Garden Suites · Toronto
Garden suites in Toronto, designed, permitted and built: we test the yard against Zoning By-law 569-2013, the fire access path from the street and the trees the City protects, design a one or two storey suite to fit, then file with Toronto Building and build it with our own crew.
What’s included
A garden suite is a small new house with all of a house’s rules, on a lot that already has one. The zoning check comes first, because it decides whether there is a suite at all. In Toronto the package goes to Toronto Building, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Before anything is drawn
Lot size, setbacks, height, coverage, tree protection and servicing, checked against the by-law to confirm what fits.
The design
Layouts that get living space out of a small footprint, with a second storey where the by-law allows it.
Built to stand alone
Foundation, framing and roof designed by our P.Eng for a building with no neighbour to lean on.
Move-in condition
Kitchen, bathroom, heating and finishes chosen for a unit that will be rented or lived in by family for years.
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.
05 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps, starting with the one that decides everything else: whether the lot allows a suite at all.
We measure the lot against the by-law and tell you the largest suite that fits, or that one does not, before you spend on design.
Plans, structure, mechanical and site drawings from one office, filed with the city and answered until the permit is issued.
Excavation and foundation, framing, rough-ins, exterior and finishes by our crew, inspected at each stage.
Water, sewer and electrical connected, the final inspection passed, and the unit ready to rent or move into.
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.
Start a project like thisA 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) 990-9179Toronto is a single-tier city, so there is no regional step: the application goes to Toronto Building. The suite is applied for as a new building on your lot, with drawings of its own. Toronto reviews lot grading through the building permit; a separate permit applies only inside ravine and natural feature protection areas. If the yard is inside one of those protection areas, the suite’s grading needs that permit as well; otherwise its grading plan goes in with the drawings. We prepare the set and stay with the application until the permit is issued.
Only if the lot is in a TRCA Regulated Area, near a valley, a watercourse or a floodplain. TRCA’s rule covers building anything there, so a suite needs its permit, and Toronto will not issue the building permit until you have it. TRCA asks for a pre-submission consultation, and we run its Regulated Area Search for your address.
Toronto permits secondary suites inside detached, semi-detached and townhouses, and allows detached additional residential units as garden suites or laneway suites in the rear yard. Multiplexes of up to four units are permitted city-wide. A garden suite in the rear yard still leaves the house room for a secondary suite.
Yes, if the tree is protected. Under Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 813, a permit is needed to injure or remove a tree on private property with a diameter of 30 centimetres or more measured 1.4 metres above ground. City street trees of any size are also protected, and ravine and natural feature areas are covered separately under Chapter 658. The city’s garden suite guidance adds that a healthy protected tree should not be removed for a suite.
Yes. We take on garden suites across Toronto, including North York and Scarborough, 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 a survey, if you have one; whether the suite is for family or rent; and photos of the backyard and the side-yard access. Send those and we tell you what Toronto Building will ask for before we quote.
Yes, if the project qualifies. In 2025 Toronto extended its program for relying on a professional engineer’s seal to garden and laneway suites, and it covers house projects of two units or less, so a house with one garden suite fits. The seal can stand for Building Code compliance in whole or in part, while the suite is still checked in full against Zoning By-law 569-2013. Our P.Eng seals the structure and the heating design; add a basement suite as well and the lot has three units, which takes the project outside the program.
Toronto permits both, each as a detached unit in the rear yard, and a laneway suite is the version that sits along a public lane. The city sets them out as separate permissions with their own rules, so we check which one your lot qualifies for under Zoning By-law 569-2013 before the suite is placed. If it qualifies for both, we compare the two layouts, and our broker can weigh them on value.
Usually, yes. Ontario’s Planning Act stops any zoning by-law, a former municipal one included, from prohibiting one unit in a building ancillary to a detached, semi-detached or row house on a serviced urban lot, provided the house holds no more than two units and no other ancillary building has one. Which size and setback limits then apply is a question we put to Toronto Building’s zoning review before the suite is drawn.
It can add requirements on top of the zoning. Toronto’s Part V districts take in places such as Wychwood Park, Riverdale, Cabbagetown and Teiaiagon-Baby Point, and each sets its own rules for change on the lots inside it. If yours is one of them, we confirm with the City what the district asks of a rear-yard building while the suite is still a sketch, and only then draw it for Toronto Building.
