched & answered
Short answers to what homeowners, builders and business owners search most, from deck permits to change of use.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationOnce a complete application is in, Ontario’s Building Code gives the municipality 10 business days to issue a house permit or refuse it with reasons. Larger and more complex buildings get a longer period. The count only starts when nothing is missing, so an absent sheet or an unresolved zoning issue holds it back. Fine Engineering checks zoning and code before anything is submitted.
The application form, the drawings the Building Code calls for, and every other approval the project depends on. Zoning counts as applicable law, so a needed minor variance has to be granted before the permit can be issued, and a lot in a conservation authority’s regulated area may need that authority’s permit first. Fine Engineering assembles the whole package, with the designer’s registration details on the drawings.
Most often because the plans do not show that the work meets the Building Code or applicable law, such as the zoning by-law. A permit is also withheld when the law requires an engineer’s or architect’s design and the drawings lack one, or when the builder of a new home is unlicensed. The refusal must state its reasons, and Fine Engineering revises the set to answer each one.
Stop work and start on the drawings. A stop-work order usually means construction began without a permit or departed from the approved plans. Getting out of it takes a permit application that shows what was built and what is proposed, then whatever inspections the city asks for. Fine Engineering prepares those drawings and replies to the city’s letters.
A municipal inspector visits at set stages to confirm the work matches the permit drawings and the Building Code, and nothing gets covered up until its stage has passed. Footings and framing are typical stages. The final inspection is the one that lets the permit close. On its own projects, Fine Engineering’s drawings are the set the inspector checks against.
It can be revoked, which has much the same effect. The Building Code Act lets the chief building official revoke a permit when work has not seriously begun within six months of issue, or has been halted for over a year. A permit whose inspections were never finished stays open on the property. Fine Engineering can draw what an old permit still needs so the city can close it.
About Barrie
Barrie’s housing runs to high-density waterfront condos built since the 1980s beside established suburban neighbourhoods. Across Allandale, Painswick, Holly and Ardagh Bluffs that mix decides what a permit package has to show, and we measure it on site rather than assume it.
Two Barrie owners describe our work on our review page: a basement apartment legalized through the City of Barrie, and the mechanical and HVAC design for a triplex. The 230 square foot deck in our gallery is a Barrie project too.
The City of Barrie Building Services issues the building permit. Grade changes are covered by Barrie’s own site alteration by-law.
Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) regulates lots near watercourses, valleys, wetlands and floodplains in Barrie, and its permit comes before the city’s.
Barrie took in land from its neighbours in 2009 and on January 1, 2026, and not all of it adopted the City’s zoning. Some Secondary Plan land from Innisfil is still under Innisfil By-law 054-04, while the 2026 boundary land keeps Springwater By-law 5000 or Oro-Medonte By-law 97-95. A house there is measured against the older by-law, so its setbacks can differ from a neighbour’s across the old line.
Barrie lets an owner add up to three additional residential units to a house in a residential zone, for four units in all. One can be in the basement, one in an addition and one in a coach house or over a garage, or any other mix the zone’s standards allow. If you build in stages, we place the first unit so the later ones still fit the setbacks and the lot coverage.
By-law 2014-115 is written around woodlots. It covers injuring a tree as well as removing one, but only where the trees belong to a woodlot of half an acre or larger. On a typical house lot that means an addition, a garden suite or a pool goes ahead without a tree permit. A development application is the exception, and on one of those we check the trees against the by-law before the layout is fixed.
Contact us
Tell us what you’re planning and we’ll map the path from idea to permit to construction.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179