The Ontario Building Code bible is thick, real thick. Why So? Three short words: for your safety.  No matter whether you are renovating or building in Muskoka or not, it serves a very good purpose.

Yet, there seems to be this notion out there to skip the hassle of permits in general.  Yes it will extend your timeline, add a little more to your cost and may prevent you from doing everything you want exactly but there’s a reason for it.  There will always be those who circumvent the rules and skip permits and that’s your choice but if you opt to PLEASE educate yourself on right/wrong and demand your contractor build to code for your safety.

Tip: building inspectors don’t care about your final wall, ceiling or flooring finishes and while it’s what you will look at for the next 20 years and you will, you should care more about the internal building structure of your house too.

If you are building or renovating in Muskoka, and particularly at the South End you run into multiple jurisdictions and no surprise here…each have different rules and fees. Naturally, its confusing, despite similarities so we made a coles note cheat sheet for easy reference to use internally first and foremost. Then we realized the way in which we can be the best Muskoka building resource is arming you with information and raise the education bar all around. Hope it helps you wrap your head around potential costs.

Note: this is not the end all and be all AND we’re about to roll into new political term and with that comes new budgets so we can’t stress verifying facts and fees with your local building department to be safe. As we get updates we’ll keep it updated