Having the opportunity to renovate your house is exciting, but there’s a bit of research that you need to complete before starting your renovation. Namely, you need to find out which permit you require to renovate your house. If you don’t look into this properly, you could be in lots of trouble and have to deal with serious legal repercussions. To save all the hard work of your complete home renovations, always complete the necessary research first.
Do You Need a Permit to Renovate Your House?
The short answer is yes, you need a permit to renovate your home. Not all of the tasks that you intend to undertake as part of your renovation may need a permit, but making major structural changes will definitely require pre-established planning permission. Renovations are not small jobs, so you’ll need to ensure that everything is above board before you move forward.
A permit may be just a document, but it holds high value if you want to complete a successful renovation. Renovating without a permit is an offence and will get you into hot water with your local authorities. You need permission to extend existing structures and create new ones, otherwise, you are acting independently of building regulation. To keep everything above board, you must look into applying for a permit as soon as possible.
How Do You Get a Permit?
Permits are super accessible, so long as you know where to apply for them. Most commonly, you’ll be applying to your local authority for their permission to renovate and then waiting while they assess your application. Sometimes, the permit may be issued straightaway, but other times, you’ll need to wait longer.
You need to supply ample information when applying, so look into exactly what documents are required. You may also need to pay an application fee. Then, once the hard application work is done, you’ll just need to wait to hear back from your local authority on the outcome.
What Counts As a Renovation?
Renovations are defined as substantial changes to the structure of your home, so things like painting the walls, fixing a leaky pipe, replacing kitchen cabinets, swapping out your carpets for hardwood floors and installing new lighting fixtures don’t count. If you are doing something for cosmetic or repair reasons, it is not a renovation and you don’t need a permit.
Huge structural changes like building a garage, altering the floor layout of the house, extending a room and installing a swimming pool count as renovations. By doing any of these things, you are drastically changing the look and layout of your home and likely causing it to take up more space than it originally did (as with the garage and extension examples).
The Best Complete Home Renovations In Calgary
If you are looking to do complete renovations in Calgary, you need to apply for a permit. Specifically, the permit is called a building permit and it allows you to renovate, reconstruct and extend your house. You have the choice of either applying online or visiting City Hall in
downtown Calgary. There are several documents that you need when applying, including an application form, structural drawings and a sustainable development inventory form.
It’s a lot of work, but applying for a permit to complete renovations in Calgary, or any other city, is absolutely essential and will help keep everything legal and above board as you work on renovating your dream home.
Since its inception, Kavaleer Renovations has been one of the most trusted home renovations companies in Calgary. We specialize in building new homes, full custom renovations, and even home additions like secondary suites. At Kavaleer Renovations, we know that building or renovating a home is a big investment and a personal experience and can be daunting at first. That’s why we emphasize clear communication with our clients as a pillar of our business. Whether you need kitchen renovations, bathroom renovations or complete renovations in Calgary, we will be with you from concept to completion.
The first step to building your dream home is to have a 100% FREE no-obligation consultation. Call Kavaleer today to get started!