Toronto Building’s inspectors check the suite against its permit at each required stage, and the permit’s status and inspections can be searched on the City’s Building Permit Application & Inspection Status site; we also send you each result as the build reaches it. The permit stays open until the final inspection is done and it is closed. An open permit can cause trouble when you sell or apply for the next one, so we see it through to the close.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the garden suites questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationYes, in most residential zones. By-law 101-2022, adopted in February 2022, permits them under Zoning By-law 569-2013. A suite that meets the rules goes to Toronto Building for a permit; one that needs minor relief goes to the Committee of Adjustment for a minor variance first. Fine Engineering checks which case a lot is in.
Up to two storeys, with the height set by distance. Under Zoning By-law 569-2013 a new garden suite must be at least 4.0 m from the main house in most of the city. It can be 4.0 m tall when less than 7.5 m from the house, and 6.3 m at 7.5 m or more. Fine Engineering’s Toronto project is a 700 sq ft two-storey suite.
Toronto requires a building permit for a garden suite, and the design must comply with the zoning by-law, the Ontario Building Code and tree regulations. Toronto Building’s garden suite guide also asks for a lot grading plan and an energy efficiency design summary, as for a new house. Fine Engineering prepares that whole package.
There is no single figure. A garden suite is priced like a small house, and the lot then moves the total up or down through the length of the service run from the house and how easily machines can reach the yard. Fine Engineering prices each suite from a written scope after the zoning check, and the first consultation is free.
Most often because water crosses a property line, the ground slopes too gently away from the house, or the swales and elevations do not tie into the survey. Reviewers also return plans that lack erosion control, or an engineer’s stamp where one is required. Fine Engineering designs grading to each municipality’s own criteria and revises the plan to answer the reviewer’s comments.
Within limits the municipality sets. Its lot grading criteria give a minimum slope, so water runs away from the house, and a maximum, beyond which the change in level needs a retaining wall. The figures differ from one municipality to the next, so a plan follows the local criteria rather than a rule of thumb. Fine Engineering sets the slopes and any walls in one design.
Good to know
In Toronto the reviewer is Toronto Building. Every Toronto lot sets its own terms: rear-yard depth, setbacks, height limits, tree protection and the route for water, sewer and power decide whether a suite fits.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the garden suites package to Toronto Building’s own checklist.
Toronto’s housing is mostly prewar and postwar houses on narrow lots across the inner suburbs, with most recent growth in mid- and high-rise apartments. On a narrow lot the side yard can decide a garden suite as much as the backyard does, because every load for the build comes through it.
Toronto requires firefighting access to a garden suite from the street the house faces. The travel distance from the street to the suite entrance can be no more than 45 m, with the fire truck within 45 m of a hydrant, along a path at least 1.0 m wide with 2.1 m of vertical clearance.
The city’s garden suites page notes that these access rules are not in the zoning by-law and cannot be varied by a minor variance through the Committee of Adjustment. A lot that passes on setbacks and height can still fail here, which is why the side yard at its narrowest point and the walk to the suite’s door are the first things we measure.
The separation and height limits now in Zoning By-law 569-2013 come from By-law 849-2025, Council’s 2025 amendment to the garden suite rules. The city’s 2022 summary of rules is still online with the older figures, so we work from the current consolidation, and one property-specific appeal of the 2025 changes is still open.
Ontario’s regulation asks for one parking space per additional unit unless the zoning by-law requires none, and Toronto’s by-law requires no parking for any unit on a lot with a garden suite.
Zoning By-law 569-2013 sets the wider garden suite separation in one part of the east end: the area bounded by Coxwell Avenue, the Don River and Sunrise Avenue, Victoria Park Avenue and Lake Ontario. Everywhere else in the city the smaller separation applies.
Height is measured from average grade wherever the lot is. On a yard that slopes, the average grade can sit above or below the ground at the suite’s door, so we survey the grades where the suite will stand before its height is set against the limit for its distance from the house.
Ontario’s regulation for additional units lets the buildings on an urban residential lot with such units cover up to 45 per cent of it, unless the zoning by-law allows more, and Toronto’s garden suites page notes that the provincial change affects several of its garden suite rules.
On a narrow Toronto lot with a deep house, coverage can set the suite’s footprint before height or separation does. We measure the house, the suite and any other building from the survey and work out the limit from both the provincial rule and By-law 569-2013 before the layout is drawn.
Contact us
Send us the address and we’ll tell you whether a suite fits the lot, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179