Residential Building & Renovation
Porches and Decks
Contact Us
Building Division
City Hall, 3rd Floor
71 Main Street West, Hamilton
Call 905-546-2720 or
Email [email protected]
Porch or Deck
Do I Need a Building Permit?
A Building Permit is required for a deck or porch that is:
-
attached to the principal dwelling
-
used with a swimming pool
A deck or porch is an exterior structure that may or may not be attached to a building, with or without a roof, and may include guards (railings) as required by the Ontario Building Code.
A building permit is required for:
- Any-sized deck or porch (covered or uncovered) where it is attached to a building.
- A detached uncovered deck or porch greater than 10 sq.m. and more than 200 mm above adjacent grade.
- A detached covered deck or porch greater than 10 sq.m. regardless of height
above adjacent grade. - A detached deck or porch (covered or uncovered) less than or equal to 10 sq.m. where it is adjacent to or associated with a door to the building and more than 600 mm above adjacent grade.
- The replacement or installation of new guards (railings) require a building permit.
If you are unsure if your deck or porch requires a building permit, please contact the Building Division at 905-546-2720 or [email protected].
Note: In cases where a Building Permit is not required, all porches and decks must still meet Zoning By-law requirements and all other applicable regulations.
Permit Requirements for your Project & Checklist
You will need to submit:
- A Site Plan that shows your existing house and the size and location of the proposed porch or deck. The Site Plan must also include:
- Title, scale, north arrow, and property dimensions
- Street name and municipal address number
- Setbacks to all property lines for the existing dwelling and the proposed deck or porch
- Any right-of-ways and/or easements
- Location and size of all accessory buildings, garages, sheds and pools including hot tubs
- Front yard landscaping, such as a driveway or sidewalks (if applicable)
- Detailed construction drawings indicating:
- Size/dimensions of proposed porch/deck in relation to existing structure, height from grade to top of slab, decking, railing and/or roof where applicable
- Construction of stairs, guards and handrails; include stair width, stringer size, rise, run, guard spacing, height, materials and attachment details
- Roof framing (if applicable): include materials, size, grade and spacing of rafters, showing support details at all bearing points
- Footing, foundation or pier construction details; include size, space, depth and compressive strength of concrete
- For wood frame deck construction: indicate size, grade, direction, spacing and span of joists and beams. View sample wood frame deck drawing
- For concrete porch construction: indicate concrete compressive strength; thickness of slab; size and spacing of any rebar present, and means of support. View sample concrete porch drawing
- Building Permit Fee
To ensure your application is complete refer to the:
Residential Decks/Porches Checklist
Apply Online for Building Permit
Applications can now be submitted online by property owner, or agent acting on behalf of the owner.
If this is your first time applying online with the City of Hamilton, you’ll need to complete two simple steps.
Step 1: Create a City of Hamilton Account (my.hamilton.ca)
You will need to create an account at my.hamilton.ca/
- This is the City’s centralized access point that allows you to easily view, access, and submit a wide range of City services using one account.
- Once your City account is created, you can sign in anytime to manage your services online.
Step 2: Access the Customer Portal
- After signing in to my.hamilton.ca, select the Building Permits category to create your Customer Portal account.
- Once you are setup on the Customer Portal, navigate to Getting Started and select Permitting & Inspections to apply, for a Building Permit and follow the steps.
Need Help?
- For assistance with my.hamilton.ca and login troubleshooting visit My.hamilton Portal FAQs
- For assistance with applying, visit Planning, Permitting, Licensing & By-Law System
If you already have:
- a my.hamilton.ca account, and
- a Customer Portal account,
Visit my.hamilton.ca/ and select the Building Permits category. Navigate to Getting Started and select Permitting & Inspections. Select an action and follow the steps.
Need Help?
- For assistance with my.hamilton.ca and login troubleshooting visit My.hamilton Portal FAQs
- For assistance with applying, visit Planning, Permitting, Licensing & By-Law System
Submission Standards
To help us review your application as quickly as possible, please ensure your documents meet these requirements:
- Submit all documents in PDF format. Plans and drawings must be submitted as vector-based PDFs (not scanned copies).
- PDF files must not be password protected or secured.
- Complete and sign all required forms electronically. Fillable forms are available online.
- Combine related plans or drawings into a single PDF (for example, all architectural drawings in one file and all structural drawings in another).
- If your drawings contain multiple layers, flatten them into a single layer before submitting.
- All drawings must be drawn to scale.
- Remove all comments, markups, and annotations from your PDFs before submitting. Any text added as a PDF comment must be flattened into the document or removed.
- Submit drawings and specifications in black and white. Colour renderings or photographs may be included as supporting information but cannot replace the required plans.
- Convert electronic files (such as DWG or DOCX) directly to PDF. Please avoid printing documents and scanning them back into PDF format, as this can reduce quality.
- Name your PDF files clearly so they are easy to identify. Follow the “File Naming for Documents” guidelines below.
- Ensure all plans and drawings include the information required by the City of Hamilton Building By-law 15-058, as amended.
- If you are resubmitting documents in response to review comments, include a version number in the file name (for example, Site Plan v2 orFloor Plan v3).
File Naming for Documents
Please give each electronic document a clear file name that describes the form or its contents. This helps us identify your documents and review your application more efficiently.
- If you are applying for a Residential (one-2 dwelling units) or Other permit applications, you can combine all of your drawings into a single PDF for submission.
- For Multi-Residential (3+ units) and Non-Residential permit applications, group your drawings by discipline and submit each discipline as a separate PDF (for example, Architectural Drawings [A101, A102, etc.], Structure Drawings [S01, S02, etc.], Mechanical Drawings [M101, M102, etc.).
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