Detached ADU in North York - Design, Permits, Construction

North York's 1950s-60s bungalow belt around Willowdale and Don Mills gives us the deepest rear yards inside Toronto's boundary - 120 ft lots where a 700 sq ft garden suite still leaves usable green space. Almost none of these lots have a laneway, which is why nearly every North York project we build is a garden suite rather than a laneway house. Falls under the City of Toronto garden suite by-law; North York's post-war lots rarely have laneways, so garden suites (not laneway suites) are the usual permitted form.

Deep post-war bungalow lots, commonly 50 ft × 120 ft, with rear yards large enough for a detached garden suite plus the required 1.5 m separation. North York sees 133 cm of snow and -4.2°C winter averages.

A detached unit stands clear of the main house, so it carries its own foundation, its own service laterals and its own exit - the three cost centres that separate it from an interior conversion on the same North York lot. We trench services across the yard and pour to 1.2 m before the ground closes; framing, envelope and interior finishing then run through the cold months without holding up occupancy. Detached is the highest per-square-foot form of the four, and also the only one that leaves the existing house untouched - no shared walls, no disruption to the occupants during construction.