The way in
Separate entrance
A new exterior door cut into the foundation, with the stairwell, guard and drainage designed so the opening does not weaken the wall.
- Foundation opening design
- Stairwell & drainage
- Guards & lighting
- Frost & waterproofing
Legal Basements · Newmarket, York Region
Legal Basements in Newmarket
A legal basement apartment in Newmarket starts with By-law 2026-10, which allows two units beyond the main home, and the basement takes one. We measure the headroom and windows, design the entrance, fire separation and heating for two households, and file the stamped set with the Town of Newmarket Building Division on its Development Portal.
- Building
designs - 200+
- Years of
practice - 10
- Trusted
partners - 20+
- Recent project
- Vaughan · 1,100 sq ft
- Municipality
- Newmarket, York Region
- Permit office
- Town of Newmarket Building Division
- From our office
- About 30 minutes
What’s included
Scope: what we take on, and what each part includes.
A legal unit is a list of code items, and the inspector checks each one. We design to that list, build to it, and book the inspections in the order the city wants them. In Newmarket the package goes to the Town of Newmarket Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
What the inspector checks first
Fire separation & egress
Rated ceilings and walls between the units, interconnected smoke alarms, and bedroom windows or doors large enough to get out through.
- Fire-rated assemblies
- Egress windows
- Interconnected alarms
- Sound separation
The wet side
Kitchen & bathroom
Plumbing for a second kitchen and bathroom, tied into drains that were never meant for them, with venting and hot water sized for two units.
- Kitchen & bath layouts
- Drain & vent tie-ins
- Hot water for two units
- Bathroom ventilation
Through to occupancy
Inspection scheduling
The inspections the permit calls for, booked as each stage is ready, and the paperwork closed so the unit is legal on paper as well as in fact.
- Framing & insulation inspections
- Plumbing & electrical inspections
- HVAC & final
- Permit close-out
The package
When you need it, and what you get.
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
You need this when
06 common situations
- Rental incomeFrom an empty basement
- Space for familyA place of their own
- Buying a houseLegalize the basement before you close
- City noticeAbout an unpermitted unit
- Low ceilingIs underpinning worth it?
- One contractorDrawings, permit and build
- Not sure it applies?Tell us about it on a free call and we’ll say whether this is the right service.
What you get
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
- Site visitHeight, egress and entrance checked
- Permit drawingsLayout, fire separations, structure, HVAC
- Building permitFiled and followed to issue
- Entrance & fire assembliesFramed, insulated and fire-rated
- Plumbing, electrical, HVACInstalled and inspected
- Kitchen & bathroomAnd the finishes
- A legal unitPermit closed, ready to list and insure
How it runs
Process: 4 steps from first call to sign-off.
Four steps from a bare basement to a closed permit, with the inspections built into the schedule.
Site visit & code check
We measure the ceiling, look at the windows, the entrance options and the mechanical room, and tell you whether the basement can be made legal and what it will take.
Design & permit
Layout, separations, the structural opening and HVAC are drawn in one office and filed with the municipality. City comments are answered at no extra charge.
Build
Entrance, framing, rough-ins, insulation and rated assemblies go in, inspected at each stage.
Finish & close out
Kitchen, bathroom, flooring and doors, then the final inspection and the closed permit.
- Property address
- Basement ceiling height, measured floor to joist
- Photos of the basement, the mechanical room and the outside wall where an entrance could go
- Any existing drawings or a previous permit
- Whether the unit is for family or for rent
Case files
Our Projects: real permits, real builds, real value added.
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
- Files
- 08
- Municipalities
- 07
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.
- Location
- Toronto
- Area
- 700 sq ft
- Sector
- Residential
- Disciplines
- Architectural · Structural
Delivered
- Architectural drawings
- Structural framing design
- Zoning review
- Building permit application
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.
- Location
- Richmond Hill
- Area
- 2,700 sq ft
- Sector
- Residential
- Disciplines
- Structural · Architectural
Delivered
- Load-bearing wall removal
- Beam & column design
- Permit drawings
- Renovation coordination
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
Start a project like thisA code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
- Location
- Vaughan
- Area
- 1,100 sq ft
- Sector
- Residential
- Disciplines
- Architectural · Mechanical · Fire safety
Delivered
- Separate entrance
- Fire separations
- HVAC design
- Full permit package
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.
- Location
- Haldimand County
- Area
- 1,750 sq ft
- Sector
- Residential
- Disciplines
- Architectural · Structural · Mechanical
Delivered
- Architectural design
- Structural design
- Mechanical design
- Permit drawings
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.
