Structural Engineering · Richmond Hill, York Region
Structural engineering for Richmond Hill houses, stamped by our own P.Eng: beams for open plans in the 1980s to 2000s subdivisions, underpinning beside older footings near Mill Pond, and foundations for lots the TRCA or the Lake Simcoe authority regulates, filed with the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
What’s included
Structure is the sheet the permit examiner reads most carefully. Ours is designed by the engineer who visited the site, drawn so a framer or a fabricator can build from it, and stamped in-house. In Richmond Hill the package goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Custom homes & additions
Beams, joists, posts and roof framing sized for the spans and loads of the building, balancing strength, efficiency and the architecture.
Foundations & slabs
Footings, foundation walls, underpinning and slabs designed for the soil and the loads above, for long-term performance.
Commercial & industrial
Steel framing for commercial units and industrial buildings, with the beams, columns, joists and connections detailed for fabrication.
Inspections & letters
Evaluation of what is already built: structural inspections, responses to city letters, code compliance reviews and special solutions for hard sites.
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.
08 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps from a site visit to a stamped set. The engineer who sees the framing is the one who signs the drawings.
We look at what carries what: framing direction, bearing walls, foundation condition and anything the last renovation hid. Photos and measurements go into the file.
Dead, live, snow and wind loads are worked out for the building and the site, and the load path is traced from the roof to the footings.
Members and connections are sized, detailed and drawn so a framer or a steel fabricator can build from them without guessing, then stamped by our P.Eng.
We answer the examiner’s structural comments at no extra charge and, where the permit requires general review, inspect at the stages the city sets and issue the field reports.
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) 990-9179A building permit from the City of Richmond Hill Building Division, not York Region, because both alter or extend the structure of the house. Richmond Hill’s Site Alteration By-law 47-25 applies to pools and residential regrading, with a grading plan by an engineer or surveyor. A walkout or a regraded strip beside an underpinned basement can count as residential regrading, so the grading is drawn with the structure. Where the design has to be engineered, our P.Eng stamps it and signs the Commitment to General Reviews the permit calls for.
Yes, if the lot is inside a TRCA Regulated Area. Building anything there needs a TRCA permit, and Richmond Hill cannot issue the building permit until you have it. We design the footings and any retaining structure to the TRCA’s conditions and file both applications together.
Yes. We take on structural engineering 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 and what you plan to change; existing drawings or previous permits, if any; and photos of the framing, the foundation or the problem area. Send those and we tell you what the City of Richmond Hill Building Division will ask for before we quote.
Yes. Ontario’s Building Code Act treats a material alteration as construction, so taking out a bearing wall needs a permit from the City of Richmond Hill Building Division, with the beam and post design on the drawings. In a 1980s to 2000s subdivision house we trace what the wall carries from the top of the house down to the footing before sizing the beam, and the new posts land on footings we check or design.
Yes. By-law 143-24 allows a basement unit as one of up to three added units on a Richmond Hill lot served by municipal sewer and water. Where the basement of a 1980s to 2000s subdivision house is too low for a unit, lowering the floor means underpinning the foundation walls, and we design that from the existing footings. The stamped underpinning sheets go into the same application as the unit’s floor plans, so the City of Richmond Hill Building Division reviews the structure and the unit together.
Yes. For a house in the Gormley Heritage Conservation District, we check with the City what the district asks of the work before the details are drawn, starting with anything that shows outside, such as a rebuilt foundation wall above grade or a new opening. The stamped drawings then go to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division like any other structural permit.
Yes, including on drawings another designer prepared. Send us the comment letter, or give us access to the application’s attachments in the Richmond Hill Permit Portal, and we check the framing or footing in question, then send back a stamped letter or a revised sheet for the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
Yes. A retaining wall usually comes with a grade change, and Site Alteration By-law 47-25 asks for an engineer’s or surveyor’s grading plan when a residential yard is regraded, so we design the wall and the grading plan together and stamp both. On a lot in a TRCA or Lake Simcoe regulated area, Ontario Regulation 41/24 counts the grading and the wall as development activity, so that authority’s permit joins the package.
