Structural Engineering · Barrie
Structural engineering in Barrie by our P.Eng: underpinning, beams where a wall comes out of a suburban house, framing and footings for a coach house or garage unit, steel for commercial units, and engineer’s letters, each set stamped for the City of Barrie Building Services.
What’s included
Structure is the sheet the permit examiner reads most carefully. Ours is designed by the engineer who visited the site, drawn so a framer or a fabricator can build from it, and stamped in-house. In Barrie the package goes to the City of Barrie Building Services, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Custom homes & additions
Beams, joists, posts and roof framing sized for the spans and loads of the building, balancing strength, efficiency and the architecture.
Foundations & slabs
Footings, foundation walls, underpinning and slabs designed for the soil and the loads above, for long-term performance.
Commercial & industrial
Steel framing for commercial units and industrial buildings, with the beams, columns, joists and connections detailed for fabrication.
Inspections & letters
Evaluation of what is already built: structural inspections, responses to city letters, code compliance reviews and special solutions for hard sites.
The package
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
08 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps from a site visit to a stamped set. The engineer who sees the framing is the one who signs the drawings.
We look at what carries what: framing direction, bearing walls, foundation condition and anything the last renovation hid. Photos and measurements go into the file.
Dead, live, snow and wind loads are worked out for the building and the site, and the load path is traced from the roof to the footings.
Members and connections are sized, detailed and drawn so a framer or a steel fabricator can build from them without guessing, then stamped by our P.Eng.
We answer the examiner’s structural comments at no extra charge and, where the permit requires general review, inspect at the stages the city sets and issue the field reports.
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.
Start a project like this
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.
Start a project like this
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.
Start a project like this
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.
Start a project like this
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.
Start a project like this
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.
Start a project like this
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.
Start a project like this
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) 990-9179A building permit from the City of Barrie Building Services, because both alter or extend the structure of the house. Barrie also has a site alteration by-law, and we ask the city whether any regrading or retaining wall falls under it. Where the design has to be engineered, our P.Eng stamps it and signs the Commitment to General Reviews the permit calls for.
If the lot is inside the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) regulated area, yes. Ontario’s Conservation Authorities Act prohibits development in hazardous lands, wetlands, river or stream valleys and shorelines at risk of flooding or erosion unless the authority issues a permit. We design the footings to its conditions and settle that permit with the LSRCA, then apply to Barrie for the building permit.
Yes. We take on structural engineering across Barrie, including Allandale and Painswick, within an hour of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: property address and what you plan to change; existing drawings or previous permits, if any; and photos of the framing, the foundation or the problem area. Send those and we tell you what the City of Barrie Building Services will ask for before we quote.
Yes. Taking out a bearing wall is a structural alteration, so the City of Barrie Building Services needs a permit, with the beam design stamped, before demolition starts. For a house the application goes in through APLI, and the stamped beam and post details are uploaded with the rest of the drawings.
Sometimes, and our P.Eng checks before you plan around it. Barrie counts coach houses and garages among the buildings that can hold an additional unit, but a garage slab and its footings were usually built for cars, not for a dwelling or a second floor. We measure what is there, check the foundation and framing against the new loads, and design the strengthening the City of Barrie Building Services will see in the permit set.
On most house lots, no. By-law 2014-115 applies only where trees form part of a woodlot of half an acre or more, so a footing beside an ordinary yard tree needs no tree permit. Near a tree you want to keep, we still look at foundations that disturb less soil, such as piers. If the work is part of a development application, we check the by-law with the City before the stamped set goes to the City of Barrie Building Services.
Yes. Our P.Eng follows the load path through the framing and the foundation and writes a report on what it finds, stamped where a repair needs a permit from the City of Barrie Building Services. In the established suburban houses of Allandale or Painswick, we look first for joists notched for a duct and for a post moved when the basement was finished. If you plan a basement or garage unit, the report also says what the structure needs to carry it.
It can, because the new use may load the floor or the roof harder than the old one did, such as a restaurant kitchen or new rooftop equipment. Once the use is confirmed as permitted, under By-law 2009-141 or the Community Planning Permit System in the Allandale station area, our P.Eng checks the existing beams and joists against those loads. Any strengthening goes on stamped sheets in the change of use set for the City of Barrie Building Services.
Our P.Eng, because the engineer who designed the beam or the footing is the one who can defend it or change it. On a set we filed, the examiner’s comment comes to us. We revise the stamped sheets where the point is right, explain the calculation where the design already works, and upload the reply to the same APLI application, whose status updates show you when the answer has gone in.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the structural engineering questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationUnderpinning deepens an existing foundation by building new footings beneath the old ones, one short section at a time, so the house stays supported throughout. It is the usual way to lower a basement for more headroom, and it is also used to repair a foundation that has settled. Fine Engineering designs the sequence and the new footings, then reviews the stages the permit calls for on site.
A structural engineer works out how a building carries its loads from the roof down to the footings, then sizes the beams, columns, joists and foundations to carry them safely. On a house that usually means wall removals, additions, underpinning, or a look at cracks and sagging floors. At Fine Engineering the P.Eng who designs the structure also stamps the drawings.
Once 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.
Good to know
In Barrie the reviewer is the City of Barrie Building Services. Every Barrie lot sets its own terms: the age of the framing, what the last renovation hid and how the load reaches the foundation all shape the design.
We walk the site with the survey on a scheduled visit before anything is drawn, then file the structural engineering package to the City of Barrie Building Services’s own checklist.
Barrie has high-density waterfront condos built since the 1980s beside established suburban neighbourhoods. In an established suburban house, the wall an open plan removes usually stands over the basement beam. An earlier owner may already have moved walls, so we trace the load from the roof down on site.
When a Barrie basement is lowered, the underpinning drawings number the dig sequence, and the depth, the soil and the neighbouring footings decide whether that design has to be engineered. That work is in the houses of the established suburban neighbourhoods, not the condo buildings, and we measure the existing footing at a test pit so the sequence fits what is there.
The LSRCA is not the only conservation authority in Barrie. The west of the city is under the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority. Which one reviews a footing depends on where the lot sits, so we check the lot against each authority’s mapping.
The LSRCA and the NVCA both work under Ontario Regulation 41/24, which regulates a valley with stable slopes to the stable top of the bank plus 15 metres and extends the prohibition on development to 30 metres from a wetland.
Opening a demising wall, adding a mezzanine or carrying new rooftop equipment usually means steel in a Barrie commercial unit, with a check on the open web steel joists overhead. We draw it to the architectural plans, so the City of Barrie Building Services examiner reads one set. APLI is the City’s tool for residential permits, so for a commercial unit we confirm with Building Services how the stamped sheets should be filed.
A basement unit is often the first of the three additional units a Barrie lot can take, and in an established suburban house it usually means structural work. A larger window cut into the foundation wall needs a lintel, a new entrance needs its opening framed, and a low beam may have to be replaced to keep headroom under the ducts. Our P.Eng designs each of those on the same stamped set as the unit.
Contact us
Send us photos and the address and we’ll tell you whether it needs an engineer, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179