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 Burlington
Legal basement apartment in Burlington, for owners building a second unit in their own house, not for renters. The zoning and the building code both have to accept it, each at its own stage.
- Years building
- 15+
- Houses completed
- 300+
- Rated
- 5★
What’s included
What a second
unit takes.
What turns a finished basement into a second dwelling, one part at a time.
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
Plumbing and electrical of its own, with the unit’s drains and supply lines kept separate from the floor above.
Fire separation, smoke alarms and egress windows
A rated separation between the two units, interconnected smoke alarms, and bedroom windows large enough to leave through.
Permits and inspections for a legal unit
A building permit on a lot the zoning allows, with inspections at stages and its own electrical permit.
How it runs
One bay of it,
stage by stage.
Five stages in the same order for a room and a whole house, with one builder answering for each.
- 01
Permits
Zoning is checked first, then the building permit, because not every lot qualifies.
- 02
Structure
Framing goes up, with the walls and ceiling between the units built as fire separations.
- 03
Trades
Drains, supply lines and shut-off valves go in apart from the house above, then the unit’s wiring.
- 04
Finishes
Alarms are wired through both units, then the kitchen, bathroom and floors go in.
- 05
Handover
Nobody moves in before the final inspection closes the permit.
Why Hanna Homes
Why one builder
for all of it.
What a second unit asks of a builder, settled first.
The schedule runs toward the final inspection, because a unit cannot be occupied until it passes, and a tenant’s date comes second.
The unit gets its own fire separation, its own plumbing and its own electrical permit, as a dwelling does, instead of a kitchen added to a finished basement.
The fire separation and the interconnected smoke alarms are planned together and inspected together, so neither is an afterthought.
Only one exterior entrance is allowed on each street-facing elevation, so the separate door is placed first and the stair and grading follow 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.
Two whole homes and three rooms, each one finished: a bungalow, a new house, a kitchen, a bath and a basement.
01Whole-Home Renovations
A bungalow, renewed in limewash.
Limewashed brick, cedar under the eaves, windows floor to ceiling and an oak door onto a limestone forecourt.
01 / 05
Gallery
From the street
to the basement.
Every service, from the street to the basement. Tap a picture to see it whole.Whole homes from the street, then kitchens, bathrooms and basements. Open any picture to see it whole.
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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
about legal basement apartments.
What people ask about basement apartments first, then about Hanna Homes itself. The short answer is on every line.
The entrance and the separate services move it most, because a finished basement alone needs neither. A new entrance means a stair and a door opening, the unit is plumbed apart from the house with its own shut-off valves and electrical permit, and the fire separation adds framing and wiring. A low ceiling adds underpinning or rerouted ducts. No figure is given on this page, because the lot and the house decide how far each goes.
No duration is quoted, because approvals set the pace. The lot has to qualify, then comes permit review, then inspections at stages, and nobody can move in until the final inspection closes the permit. A low ceiling adds work ahead of all that.
Yes, a building permit for the second unit, and zoning comes first: the property has to qualify under Burlington’s Zoning Bylaw, which Hanna Homes checks before the application. Burlington’s pre-building approvals then run in order: the zoning clearance lets the application be filed, and the grading and drainage clearance lets the permit issue.
Every bedroom needs an outside window that opens without tools to at least 0.35 m2, with no side under 380 mm. Smoke alarms go in each unit and each sleeping room, and a carbon monoxide alarm is added where a furnace burns gas. The ceiling height and the fire separation sit on top of those, with the permit and the zoning.
The property decides before the basement does. The house has to be a detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling on urban residential land, it cannot be on a well, a cistern or a septic system, and the zoning clearance has to accept the unit. The ceiling height and the rest are checked once the lot passes.
Yes. Hanna Homes Construction is a licensed builder, and the same licensed builder takes on the whole project, whether it is one room, a whole home or a new house.
Hanna Homes Construction is based in Burlington and builds within about an hour's drive of it, in places including Hamilton, Oakville, Ancaster, Milton, Mississauga, Cambridge and Kitchener. If your house is close to that drive but not on the list, ask.
Call Hanna Homes Construction on (519) 897-8564 and say where the house is and what you have in mind: a room, an addition, a whole-home renovation or a new house. That first call is where a project starts.
Still have a question?
Get a free estimatePeople also ask
Before you build,
people also ask.
What people search before legal basement apartments, answered by the builder.
Burlington’s zoning sets parking for additional residential units: none for the first unit and one more space for a second or third. Parking can shape the site plan and whether a second or third unit fits on the lot.
Up to three besides the main home, on an urban residential parcel with a detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling. Only one may go in an accessory building, so the others belong in the house or an addition.
It may. Ontario’s second-unit guidance says a backwater valve may be needed when a second unit is added, and fitting one in the building drain can mean cutting into the slab. The drawings settle whether it applies.
Good to know
Good to know
about legal basement apartments in Burlington.
A legal basement apartment in Burlington is a second dwelling, so the lot, the entrance and the permits are settled before the kitchen is drawn.
Legal basement apartment in Burlington: what makes it legal
In Burlington a basement apartment is an additional residential unit. It needs a building permit and has to meet the Zoning Bylaw, and not every property qualifies: a house on a well, a cistern or a septic system is outside the parcels where units are permitted.
That changes how the job is scoped. We treat a second unit as a permitted renovation or addition with the zoning confirmed first, so a lot that cannot be permitted is found at the start. The basement gets one test of its own: a secondary suite needs a ceiling of at least 1.95 m, and a low one may call for underpinning or rerouted ducts before the unit qualifies.
Basement apartment renovation: services for a second household
A second household needs services of its own. No plumbing serving one dwelling unit may run in or under another, so the unit’s drains and supply lines are routed apart from the house above, and Ontario’s second-unit guidance adds separate water shut-off valves for the unit.
The wiring is a job of its own too. The unit needs a separate electrical permit, and because the smoke alarms are interconnected across both units, the upstairs gets electrical work as well as the basement.
Source: Ontario: add a second unit
Fire separation and alarms between the two units
The Building Code asks for a 30-minute fire separation between units, which can drop to 15 minutes when the whole house has interconnected smoke alarms. The ceiling and wall assemblies between the two are built and inspected as separations, and that changes the drywall and the framing method.
Smoke alarms in a house with a secondary suite are interconnected, wirelessly or hard wired. The alarms and the separation are planned together and inspected as one system.
Source: Ontario: add a second unit
Entrance and move-in for a second household
Burlington allows only one exterior entrance on each elevation of the house that faces a street. That decides where the separate door can go, and with it the stairwell, the door opening and the grading outside.
Move-in comes last. An inspection is required before a building is occupied, and the final inspection is what closes the permit, so a tenant or a relative moves in after sign-off and not when the kitchen is installed.
Other services
Other services,
same builder.
The other rooms we take on, with the same builder from the first call to handover.
All services
Get a free estimate
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