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Blog & Guides
Expert tips, industry insights, and practical guides about adu builders in the Greater Toronto Area.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about our services.
The articles here cover the parts of an ADU project that decide the outcome before construction starts: what each municipality's by-law actually permits, how zoning review and the permit queue work, what drives cost rather than what a unit 'costs', how the GTA build season and frost depth shape the schedule, and the differences between laneway houses, garden suites, basement suites and garage conversions. They are written against Ontario Building Code requirements and the by-laws of the GTA municipalities we build in, not general North-American advice. Each guide is written to be read before you spend money, so it names the decision it is meant to inform and the stage of the project at which that decision becomes expensive to reverse.
Related service: Garden Suites
Where it matters, yes. ADU rules in Ontario are set municipally on top of provincial permissions, so figures like permit-fee ranges, frost depth, snow load and the length of the review queue differ from one GTA city to the next. Articles that depend on those numbers say which municipality they apply to, and each city page carries that city's own values.
When an article gives a general rule - how servicing is trenched, how a firefighter access path is judged - it applies GTA-wide, but the dimension that decides your project is still read off your own survey. If a figure in an article and a figure in your municipality's current by-law disagree, the by-law governs and we will say so.
Related service: Accessory Dwelling Units
They are revised when the underlying rules move. Ontario's additional-residential-unit permissions and the GTA by-laws built on them have changed repeatedly in recent years, and a guide that describes a superseded rule is worse than no guide. Each article carries its publication date; treat that date as the limit of what it can promise, and confirm any dimension that your project turns on against the current by-law or with us before you commit drawings to it. Where a rule has changed since publication, we note the change on the article rather than quietly rewriting the text, so you can see what moved and when it moved.
Related service: Our ADU services
Yes, and for anything dimensional that is the only reliable route. A guide can tell you which by-law tests exist; only your survey tells you whether your lot passes them - rear-yard depth, separation from the main dwelling, angular planes, tree protection and the access path from the street. We run a feasibility and site review against your actual survey and return a written answer on what your lot can take, before any design fee is committed. That review is a paid stage, it is short, and it is the cheapest money you will spend on the project, because it is the point at which an unbuildable lot stops costing you anything further.
Related service: Our ADU services
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