Residential Building & Renovation
Residential Accessory Buildings
Contact Us
Building Division
City Hall, 3rd Floor
71 Main Street West, Hamilton
Call 905-546-2720 or
Email [email protected]
Accessory Building
Do I Need a Building Permit?
A building permit is required for the construction of a detached accessory structure to a house when:
- Greater than 15 square metres, is not more than one storey and does not have plumbing.
Note: structure can only be used for storage purposes ancillary to a dwelling on the lot.
A residential accessory building is a detached structure with a separate or secondary use to your house. It must be located on the same lot as your dwelling and cannot be used for commercial purposes or for habitation.
Some examples of accessory buildings include garden sheds, gazebos, garages, pergolas, greenhouses, and shipping containers. Prefabricated structures are include.
Permit Requirements for Your Project
You will need to submit:
- A Site Plan that shows your existing house and the size and location of the proposed accessory building. The Site Plan must also include:
- Title, scale, north arrow, and property dimensions
- Legal description including lot and plan number, street name and municipal address number
- Setbacks to all property lines for the existing dwelling and the proposed accessory building (including roof/eave overhang)
- Any right-of-ways and/or easements
- Location and size of all accessory buildings, porches, decks, or swimming pools
- Front yard landscaping, such as a driveway or sidewalks (if applicable)
- Location of existing septic system (if applicable)
- Detailed construction drawings, usually in the form of floor plans and elevations, including:
- Dimensions of proposed accessory building, including the height from grade to roof peak
- Slab, foundation wall, or pier construction details including size, depth, and compressive strength of concrete
- Width, location, and lintel size of all openings
- Size, spacing, and grade of studs and any structural members
- Roof framing: size, spacing, and grade of rafters, showing support details at all bearing points; or, if using trusses, the manufacturer’s engineered drawings (request these from your truss supplier)
- If proposing a prefabricated structure, please contact the building division for further information on what is required for permit submission.
- View a sample drawing
- Building Permit Fee
To ensure your application is complete refer to the:
Apply Online for a Building Permit
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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