- Location
- Richmond Hill
- Area
- 1,250 sq ft
- Sector
- Residential
- Disciplines
- Architectural · Structural
Delivered
- Layout planning
- Architectural drawings
- Structural design
- Permit application
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.
- Location
- Kitchener
- Area
- Dental → grocery
- Sector
- Commercial
- Disciplines
- Architectural · Plumbing · Fire safety
Delivered
- Change-of-use permit
- Interior renovation drawings
- New plumbing design
- Upgraded fire separations
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.
- Location
- London
- Area
- 570 sq ft
- Sector
- Residential
- Disciplines
- Architectural · Structural
Delivered
- Addition design
- Structural drawings
- Permit application
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.
- Location
- Guelph
- Area
- 11,700 sq ft
- Sector
- Site
- Disciplines
- Site engineering
Delivered
- Grading plan
- Drainage design
- Driveway extension layout
- Site alteration permit
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Project Gallery: from the framing to the finished room.
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
Drawing Samples: sheets from real permit sets.
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.
- Sector
- Residential
- Discipline
- Architectural · Structural
- Location
- London, ON
- Scale
- —
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
Where We Work: within 90 minutes of Richmond Hill.
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.
Our office
Service area
Completed project
Drive time, off-peak
Municipalities we serve
46 across 8 regions
York Region
- Richmond Hill (completed project)Office
- Vaughan (completed project)
- Markham (completed project)
- Aurora
- Newmarket
- King
- Whitchurch-Stouffville
- East Gwillimbury
- Georgina
Toronto & Peel
- Toronto (completed project)
- Mississauga
- Brampton
- Caledon
Halton
- Oakville
- Burlington
- Milton
- Halton Hills
Durham
- Pickering
- Ajax
- Whitby
- Oshawa
- Clarington
- Uxbridge
- Scugog
Simcoe & Dufferin
- Barrie (completed project)
- Innisfil
- Bradford
- New Tecumseth
- Orillia
- Wasaga Beach
- Collingwood
- Orangeville
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
- Hamilton
- Grimsby
- St. Catharines
- Niagara Falls
- Haldimand County (completed project)
Kawarthas & Northumberland
- Peterborough
- Kawartha Lakes
- Port Hope
- Cobourg
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
FAQ: legal basements in Newmarket, answered.
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179A building permit for the unit, applied for with drawings at Newmarket’s own building department rather than York Region. Newmarket also has a site alteration by-law, and we check it whenever the stairwell for a new entrance changes the grade beside the house. We prepare and file the set and deal with the examiner’s comments.
Only where the lot is inside Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) regulation, near a watercourse, a valley or a floodplain. Digging a stairwell down to the basement changes the grade there, and the LSRCA permit may be needed before Newmarket issues the building permit. Newmarket’s unit rule also leaves out floodplain the LSRCA identifies, so on those lots the mapping decides whether the unit is allowed at all. We read it before anything else.
Under Newmarket’s By-law 2026-10, a residential lot can have up to two additional residential units along with the main home: either two inside the house, or one inside and one in a separate detached building on the same lot. They are allowed in detached, semi-detached, link, row house and townhouse dwellings, but not in some areas, such as the Environmental Protection Open Space zone or floodplain identified by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. So we check the zone first: in one of the excluded zones the unit is not allowed however well the basement measures up.
Yes. We take on legal basements 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; basement ceiling height, measured floor to joist; and photos of the basement, the mechanical room and the outside wall where an entrance could go. Send those and we tell you what the Town of Newmarket Building Division will ask for before we quote.
Possibly. By-law 2026-10 permits the unit, but parking is set by the zoning on your lot, and the provincial rule, O. Reg. 299/19, calls for one space per additional unit, which can be a tandem space in the driveway, unless the zoning requires no space for the house or forbids one for the unit. Because the Town of Newmarket Building Division reviews zoning ahead of issuing a permit, we fit the parking before deciding where the entrance goes.
The unit itself is decided by By-law 2026-10 and the Building Code, the same as elsewhere in Newmarket. The district matters for what shows outside: a new door in the side wall, an exterior stair down to it, or a bigger window cut through an old foundation. Lower Main Street South is the Town’s one Part V district under the Ontario Heritage Act, so we take those changes to the Town before the entrance design is fixed.
It can. Excavating a stairwell next to the foundation cuts through roots, and By-law 2022-10, Newmarket’s Private Tree Protection By-law, needs a Private Tree Permit before a private tree with a trunk of 20 cm or more at chest height is harmed, not only removed. The trees go on the survey first, so the entrance lands on a side of the house away from them, or the permit is in hand before the Town of Newmarket Building Division receives our drawings.
