Decks & Porches in Vaughan

Not on a house lot. Vaughan’s by-law 031-2024 is meant for larger sites, and the city reviews a house lot’s grading with the building permit instead, so the grades around a backyard deck go on the drawings we file with the City of Vaughan Building Standards Department.

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 Vaughan Building Standards Department issues the building permit. In largely built-out areas such as Woodbridge and Thornhill, that covers a deck rebuilt where an old one stood, so we run the address through TRCA’s Regulated Area Search before the new one is drawn.

Yes. We take on decks & porches across Vaughan, including Woodbridge and Maple, 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 Vaughan Building Standards Department will ask for before we quote.

It helps, because the deck’s distance from the rear and side lot lines is measured from it. Those setbacks come from Zoning By-law 001-2021, or from By-law 1-88 on land still under appeal, and on a built-out lot in Woodbridge or Thornhill the yard left between the house and those lines is what the deck has to fit. If you have no survey, we tell you at the site visit whether the drawings need one.

Yes. We draw the deck, open the application in Vaughan’s Online Permitting Portal and upload the set through the linked ePlans Portal, then answer the Building Standards Department’s comments until the permit is issued. Your contractor builds to the issued drawings.

Inspectors from the City of Vaughan Building Standards Department, at the stages the permit lists. Our crew calls each one in as the work reaches it, and the permit stays open until the last required inspection passes. The file’s status shows on the My Permits / Services page of Vaughan’s portal throughout.

Yes. Digging footings near the roots can injure a tree, and By-law 177-2025 requires a permit for that once the trunk is 20 cm across, on your land or the city’s. We mark trees that size on the plan and keep the footings clear of them where we can. Where we cannot, we apply to Parks and Forestry Operations at the same time as the deck drawings go to the Building Standards Department.

It can. A front porch changes what the street sees, and in the Kleinburg-Nashville, Maple, Thornhill and Woodbridge heritage conservation districts we confirm with the City of Vaughan what the district asks of it before the elevation is drawn. The building permit then goes to the Building Standards Department with that design.

Usually, by treating it as a new application. We draw the deck as it stands and what has to change, the City of Vaughan Building Standards Department reviews that set, and its inspectors may need part of the deck opened so the footings can be seen. On an older deck in built-out Woodbridge or Thornhill, a rebuild to new drawings can be the simpler route, and we price both.