Interior Renovations in Newmarket

Yes, once walls or plumbing move. Newmarket sits inside York Region, but the Town of Newmarket Building Division issues the building permit and inspects the work, so that is where we file it.

Not for work inside the existing walls. Our Newmarket page names the conservation authority that covers your lot.

Yes. We take on interior renovations across Newmarket, including Historic Downtown and Glenway, about half an hour from 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 Town of Newmarket Building Division will ask for before we quote.

Mostly two things: what the house is hiding behind its walls and who will live in the basement. In one of the heritage homes near Main Street, older wiring, drains or framing may need attention once the drywall is off, whereas a basement in a 1970s to 2000s subdivision house usually holds fewer surprises. A basement for a tenant is a second unit, with its own permit from the Town of Newmarket Building Division and its own fire separation and exits, so the free first visit comes before any price.

Rarely for work inside, more often for anything seen from the street. Lower Main Street South is Newmarket’s only Part V Heritage Conservation District, so if your house is inside it, changes to its windows, doors or front porch are raised with the Town before we finish the drawings. A kitchen or bathroom that stays behind the existing walls takes the ordinary permit route through the Town of Newmarket Building Division.

In most cases, yes. In the 1970s to 2000s subdivisions, the wall between those two rooms often supports the floor joists above; where it does, a beam and posts sized by our P.Eng take that load down to new footings. That makes it structural work, so the Town of Newmarket Building Division must issue a permit before the wall is removed, and we file the application on the Development Portal with the beam drawn and stamped.

Sometimes, because part of the job happens outside. A new drain line dug across the yard, or a bin parked on the roots for weeks, can injure a tree, and Newmarket’s Private Tree Protection By-law 2022-10 generally requires a Private Tree Permit to injure a private tree whose trunk is 20 cm wide or more at 1.4 m, not just to destroy it. We keep the trench and the staging away from those trees where we can, and where we cannot, the tree permit is applied for before the Town of Newmarket Building Division reviews the drawings.

Yes. The first consultation is free, so we can walk the house while you are still deciding and tell you which walls hold up the floor above and where a new kitchen or bathroom would be hard to place. If you hope to rent part of it out, we also check that the lot is clear of the areas By-law 2026-10 rules out for additional units, among them the Environmental Protection Open Space zone and floodplain the LSRCA has identified.

Mostly when the work adds floor area, a unit or a new use, not when it only replaces finishes. At that point the lot is read against Comprehensive Zoning By-law 2010-40, or Urban Centres Zoning By-law 2019-06 in the Urban Centres, and for a property in the Oak Ridges Moraine area the Town’s Planning Department gives the zoning answer. A basement unit also has to fit By-law 2026-10.