General News

New website improvement helps guide residents through renovations 

October 13, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart 

When you are planning to do renovations on your home, quite often home owners are unsure if they need a permit to continue with a project. 

The Town of New Tecumseth has updated its Building Department web page to provide residents with some answers when it comes to permits and what information you will need to be successful. 

You must obtain a building permit if you are planning to build new, demolish, renovate, repair, or add on to a building or structure. 

Examples of when you need a permit include: a new building or structure that is larger than ten square metres (108 square feet), an addition or sunroom that’s attached to a building or structure, and agricultural buildings. Also included are pre-fabricated buildings and structures greater than ten square metres, any building the contains plumbing, and plumbing or HVAC work. 

When it comes to garages, foundations, and basements, you will need a building permit of you are excavating, or converting an attached garage into a liveable space. You will also need a permit if you a making a doorway between an attached garage and a house or its basement, and an exterior staircase for basement access. 

For interior work, you will need a permit any time you are working with load-bearing walls and beams. 

This includes any time you install, change, remove, or move load-bearing walls and beams, install new openings in load-bearing walls, exterior walls, or change the size of doors and windows. 

You also need a permit to install a skylight in the roof of a building. 

If you are planning to build a new deck in the backyard, you will need a permit if you are going to build 600 mm (23-5/8 inches) in height above ground level. This includes decks around private swimming pools as well as if you are adding a roof over a wood deck. 

For on-site sewage, heat, and air conditioning systems, you will need a permit. This also includes installing or repairing a chimney, renovating or modifying plumbing fixtures or systems, and constructing, renovating, or repairing a sewage system, septic tank or septic field. 

Once you have your permit and begin the project, you will require inspections through various stages of your project’s construction as per the Ontario Building code. It is your responsibility to book inspections, or ensure your contractor does. 

You can learn more about the entire process and what is required by visiting the Town website and searching for Building and Renovating. 

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