Richmond Hill’s rules allow for it: By-law 143-24 lets an accessory residential building, such as a detached garage, hold up to two of a lot’s three additional units. Structurally, a garage foundation was sized for a garage, so we check its footings, slab and walls against the load of a floor of living space before anything is drawn. Any reinforcement goes on the stamped drawings the City of Richmond Hill Building Division reviews with the permit.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the structural engineering questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationUnderpinning deepens an existing foundation by building new footings beneath the old ones, one short section at a time, so the house stays supported throughout. It is the usual way to lower a basement for more headroom, and it is also used to repair a foundation that has settled. Fine Engineering designs the sequence and the new footings, then reviews the stages the permit calls for on site.
A structural engineer works out how a building carries its loads from the roof down to the footings, then sizes the beams, columns, joists and foundations to carry them safely. On a house that usually means wall removals, additions, underpinning, or a look at cracks and sagging floors. At Fine Engineering the P.Eng who designs the structure also stamps the drawings.
Once a complete application is in, Ontario’s Building Code gives the municipality 10 business days to issue a house permit or refuse it with reasons. Larger and more complex buildings get a longer period. The count only starts when nothing is missing, so an absent sheet or an unresolved zoning issue holds it back. Fine Engineering checks zoning and code before anything is submitted.
The application form, the drawings the Building Code calls for, and every other approval the project depends on. Zoning counts as applicable law, so a needed minor variance has to be granted before the permit can be issued, and a lot in a conservation authority’s regulated area may need that authority’s permit first. Fine Engineering assembles the whole package, with the designer’s registration details on the drawings.
Most often because the plans do not show that the work meets the Building Code or applicable law, such as the zoning by-law. A permit is also withheld when the law requires an engineer’s or architect’s design and the drawings lack one, or when the builder of a new home is unlicensed. The refusal must state its reasons, and Fine Engineering revises the set to answer each one.
Stop work and start on the drawings. A stop-work order usually means construction began without a permit or departed from the approved plans. Getting out of it takes a permit application that shows what was built and what is proposed, then whatever inspections the city asks for. Fine Engineering prepares those drawings and replies to the city’s letters.
Good to know
In Richmond Hill the reviewer is the City of Richmond Hill Building Division. Every Richmond Hill lot sets its own terms: the age of the framing, what the last renovation hid and how the load reaches the foundation all shape the design.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the structural engineering package to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division’s own checklist.
Richmond Hill has single-detached subdivisions from the 1980s to 2000s, with older village lots near Mill Pond seeing custom rebuilds. Older houses rarely come with drawings and have often been renovated already, so we open the framing and confirm what the last change did to the load path. Our Richmond Hill project list includes a full-home renovation that took structural walls out, on our own beam and column design.
When a Richmond Hill basement is lowered, the underpinning drawings number the dig sequence, and the depth, the soil and the neighbouring footings decide whether that design has to be engineered. Older village lots near Mill Pond seeing custom rebuilds often put new excavations beside older footings, so we locate the neighbour’s footing and design the dig around it.
The TRCA is not the only conservation authority in Richmond Hill. Oak Ridges and Lake Wilcox in the north drain to Lake Simcoe and are under the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. Which one reviews a footing depends on where the lot sits, so we check the lot against each authority’s mapping.
The TRCA and the LSRCA both work under Ontario Regulation 41/24, which regulates a valley with stable slopes to the stable top of the bank plus 15 metres and extends the prohibition on development to 30 metres from a wetland.
Under Tree Preservation By-law No. 19-25, injuring a tree with a trunk of 15 cm or more at 1.4 m needs a permit, the same as removing it. An addition footing, an underpinning dig or a pier for a deck can cut through roots, so we check the structural layout against the trees on the survey before footing positions are fixed.
Where a footing has to sit close to a protected tree, we look at moving it, spanning the root zone with a beam on piers, or raising the tree permit with you early, before the City of Richmond Hill Building Division review.
A second storey on a 1980s to 2000s subdivision house puts new load on footings sized for the original house, so we check the foundation before the framing is designed. How high and how far the new floor can go comes from CZBL 93-25, or from the by-law that still governs the lot where the new one is under appeal.
Contact us
Send us photos and the address and we’ll tell you whether it needs an engineer, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179