Decks & Porches in Richmond Hill

It can. Richmond Hill’s site alteration by-law covers residential regrading, so a deck that needs the yard reshaped can need the city’s site alteration permit as well. We prepare that application with the deck drawings, before anything goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.

Where the lot is in a TRCA Regulated Area, yes. TRCA asks for its own permit before anything is built there, a deck included, and that permit has to be in hand before the City of Richmond Hill Building Division issues the building permit. Oak Ridges and Lake Wilcox drain to Lake Simcoe, so a deck there goes to the LSRCA instead. We check both authorities’ maps against the survey.

Yes. We take on decks & porches across Richmond Hill, including Oak Ridges and Mill Pond, 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 yard and the wall the structure would attach to; and rough size, and whether you want it covered. Send those and we tell you what the City of Richmond Hill Building Division will ask for before we quote.

It can, even with the tree left standing. Footing holes cut roots, and Richmond Hill’s Tree Preservation By-law 19-25 requires a permit before a private tree 15 cm or more across, measured 1.4 m up the trunk, is injured as well as removed. We set the footings clear of the roots where the layout allows, and where it does not, the tree permit comes before the deck drawings go to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.

Zoning sets that, and in Richmond Hill it depends on which by-law covers your lot: CZBL 93-25 where it is in force, or the earlier by-law on a property it does not reach or in an area still under appeal. We read the right one against your survey before the deck is sized, because the City of Richmond Hill Building Division checks zoning before it issues the permit, and a deck that meets the Building Code can still fail it.

Yes, and the pool brings its own approval. Richmond Hill’s Site Alteration By-law 47-25 names pools along with residential regrading, so our engineer draws the pool and the ground around it on a grading plan, and the deck is designed from the same survey. Where the lot sits in a TRCA or LSRCA regulated area, that authority’s permit is dealt with first.

Possibly. A porch changes the face of the house, and the Gormley Heritage Conservation District covers the village core of Gormley under the Ontario Heritage Act, so we take the design to the City before the permit drawings are finished. Outside the district, a Richmond Hill porch goes through the zoning check and the building permit like any other.

The City. Richmond Hill is a lower-tier municipality in York Region, and the region does not issue or inspect house permits, so the City of Richmond Hill Building Division reviews the deck drawings and sends the inspector. We book each inspection the permit lists as the work reaches it, with the approved drawings on site.

Yes, and it usually goes on the unit’s permit rather than one of its own. A unit under By-law 143-24 needs a building permit from the City of Richmond Hill Building Division, and when the way out of the unit crosses a deck, landing or stair, we draw that structure with the unit, guards included, to the heights the Building Code sets for a house with a secondary suite.