Interior Renovations · Toronto
Home renovation in Toronto, designed, engineered and built by one team: kitchens, bathrooms and open main floors in prewar and postwar houses, with a sealed beam wherever a wall comes out. We file the permit set with Toronto Building and check the address for open permits before work starts.
What’s included
Most interior work we build starts with a wall someone wants gone. The rest follows from that: the beam, the systems behind the drywall, the finishes, and the inspections in between. In Toronto the package goes to Toronto Building, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
The wet rooms
New layouts, plumbing moved to suit them, and the ventilation and electrical brought up to code while the walls are open.
Rooms combined
Combining rooms, widening openings and moving a stair so the main floor works as one space.
Engineered in-house
The beam, its posts and the footing under them designed and stamped by our P.Eng, with shoring in place before a stud is cut.
Behind the drywall
Systems updated while the walls are open: supply and drains rerouted, ducts resized, circuits added.
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.
06 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 contract. The office that draws the beam is the one that installs it.
We look at the house, listen to what you want changed, and tell you which walls carry load and what the permit will cover.
Layout, structural and mechanical drawings come from one office, then go to the city. We answer examiner comments at no extra charge.
Our crew does the demolition, structure, rough-ins and finishes. When something unexpected turns up behind a wall, the engineer decides on site.
Framing, plumbing, electrical and final inspections are booked as each stage is ready. You get the closed permit with the keys.
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.
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.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
Start a project like this
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.
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.
Delivered
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.
Delivered
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.
Delivered
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.
Delivered
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.
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) 990-9179It depends on what moves. Toronto Building lists adding or removing walls, cutting a new window or door opening or enlarging one, and installing or changing heating or plumbing as work that needs a permit. Cabinetry and millwork do not, and neither does repairing or replacing a plumbing fixture where it already is. We sort your scope against that list before it is priced.
Not for work inside the existing walls. Our Toronto page names the conservation authority that covers your lot.
Yes. We take on interior renovations 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; photos of the rooms you want to change; and any existing drawings or a previous permit. Send those and we tell you what Toronto Building will ask for before we quote.
Not always. Toronto Building does not ask for a permit to finish a house basement when the work involves no structural or material alterations, no new plumbing or changes to the heating or plumbing systems, and no additional dwelling unit. Zoning By-law 569-2013, or the former municipal by-law on some lots, applies with or without a permit. Add a bathroom, move a wall or create a secondary suite and the job needs one, so we go through your plan room by room before the layout is set.
Mostly two things: headroom, and what the space will be used for. In a prewar or postwar Toronto house, a floor that has to come down means underpinning, which needs a permit from Toronto Building and a professional engineer’s tests at the first and last stages before the inspections pass. Turning the space into a secondary suite adds the fire separation and second exit a unit needs. We price the work after a free site visit, once we have seen the foundation and know which way you want to go.
It can. In Toronto the current owner is responsible for every open permit on the property, including permits a previous owner took out, and Toronto Building names open permits as a cause of trouble when applying for new ones. Before we draw, we search your address on the City’s Building Permit Application & Inspection Status site, and if an old permit is still open, we work out with you what it needs to close.
Possibly, so we check the address first. Toronto designates its heritage conservation districts under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, among them Cabbagetown, Riverdale, Harbord Village and Wychwood Park, and each district sets its own requirements. A renovation that cuts a new window or door, or widens an old one, changes the outside of the house, so for a house inside a district we confirm with the City what applies before the set goes to Toronto Building.
Yes, once the work reaches the yard: a new rear door with steps, a deeper window well or a trench for a new drain all dig near roots. Toronto’s Private Tree By-law, Chapter 813 of the Municipal Code, requires a permit before a private tree 30 cm or more across at 1.4 m above ground is injured, and City street trees are protected at any size. We mark those trees at the first site visit, and if one is in the way, we apply for the tree permit while Toronto Building reviews the renovation.
Yes, within the zoning. Toronto allows a secondary suite in a detached, semi-detached or townhouse, and multiplexes of up to four units anywhere in the city, or six in the Toronto and East York District and Ward 23. Each new unit needs its own fire separation, exits and services, so we check the lot under By-law 569-2013 or its former municipal by-law first, and our broker can tell you how a two, three or four unit layout compares on value.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the interior renovations questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationFloor plans of the existing and the proposed construction are the core of the set. Drawings by a qualified designer must carry the designer’s name, registration and qualification numbers, signature, and a stamp or statement of responsibility for the design. Sealed engineering drawings need an Assumption of Responsibility for Engineering Content form. Fine Engineering prepares that set for Toronto Building.
Ask who applies to Toronto Building for the permit and who closes it after the final inspection, and get both answers in writing. On the renovations it builds, Fine Engineering does both. For the wiring, ask to see the electrician’s ESA licence: in Ontario no one may run an electrical contracting business without one.
It takes out or widens the walls between rooms, most often between the kitchen, dining and living areas, to make one open main floor. A wall that carries the floor above can still come out once a beam is sized to carry its load. Fine Engineering designs the structure and builds the opening.
The price follows what the basement has to become. Open space finished for the house is mostly framing, insulation, drywall and floors. A bathroom with no rough-in under the slab adds plumbing, and moving a post adds structure. A second unit costs more again, with the fire separation, exit and 1.95 m ceiling a suite needs. Fine Engineering prices it from what the first site visit finds.
Start by settling what the space is for, because that decides the permit. Living space for the household usually needs none unless the plan changes the structure, the plumbing or the heating. Any of those, or a second unit, goes on a building permit first. The layout then works around the posts and drains already there. Fine Engineering draws that layout and files the permit.
Usually a whole floor, or the whole house, taken back to the framing and rebuilt: a new layout, structural changes where walls move, plumbing and ducts rerouted and new wiring, then insulation, drywall and finishes. Fine Engineering starts from the house measured as it stands, so the new plan fits the framing already in place.
Good to know
In Toronto the reviewer is Toronto Building. Every Toronto lot sets its own terms: the framing and drains of the house on it decide how far a renovation can go.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the interior renovations package to Toronto Building’s own checklist.
Toronto has prewar and postwar houses on narrow lots across the inner suburbs, with most recent growth in mid- and high-rise apartments. In the older houses among them, the drawings we start from are usually our own: the house measured as it stands, with a small inspection hole wherever the framing is hidden. Floors that have settled get levelled while the rooms are open.
Swapping the furnace or boiler in a house needs no permit in Toronto, but changing the heating system does. A mechanical (HVAC) application there has to include heat loss and heat gain calculations, duct design and mechanical ventilation design, so when a renovation moves the kitchen or adds a bathroom and the supply and return runs move with it, our mechanical designer works the calculations from the new layout.
Plumbing follows the same pattern. Toronto’s interior alterations guide asks for a Plumbing Data Sheet with the building permit application whenever the work touches plumbing, drains or the water service, and we fill it in from our own drain and vent layout. Wiring is permitted separately: almost all electrical work in Ontario needs a permit from the Electrical Safety Authority, which Toronto Building does not issue.
Toronto Building keeps drawing records from earlier permit applications, which can be requested through its Records Disclosure Service, and its disclosure policy opens residential plans from applications made after December 31, 2006 to anyone. For a renovation, a previous owner’s drawings can show how an opening was framed or where an older addition’s beams sit.
Toronto’s prewar and postwar houses were built long before that date, so any plans released under that policy are for later work on the house, such as an addition or a basement conversion. We request what the City holds while we measure the house ourselves.
Contact us
Tell us what you want changed and we’ll tell you what it involves, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179