Interior Renovations · Hamilton
Home renovation in Hamilton for a kitchen, bathroom or main floor you want opened up, designed by our P.Eng and BCIN team and then built. Hamilton’s housing is an aging stock, with single-detached houses the largest share and ages that change from ward to ward, so we measure yours before sizing any beam that replaces a bearing wall. The drawings go in through the City’s Customer Portal at my.hamilton.ca.
What’s included
Most interior work we build starts with a wall someone wants gone. The rest follows from that: the beam, the systems behind the drywall, the finishes, and the inspections in between. In Hamilton the package goes to the City of Hamilton Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
The wet rooms
New layouts, plumbing moved to suit them, and the ventilation and electrical brought up to code while the walls are open.
Rooms combined
Combining rooms, widening openings and moving a stair so the main floor works as one space.
Engineered in-house
The beam, its posts and the footing under them designed and stamped by our P.Eng, with shoring in place before a stud is cut.
Behind the drywall
Systems updated while the walls are open: supply and drains rerouted, ducts resized, circuits added.
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.
06 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps, one contract. The office that draws the beam is the one that installs it.
We look at the house, listen to what you want changed, and tell you which walls carry load and what the permit will cover.
Layout, structural and mechanical drawings come from one office, then go to the city. We answer examiner comments at no extra charge.
Our crew does the demolition, structure, rough-ins and finishes. When something unexpected turns up behind a wall, the engineer decides on site.
Framing, plumbing, electrical and final inspections are booked as each stage is ready. You get the closed permit with the keys.
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) 990-9179Yes, once walls or plumbing move. Hamilton is a single-tier city, so the City of Hamilton Building Division issues the building permit and inspects the work with no regional layer, and that is where we file it.
Not for work inside the existing walls. Our Hamilton page names the conservation authority that covers your lot.
Yes. We take on interior renovations across Hamilton, including Ancaster and Dundas, within an hour of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: property address; photos of the rooms you want to change; and any existing drawings or a previous permit. Send those and we tell you what the City of Hamilton Building Division will ask for before we quote.
We do. The City takes permit applications online through its Customer Portal, which you sign into at my.hamilton.ca, and the examiner’s comments on the renovation drawings come back to us there. We answer each round and resubmit until the City of Hamilton Building Division issues the permit, and you see every comment along with our reply.
We do, from the Permitting and Inspections section of the same portal the application went in through. An inspector from the City of Hamilton Building Division checks the work at the stages the permit sets out, and between visits the portal shows where the file stands. When the last inspection passes, the permit is closed instead of being left open on the property.
First, a check of the address against the eight districts Hamilton has designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, which include Durand-Markland, Cross-Melville and Hamilton Beach. For any part of the renovation that changes the outside of the house, such as a new window opening or a moved door, we ask the City what the district requires before it is drawn. The set then goes to the City of Hamilton Building Division with that question answered.
Yes. House ages in Hamilton change so much from ward to ward that we look at the framing above the wall on site instead of going by the year the house was built. Our P.Eng then sizes the beam and the posts that carry it down to the foundation, and that structural sheet goes with the new floor plan to the City of Hamilton Building Division.
Yes. Hamilton has permitted additional dwelling units since May 2021, and some zones allow up to four units on one property, so a renovation now can make a unit easier to add later. We find out whether your lot is under Zoning By-law No. 05-200 or still under its former community’s by-law, then put the drain stack, the basement stair and the furnace room where a future unit could reach them. Building the unit itself takes a separate permit from the City of Hamilton Building Division.
Yes. The new drains and vents have to tie into the main stack, so in an older Hamilton house we trace the existing lines on site before the layout is fixed, and where the basement is finished we route them to open as few ceilings as we can. Moving plumbing needs a permit, and the plumbing sheets go in through the Customer Portal with the rest of the renovation set.
That turns on how much of the structure is worth keeping and what a new house on the lot could be. Our P.Eng checks the foundation and framing, and we read the zoning a rebuild would face: Zoning By-law No. 05-200 for most lots, or Ancaster’s 87-57 or Dundas’s 3581-86 where the property has not moved over yet. Robert Grin, our director and broker of record at Fine Homes Real Estate, can then weigh what each route would do for the property’s value.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the interior renovations questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationIt takes out or widens the walls between rooms, most often between the kitchen, dining and living areas, to make one open main floor. A wall that carries the floor above can still come out once a beam is sized to carry its load. Fine Engineering designs the structure and builds the opening.
The price follows what the basement has to become. Open space finished for the house is mostly framing, insulation, drywall and floors. A bathroom with no rough-in under the slab adds plumbing, and moving a post adds structure. A second unit costs more again, with the fire separation, exit and 1.95 m ceiling a suite needs. Fine Engineering prices it from what the first site visit finds.
Start by settling what the space is for, because that decides the permit. Living space for the household usually needs none unless the plan changes the structure, the plumbing or the heating. Any of those, or a second unit, goes on a building permit first. The layout then works around the posts and drains already there. Fine Engineering draws that layout and files the permit.
Usually a whole floor, or the whole house, taken back to the framing and rebuilt: a new layout, structural changes where walls move, plumbing and ducts rerouted and new wiring, then insulation, drywall and finishes. Fine Engineering starts from the house measured as it stands, so the new plan fits the framing already in place.
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.
Good to know
In Hamilton the reviewer is the City of Hamilton Building Division. Every Hamilton lot sets its own terms: the framing and drains of the house on it decide how far a renovation can go.
We walk the site with the survey on a scheduled visit before anything is drawn, then file the interior renovations package to the City of Hamilton Building Division’s own checklist.
Hamilton has an aging stock led by single-detached houses, with the age of housing varying widely from ward to ward. In the older houses among them, the drawings we start from are usually our own: the house measured as it stands, with a small inspection hole wherever the framing is hidden. Floors that have settled get levelled while the rooms are open.
Comprehensive Zoning By-law No. 05-200 now covers most Hamilton properties. A lot that has not been brought into it still follows the by-law of its former community, which is 87-57 in Ancaster, 3581-86 in Dundas, 90-145-Z in Flamborough, 464 in Glanbrook, 6593 in the former City of Hamilton and 3692-92 in Stoney Creek.
For work that stays inside the house, the zoning rarely changes the design. It comes into play when a renovation creates a second unit or extends outward, a walkout dug into the rear yard for example, and then the by-law for your lot sets the setbacks and the unit count we draw to.
A basement walkout or a deeper window well means excavating next to the house, close to any roots there. Which by-law protects a private tree depends on the former municipality the lot is in, Ancaster By-law No. 2000-118 or Dundas By-law No. 4513-99 for example, and a tree on the City’s road allowance, as many front-lawn trees are, comes under By-law No. 15-125. We mark those trees on the plan before the dig is drawn.
The grade change has a by-law of its own. Hamilton’s Site Alteration By-law 19-286 reaches residential lots but exempts work done under an issued building permit, so we keep the excavation on the renovation permit and check any regrading past it separately.
Contact us
Tell us what you want changed and we’ll tell you what it involves, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179