Residential Permits · Richmond Hill, York Region
Permit drawings for Richmond Hill houses: basement units, additions and garden suites in the 1980s to 2000s subdivisions, and custom rebuilds on the older village lots near Mill Pond. Each set is drawn to the zoning that governs the lot and filed with the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
What’s included
Four kinds of residential work come through our door most often. Each gets the same package: measured drawings, a zoning and code review, structural design where it is needed, and a submission we stand behind until the permit is issued. In Richmond Hill the package goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Interior & exterior
Opening up a floor plan, removing a load-bearing wall, adding a deck or porch, putting in a pool, or taking down a tree the by-law protects.
Rental income
A basement apartment the city will approve: ceiling height, fire separation, egress, a compliant separate entrance and HVAC designed for two units.
New floor area
Rear and side additions, second storeys, detached garden suites and full custom homes, with the zoning check done before the first line is drawn.
Stamped in-house
Beams, posts, footings and framing sized and stamped by our own P.Eng, so the structural sheet sits in the same package as the architectural one.
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.
07 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 team. The engineer who measures the house is the one who signs the drawings.
We walk the house, measure what exists and talk through what you want. The first consultation is free, and we tell you then which permits apply.
Before drawing, we check the lot against the zoning by-law and the plan against the Ontario Building Code, so nothing goes to the city that will bounce back.
Architectural, structural and mechanical sheets are drawn in one office, cross-checked, and stamped by our P.Eng and BCIN designers.
We file the application, track it, and answer every examiner comment at no extra charge until the permit is in your hand. If you want us to build it, the same team carries on.
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) 990-9179We make them, at no extra charge. Comments from the examiner at the City of Richmond Hill Building Division come to us, and we revise the sheets, reply to each point and resubmit until the permit is issued.
Any project that fills, changes the grade or builds anything on a lot inside a TRCA Regulated Area. An addition, a garden suite, a new house or a pool there all need a TRCA permit, and TRCA requires a pre-submission consultation before the application goes in. On a Richmond Hill lot we check the regulated-area maps against the survey before the site plan is drawn, then prepare the authority’s application from the same drawings as the permit set.
Yes. Richmond Hill has an online Richmond Hill Permit Portal. Applicants who log in can find the attachments linked to their application by clicking My Work and choosing My Permits/Plans/Licensing. Every sheet and form we file is attached there, and we can show you exactly what went in.
Yes. We take on residential permits 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; what you want to do, in your own words; and a survey of the lot, if you have one. Send those and we tell you what the City of Richmond Hill Building Division will ask for before we quote.
Where the work comes near one, yes. Richmond Hill protects private trees with a trunk of 15 cm or more at 1.4 m, and By-law 19-25 treats injuring one like removing it, so a new footing, a walkout or a pool inside the root zone can need a tree permit. We place those trees on the site plan from the survey, so the question is settled before the set reaches the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
Often not. The Oak Ridges and Lake Wilcox areas in the north of the city drain to Lake Simcoe, and that land comes under the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority instead. For a lot up there we check the LSRCA’s regulated areas against the survey, and where an addition or a garden suite falls inside one, we prepare its permit from the same drawings as the set for the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
Yes. Richmond Hill’s Site Alteration By-law 47-25 names pools alongside residential regrading, and it calls for a grading plan from an engineer or a surveyor. On a lot in one of the 1980s to 2000s subdivisions, that plan ties the pool area back into the grades the subdivision was built to, and we draw it in-house so the levels match the pool drawings.
They can. The Gormley Heritage Conservation District takes in the village core of Gormley under the Ontario Heritage Act, so for a house there we confirm with the City what the district asks of the work before the elevations are drawn. The permit set then goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division with that answer reflected in the drawings.
Whatever the zoning, conservation and tree rules call for on your lot. If the design misses a CZBL 93-25 standard, a minor variance comes first; on a TRCA-regulated lot the conservation permit has to be in hand before the City of Richmond Hill Building Division can issue; and a protected tree in the way needs its own permit. We find out which of these apply at the first site visit, so they run in order instead of surfacing halfway through the permit review.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the residential permits questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationA permit to cut a new exterior door into a basement, usually with a stairwell dug beside the house. It covers the structural opening in the foundation wall, the guard and drainage for the stairwell, and the fire and egress rules for the unit it serves. Fine Engineering designs separate entrances as part of legal basement packages across the GTA.
Not always. Architectural drawings show a design. Permit drawings are the version an examiner can check against zoning and the Building Code, with dimensions, construction details and engineering where the work needs it. A concept plan is a useful start, and the code detail goes in before it is filed. Fine Engineering draws permit sets from its own site measurements.
Drawings of the house as it stands, the proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, and a site plan showing setbacks and lot coverage. Structural drawings come in where the work touches the structure, and HVAC, plumbing or electrical sheets where the scope needs them. Fine Engineering prepares the whole set with the completed application form and files both with the municipality.
Ontario qualifies designers in these Building Code categories: House; Small Buildings; Large Buildings; Complex Buildings; Building Structural; HVAC House; Plumbing House; Plumbing All Buildings; Building Services; Detection, Lighting and Power; Fire Protection; and Onsite Sewage Systems. The province’s QuARTS public registry lists each designer with their categories. Fine Engineering’s engineer holds BCIN qualifications in Small Buildings and in structural and HVAC design, alongside a P.Eng licence.
Often, yes. The opening needs a beam sized for the load above, posts under each end and a path that carries the load down to the foundation. The Building Code’s span tables cover some simple cases, but once the beam falls outside them, a licensed P.Eng has to design and stamp it. Fine Engineering prepares the engineering and the permit drawings together.
Not reliably by looking at it. A wall that runs across the floor joists, sits over a beam or another wall below, or stands near the middle of the house is more likely to carry load. Only the framing above and below confirms it, which is why Fine Engineering checks the structure on site before designing any removal.
Good to know
In Richmond Hill the reviewer is the City of Richmond Hill Building Division. Every Richmond Hill lot sets its own terms: its zoning and any demolition or grading approval the work needs decide which sheets go into the permit set.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the residential permits package to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division’s own checklist.
The housing in Richmond Hill is single-detached subdivisions from the 1980s to 2000s, with older village lots near Mill Pond seeing custom rebuilds. On a rebuild, taking the old house down needs a permit just as building the new one does, and we prepare the demolition application with the new-house set. In the subdivisions, a basement unit or a rear addition is drawn over the house as built and as later owners changed it.
Richmond Hill lets a lot carry the main house plus as many as three additional residential units, four dwellings in all. An accessory residential building can hold two of those at most, so a basement unit with two units over a detached garage fits the rule, while putting all three in the garage does not.
Each added unit still goes through zoning and a building permit, and the lot must be on municipal sewer and water. Our site plan shows every unit with its entrance and its service connections, so the unit count and the servicing are plain to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division on the first sheet.
Council passed CZBL 93-25 as the city’s comprehensive zoning by-law, and the Ontario Land Tribunal has approved it in part. Specific areas are still under appeal, and on land the new by-law does not yet cover, the zoning by-law that applied before still sets the numbers our drawings have to meet.
We take setbacks, height and lot coverage from whichever by-law governs the address, and we read minimum setbacks the way Ontario now does on urban residential land outside the Greenbelt Area, at 90 per cent of the stated distance. On a Richmond Hill addition or garden suite drawn close to the line, that reading can be the difference between a straight permit and a variance.
Contact us
Tell us what you’re planning at home and we’ll tell you which permits apply, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179