01Basement apartments
We turned the basement into a unit for my mother-in-law. She has her own entrance and her own kitchen, and we still get Sunday dinners. The paperwork I was dreading turned out to be the part I thought about least.
Rooms · 08 · A second unit, made legal
Legal Basement Apartments in Kitchener
Legal basement apartment in Kitchener begins with the entrance. The unit gets a door and a stair of its own, set where zoning permits an entrance, so nobody has to walk through the house above to reach it.
- Licensed builder
- WSIB
- Years building
- 15+
- Houses completed
- 300+
What’s included
What a second
unit takes.
Taken in turn, these parts make a second dwelling out of a finished basement.
A separate entrance
A door and stair of its own, placed where the zoning allows an entrance, so nobody walks through the house above.
Its own kitchen and bathroom
The unit has its own plumbing and its own electrical. Its drains and supply lines are not shared with the floor above.
Fire separation, smoke alarms and egress windows
Smoke alarms are interconnected, a rated separation divides the two units, and the bedroom windows are a size you can leave through.
Permits and inspections for a legal unit
On a lot zoning allows, a building permit comes with staged inspections, plus a separate electrical permit.
How it runs
One bay of it,
stage by stage.
Rooms and whole houses share five stages in an identical order, and one builder answers for each.
- 01
Permits
Zoning gets looked at ahead of the building permit, since not every lot qualifies.
- 02
Structure
Fire separations are framed in as the structure goes up: the dividing walls and the ceiling.
- 03
Trades
The unit’s wiring follows shut-off valves, supply lines and drains, run independently of the house above.
- 04
Finishes
Wire for the alarms runs across both units. Next come the kitchen, floors and bathroom.
- 05
Handover
Moving in waits for the final inspection to close the permit.
Why Hanna Homes
Why one builder
for all of it.
What a second unit asks of a builder, settled first.
The schedule is built around the final inspection. A unit can’t be lived in until it passes, and that puts a tenant’s date second.
The fire separation, the plumbing and the electrical permit are the unit’s own, as in any dwelling. The unit is more than a kitchen in a finished basement.
The smoke alarms, which are interconnected, are planned and inspected side by side with the fire separation, so neither gets added late.
The separate door comes first, since an elevation facing the street is limited to one exterior entrance, with the stair and grading laid out after it.
Start with a call.
Client reviews
Their house,
their words.
Whole homes and single rooms, in the words of the people who live in them.
02Whole home
We put off the whole house for years because we couldn’t picture living through it. Akram walked us through every stage before it started, and each week went the way he said it would.
03Kitchens
The crew covered the floors and cleaned up at the end of every day, which mattered with two kids at home. The new kitchen is the room everyone ends up in now. Worth every week of takeout.
04Custom homes
Building a new house was the biggest decision we’ve ever made, and it never felt rushed. We walked the site most Saturdays and always knew exactly where things stood.
05Additions
We needed more room but didn’t want to leave the street. The second storey went on over the summer, and from the sidewalk you’d think the house was always built that way.
06Bathrooms
One bathroom is a small job for a builder, but they treated it like the whole house. The tile lines up, the door finally closes properly, and they finished the week they said they would.
07Knockdown & rebuild
Our old bungalow wasn’t worth saving, so we took it down and built new on the same lot. They kept the neighbours in the loop from demolition to the final walk-through. We love coming home to it.
08Basements
The basement used to be storage and a furnace. Now it’s a family room the kids actually want to be in. A clear quote, no surprises, and the site was swept every night.
09Whole home
We bought an older house knowing it needed everything. Akram was straight with us from the first visit about what was worth keeping. Every room is new to us now, and it still feels like the house we fell for.
10Kitchens
Third builder we spoke to, and the only one who returned every call. When we changed our minds about the island halfway through, they made it work without any drama.
01 / 10
Projects
Selected work,
inside and out.
A new house, a bungalow, a bath, a basement and a kitchen are all finished: three rooms and two whole homes.
01Whole-Home Renovations
A bungalow, renewed in limewash.
An oak door opens to a limestone forecourt, with cedar under the eaves, limewashed brick and windows floor to ceiling.
01 / 05
Gallery
From the street
to the basement.
Each service has pictures, from street to basement. Any one opens whole with a tap.Whole-home street views lead, with kitchens, bathrooms and basements after. Any picture opens to show it whole.
Seen one
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you like?
13 pictures: Whole homes · Kitchens · Bathrooms · Basements
Service area
Within an hour
of Burlington.
Towns we build in
- 01BurlingtonHaltonHome base
- 02HamiltonHamiltonby Hwy 403, 15 min, 18 km by road, approximately
- 03OakvilleHaltonby the QEW, 20 min, 24 km by road, approximately
- 04AncasterHamiltonby Hwy 403, 25 min, 28 km by road, approximately
- 05MiltonHaltonby Hwy 407, 30 min, 30 km by road, approximately
- 06MississaugaPeelby Hwy 407 and Hwy 403, 30 min, 41 km by road, approximately
- 07CambridgeWaterloo Regionby Hwy 8 and Hwy 5, 45 min, 51 km by road, approximately
- 08KitchenerWaterloo Regionby Hwy 6 and Hwy 401, 55 min, 72 km by road, approximately
And anywhere else inside the line.