Once the last inspection passes and the Town closes the permit, which happens after the work is built, not when the permit is issued. The Town’s Development Portal tracks the application from filing onward, so you can see both happen, and we call in each inspection with the Town of Newmarket Building Division when the work is ready for it.
Usually, once we know what is already there. We measure the headroom, the bedroom windows, the ceiling between the two units and the heating, then draw what has to change to meet the Building Code. A basement in a 1970s to 2000s subdivision house and one under an older home near Main Street start from different places, and either way the work goes through a building permit from the Town of Newmarket Building Division.
Yes. Under O. Reg. 299/19 an additional unit can be lived in by anyone, family or not, and By-law 2026-10 is the Newmarket rule that allows the unit to exist. The rental is legal once the Town of Newmarket Building Division has issued the building permit and the inspections have closed it, and we see the file through to that last inspection.
Searched & answered
People Also Ask: what Newmarket searches about legal basements.
Short answers to the legal basements questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationA legal basement is a basement apartment that meets the Building Code and the local zoning: a self-contained second unit with its own kitchen and bathroom. The code calls it a secondary suite, and Ontario’s planning rules call it an additional residential unit. Fine Engineering designs and permits these units across the GTA and coordinates the build.
At least 1.95 m, about 6 ft 5 in, under Ontario’s 2024 Building Code, with 1.85 m of clear height allowed under beams and ducts. The measurement runs from the finished floor to the finished ceiling, so new flooring and drywall count against it. Fine Engineering measures the height at the first site visit, before any layout is drawn.
It needs a safe way out, which is usually its own exterior door. In a house that has stood for five years or more, the 2024 Building Code’s renovation rules also accept an exit route through the other unit, as long as the suite gets an extra escape window that opens from inside without tools and the smoke alarms are linked. Fine Engineering works out which route suits the layout.
Yes. Once a house has a secondary suite, its smoke alarms must be interconnected, by wire or wirelessly, so one sets off the rest, and shared spaces need them too. A suite with a fuel-burning appliance, or one sharing a wall, floor or ceiling with such an appliance or a garage, also needs carbon monoxide alarms by its bedrooms. Fine Engineering marks every alarm on the permit set.
Usually because the heat reaching the room does not match the heat it loses. A room over a garage, or one with more glass and outside wall, loses heat faster, and a long or undersized duct delivers less air than the room needs. A room-by-room heat-loss calculation and a duct design show where the gap is. Fine Engineering does both for existing houses as well as new ones.
Yes. A new bathroom means new drains, vents and water supply, and installing or changing plumbing is building permit work with its own inspections. Replacing a fixture in the same spot usually is not. The drawing shows the drain, waste and vent layout the inspector will check. Plumbing drawings for bathrooms, kitchens and second units are part of Fine Engineering’s mechanical work.
Good to know
Legal basement permits in Newmarket
In Newmarket the reviewer is the Town of Newmarket Building Division. Every Newmarket lot sets its own terms: the spare capacity in the electrical panel and the size of the water service the two units will share decide how much work a basement unit needs.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the legal basements package to the Town of Newmarket Building Division’s own checklist.
Legal basement apartments in Historic Downtown and Glenway
Newmarket’s housing takes in heritage homes around Main Street with 1970s to 2000s subdivisions beyond, plus infill on former golf-course lands. A visit in Stonehaven starts with the headroom, since a ceiling under the height the Building Code sets means lowering the floor. The bedroom windows come next: one too small to escape through needs a bigger opening and a dug well.
Leaving room for a garden suite behind a basement unit
Newmarket’s By-law 2026-10 allows only one of a lot’s two additional units in a detached building, so the choice made for the basement shapes what the yard can hold later.
If a garden suite might come later, the basement entrance and its path stay off the side yard the suite’s builders and tenants would use, and the water service and electrical panel are sized for three households.
Zoning a Newmarket basement unit: 2010-40 or 2019-06
Comprehensive Zoning By-law 2010-40 is the Town’s main zoning by-law, and the Urban Centres have a separate one, Urban Centres Zoning By-law 2019-06. For a basement apartment, the by-law that governs the lot is where the parking, a side entrance and the walkway beside the house are checked.
Lots in the Oak Ridges Moraine area are a third case: the Town asks their owners to get zoning information from its Planning Department. On those lots we have that answer before the entrance or the stairwell is drawn.
Contact us
Entrance cut. Separation rated. Permit closed.
Send us the ceiling height and a few photos and we’ll tell you whether the basement can be made legal, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179