Mechanical & Electrical in Markham

Plan on it for a new house, an addition or a second unit. Ontario’s Building Code requires a house’s heating to be sized from a calculated heating load, and the City of Markham Building Standards Department reviews the application against that Code, so the heat-loss figures and the duct design go in with it. The electrical side goes elsewhere: in Ontario that permit comes from the ESA.

Not for work inside the house. A TRCA permit covers filling, changing grade and building in its Regulated Area, and on a Markham lot inside that area it has to be issued before the building permit. So when the HVAC or electrical design rides on an addition or a new unit there, the TRCA approval sets the footprint we design to and the date the permit can follow.

Yes. We take on mechanical & electrical across Markham, including Unionville and Thornhill, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: architectural drawings, or our own permit set if we are preparing it; insulation, window and door specifications, if known; and photos of the mechanical room, existing ducts and the electrical panel. Send those and we tell you what the City of Markham Building Standards Department will ask for before we quote.

Ask before the work starts, because the answer turns on what changes. The City of Markham Building Standards Department, not York Region, decides which heating and cooling jobs need a building permit, and we confirm yours with it before quoting the design. If the new equipment serves an addition, or a second unit added under Section 4.9.9 of By-law 2024-19, the HVAC design goes in with that application either way.

It can, if the work comes near a protected tree. Tree Preservation By-law 2023-164 regulates harm to a tree as well as its removal, so digging a condenser pad or a trench for a gas, water or electrical line through the roots of a private tree of 20 cm or more can need a permit first. We place outdoor equipment and route new lines from the survey, and where the Building Standards Department permit covers that work, the trees go on the same site plan.

That depends on where it goes, so we settle the position first. Thornhill, Markham Village, Buttonville and Unionville are Markham’s heritage conservation districts under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, and a condenser, a vent or a meter on a wall facing the street is the kind of change we raise with the city early. Once the district’s view is known, the mechanical sheets go to the Building Standards Department with the rest of the set.

Yes. Markham accepts building permit applications only through ePLAN, so the heat-loss calculations, duct layout and plumbing drawings go up with the architectural and structural sheets as one set for the Building Standards Department. We upload them in the same submission, so nothing mechanical turns up later as a filing of its own.

The question arrives as a mark-up in ePLAN, and the designer who ran the calculation answers it. We recheck the figures against the house as drawn, revise the sheet if anything changes and resubmit it through the portal to the Building Standards Department.

Yes. Under By-law 2024-19, a unit in an accessory building leaves room for only one more inside the house, and the backyard unit is heated, ventilated and plumbed as a home of its own. We size it from its own heat loss, show how its water and drain lines connect, and include that design in the permit set the Building Standards Department reviews.