Common questions
Common questions
in Kitchener.
What Kitchener homeowners ask about basement apartments: what it costs, how long it takes and what the city asks for.
The first cost to pin down is the walkway. Kitchener’s zoning by-law wants a 1.1 metre unobstructed path to a door that does not face a public street, so a meter, a window well or a piece of HVAC equipment on that wall may have to move before the entrance is priced. Engineering review of connections and drainage, and the zoning certificate, add work ahead of the build. The kitchen, bathroom and egress openings come after those, and this page gives no figure.
Engineering decides the order of the outdoor work. Where a unit changes sanitary or stormwater connections, or grading and drainage, that review comes before site work starts, so the step cannot be fitted to the crew’s calendar. The zoning certificate is processed beside the building permit, and the Electrical Safety Authority sends its inspector separately for the wiring, apart from the City’s. Hanna Homes states no duration.
The City issues two: a building permit, and a zoning (occupancy) certificate confirming the project meets zoning regulations. Particular work can bring items of its own, such as added plumbing fixtures, a new or widened window opening or a bedroom in the basement. The Electrical Safety Authority issues the electrical permit, since the City does not review electrical work. Near regulated land, a conservation authority permit is needed too, because adding a dwelling unit counts as development.
Yes, when the door does not face a public street. The by-law asks for a 1.1 metre wide unobstructed walkway to that entrance, and window wells, parking spaces, HVAC equipment and utility meters cannot block it. On a side or rear entrance the path goes on the plan first and the equipment is placed around it, not the other way round.
The City’s engineering division handles sanitary and stormwater connections, and grading and drainage, for additional dwelling units. A suite that changes a connection or the drainage is reviewed before work begins, which fixes where the site work falls in the order. Hanna Homes raises it alongside the drawings, since a review can reorder the outdoor work.
Still have a question?
Get a free estimatePeople also ask
Before you build,
people in Kitchener ask.
What people in Kitchener search before basement apartments, answered for the town.
Up to four dwelling units on a residential lot, subject to servicing and zoning limits. Some lots allow only one or two, so the lot is checked against zoning and servicing before the plan counts a second unit. The zoning certificate then confirms the unit meets the rules.
No. The 1.1 metre unobstructed walkway is required to the entrance of a unit whose door does not face a public street. On a side or rear door, window wells, parking spaces, HVAC equipment and utility meters cannot block it.
That the project meets zoning regulations. Kitchener requires the certificate for all additional dwelling units except duplexes, and it is a separate step from the building permit, so a basement unit has two City approvals to clear, not one.
Good to know
Good to know
about legal basement apartments in Kitchener.
What changes the work in Kitchener: the rules, the houses and the ground.
Legal basement apartment permits in Kitchener
The City of Kitchener issues two papers for a unit. One is the building permit. The other is a zoning (occupancy) certificate that confirms the project meets zoning regulations, required for every additional dwelling unit except duplexes. Finishing the basement and adding a bedroom to it are permit items on their own, so the application names both.
The wiring sits in a separate file. Electrical work is outside the City’s review and inspection, so the Electrical Safety Authority issues that permit and sends its own inspector. Where the lot touches regulated land, the conservation authority counts an added dwelling unit as development and issues a permit of its own.
Secondary suite in Kitchener: the 1.1 metre walkway
Where the door does not face a public street, Kitchener’s zoning by-law requires a 1.1 metre wide unobstructed walkway to it. Window wells, parking spaces, HVAC equipment and utility meters cannot sit in that path. A side or rear entrance falls under the rule, so the path goes on the site plan first, and the door, the window wells and the equipment are placed around it.
Inside, the unit has its own kitchen and bathroom, a fire separation from the house above, interconnected smoke alarms and egress windows. A new or wider window opening is permitted work in Kitchener; a window replaced inside its existing opening is not. Hanna Homes coordinates the plumbing, electrical and ventilation for the second household.
Basement second unit in Kitchener: what the schedule and budget wait on
Two City reviews sit ahead of the build and shape both the budget and the order of work. Engineering handles sanitary and stormwater connections, and grading and drainage, so a unit that changes any of them is reviewed before the site work starts. The zoning certificate is the second, a step that runs beside the building permit.
A lot can also cap the unit count: the by-law allows as many as four dwelling units on residential lots, within servicing and zoning limits, so some take fewer. Once building starts, the City’s inspections and the Electrical Safety Authority’s visit run separately and are booked around each other. This page quotes neither a price nor a duration.
Other services
Other services,
same builder.
The other rooms we take on, with the same builder from the first call to handover.
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Planning a unitin your basement?
Tell us about the house and who the unit is for, and we start with whether the lot and the zoning allow it.
Licensed builder
Burlington, Ontario
15+ years
Building
300+ houses
Completed