Building a Legal Secondary Suite

Secondary suites are becoming a popular renovation to undertake. Secondary suites can be a basement apartment or apartments on a separate storey. Often they are rented out for additional income or serve as an in-law suite for family members. These secondary suites can help make houses more affordable by generating additional income, while also providing living alternatives to people who don’t want to live in highrise buildings.

Why a Secondary Suite should be Legal

Secondary suites come in all shapes and sizes but should be built in a manner to be considered a legal suite. Making an apartment legal means that certain conditions are met to ensure the safety and comfort of all the occupants in the home. The safety measures required by the Ontario Building Code serve to protect the tenant by ensuring a safe evacuation route in the event of a fire. The requirements also ensure the building can withstand the fire for a set amount of time, this reduces how quickly fire can spread to the other suites, enables other occupants to evacuate safely, and prevents a rapid collapse of the building. A legal secondary suite is thus quite attractive to prospective tenants, ensures the safety of your investment, and could lead to an increase in the value of your property.

Before Construction

During the design phase, the designer and engineers will conduct a zoning review to ensure that your vision meets the zoning requirements of your neighbourhood and municipality. The design drawings will detail all of the construction requirements for fire protection and evacuation, preventing noise transmission, and ensuring the structural integrity of the building in the event of a fire. More details on the requirements for designing a legal secondary suite can be found on our Tignum Blog. In this blog, we will look more closely at what it is like to do the renovations to create a legal secondary suite.

Fire Protection

Fire rated drywall that must be used for protection between the suites.

To ensure the proper fire protection between the suites it is necessary to use fire rated products, like insulation, drywall, and tape and ensure that there are no openings that go through to the other suites. Most often, two layers of drywall will be used in order to obtain the proper fire rating. This not only prevents the spread of fire to other units, but also protects all the structural elements against being weakened in the event of a fire.

Window Installation

Changing the basement window so that it can also serve as an exit in the event of an emergency.

During a renovation it may be necessary to change some of the windows in the secondary suite to meet the requirements of the building code. Some windows may need to be replaced in order to meet the natural light and ventilation requirements for the rooms. The one window that most oftenly needs to be replaced is the bedroom window. It is common for the bedroom window to have to be replaced in order to serve as a secondary exit in the event of an emergency.

Other Fire Protection Measures

Fire rated taping of the drywall is one of the protective measures that must be taken during construction.

The designer and engineer will have provided details on additional protective measures that need to be implemented during the construction. This includes ensuring that all openings between the suites are appropriately constructed to block fire from easily going from one suite to the other. These openings often occur due to the electrical, plumbing, and ductwork which have to be routed throughout the entire house.

Getting the Work Done

Doing the construction work for a secondary suite can sometimes become challenging. It can be beneficial to hire a team that is familiar with secondary suite renovations. Being familiar in general with the Ontario Building Code and construction, as well as what is needed for secondary suites, can help speed up construction.