Garden Suites
Detached suites for family or for rent, from the zoning check to the finished build. Two-storey suites in Toronto and Richmond Hill are on our project list.
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.
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.
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 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.
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) 990-9179Often, yes. Your municipality’s zoning and tree by-laws set the size, setbacks, height and tree limits, and some lots fail on yard depth or side access. We check yours against them before anything is drawn.
Often, if your zoning by-law’s height limit leaves room for a second floor. A by-law can tie that limit to how far the suite sits from the house, as Toronto’s does, so where the suite goes on the lot matters as much as the design. We check the height rule for your lot at the zoning stage.
Possibly, if a public lane runs along it. Toronto, for one, allows both garden suites and laneway suites as detached units in the rear yard. We confirm which categories your municipality has, and which your lot meets, at the zoning review.
It needs water, sanitary and electrical service, usually run from the main house rather than new street connections. The route across the yard and the capacity of the existing service are part of the design.
It may not matter. On urban residential land outside the Greenbelt, Ontario now treats a by-law’s minimum setback as 90 per cent of the distance it states, with some areas excluded, so a small shortfall can fall within the rule. We confirm that with the zoning examiners; past that, a minor variance comes first.
It can. Many Ontario municipalities protect private trees above a set trunk diameter, and their by-laws cover injuring a tree as well as removing it, so a foundation dug close to one can need a permit even if the tree stays. The size that triggers it differs from one by-law to the next. We plot the trees from the survey at the zoning stage and place the suite around them where the yard allows.
Almost always. The setbacks, the trees and the route for water and sewer are all measured from it, and the site plan in the permit set is drawn on it. If you do not have a recent one, we tell you what it needs to show before you order it.
Zoning and design come first, then the permit review, then construction. We give a schedule with the quote, once the zoning check has shown what the lot allows.
That part stays with you. Ontario’s rules let anyone live in an additional unit, related to you or not. With a real estate broker on the team, we can talk through what the suite is likely to rent for and what it does for the property’s value before you decide.
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 consultationA garden suite is a self-contained home in the backyard of a house, detached from the main building, with its own kitchen, bathroom and entrance. Local by-laws set its size, setbacks and height, and those rules differ from one municipality to the next. Fine Engineering measures a lot against them at the start of every garden suite project.
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.
The measures that keep soil on a site during construction: silt fence along the boundaries, a mud mat at the driveway, protection over catch basins and cover on stockpiles. Municipalities often make them a condition of a grading or site alteration approval and inspect for them. Fine Engineering puts erosion and sediment control on every grading plan it draws.
Often, yes. A tall retaining wall, or one that holds up a driveway, a building or a neighbour’s yard, generally needs a building permit and an engineered design, and a wall that changes the grade can also need a site alteration permit. Low garden walls usually do not. Fine Engineering confirms the height that triggers a permit on the site, then designs the wall and the grading around it.
Good to know
Since November 2022, Ontario’s Planning Act has not let a zoning by-law prohibit one residential unit in a building ancillary to a detached, semi-detached or rowhouse on a serviced urban residential lot, provided the house holds no more than two units and no other ancillary building on the lot holds a unit. Every municipal garden suite rule sits on top of that.
O. Reg. 299/19 sets standards of its own for urban residential lots. A building with an additional unit must be at least 4 m from any other building on the lot that contains a residential unit, unless the zoning by-law permits less. Buildings may cover up to 45 per cent of the lot even where the by-law sets a lower figure, and the suite may break a by-law’s angular plane, within its height and setback limits.
The Planning Act uses the words garden suite for something narrower: a one-unit detached residential structure designed to be portable, allowed only under a temporary-use by-law for up to 20 years. The permanent backyard suites that municipalities now allow are a different thing: they rest on the additional-unit rules, with no time limit.
A permanent suite needs a building permit, prefab or not: installing a building counts as construction under Ontario’s Building Code Act. A factory-built suite goes through the same zoning check as one built on site, and its foundation, services and grading are still designed for your lot.
A garden suite stands on a foundation of its own, and the soil under it sets how deep that foundation goes. Ontario’s Building Code ties the minimum depth of a foundation to the type of soil, with different rules for clay, coarse-grained soil, silt and rock, and accepts a lesser depth where a foundation design or local experience with the soil supports one. Our P.Eng designs the foundation for the soil on your lot.
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