I want to build a home on a no winter maintenance road are there restrictions?

Q:

I want to build a custom home; the pieces of property I’ve ended up looking at are on roads that seem in really bad shape. There is a sign on a lot of them that says “no winter maintenance”. How does that affect me if I want to build a new custom home on that road?

A:

The sign that you see that reads “no winter maintenance” means that there is no snowplowing in the winter on that road. The reason usually is because there is nobody living on that road; since there is nobody living on that road it is never maintained throughout the year and as provincial standards for roads changed and become more strict this one was never updated.

A “no winter maintenance” road is usually a gravel road that is mostly used by farmers and hikers for access to fields or trails. The road usually is not nearly wide enough for a snow plow to drive down safely. A lot of no winter maintenance roads are dead ends as well. There are usually no ditches and the road bed is made of poor granular material that washes away in heavy storms. The trees are overgrown on the sides of the road and there isn’t proper signs warning of hazards or driveways.

This road will be an obstacle when you go to get a building permit. The way most townships handle this is they require you to upgrade the road from the existing approved road all the way to where your driveway will be with a large enough space at the end for a snow plow or grader to turn around.

Upgrading a road is a lot of work; it is more work than it sounds. You are basically building a new road to your house for the township. You will have to widen the road, usually doubling the width, building the existing road higher as well, cutting the trees back from the road and digging new ditches on both sides. The process is expensive depending on how far down this road that you want to build your property.

The one good thing about doing this is that once you have had the road upgraded the township will assume responsibility for it. They will maintain it, plow it, grade it, trim the trees in the future and keep the ditches flowing properly.

The cost can vary immensely depending on where you live and what are the going rates for road building in your area. Anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 dollars per 100 meters of road bed is the cost.

If you are planning to build a large custom home and you think that the property on one of these roads is the one you want then talk to your municipality about it before you purchase the land. The road can be upgraded; all you have to do is build it into your budget for the home.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

New building code takes affect this year 2014 in Ontario

New building code takes affect this year in Ontario

There are new rules and regulations that come into affect this year for building houses in Ontario, the changes were made back in 2012 but where not implemented until this year so that all parties would have the time to understand and prepare for the new rules. All the changes to the building code that were made in 2012 will not come into effect this year, some will come into effect next year (2015) and two years after that in (2017).

Here are some of the changes that will affect you if you are planning to build a house in 2014:

• Hard wired smoke alarms with battery back-up will be required in all sleeping rooms in houses and large buildings.

• Window screens are no longer an acceptable fall protection device in windows.

• Homes being constructed in 2017 will have to be 15% more energy efficient then houses built in 2012.

• New toilets have to be high efficiency for water conservation.

• New shower heads have to be high efficiency for water conservation.

• Drain less composting toilets will now be allowed in places that have municipal services.

• Tightening in rules on on-site septic systems.

• The new building code will allow more performance-oriented method design and installation of some building elements.

• All ministry rulings that authorize the use of innovative building techniques are to be posted at the build site.

• You must have thermal protection for foam plastic insulation as condition for your residential occupancy.

• Removes the need for final grading for your occupancy permit in certain residential sectors.

Overall what does this all mean?

It means that Ontario is asking builders to build a more energy efficient home that uses less resources overall.
It also means that they are adding more safety features to the home to help protect people from the hazards that can befall people in a home.

A lot of these rules and regulations will not affect most high end custom home builders because they are already going way beyond the code when it comes to insulating homes and the plumbing fixtures that they use. It will affect the tract home/ sub-division builders, they will now have to build a better smarter home and that will cost more, if it costs the builder more then it will cost the purchaser more.

The government is hoping that the energy and water saved will help offset the cost, it will but not until years down the road. People will have to understand that new homes are now a little more expensive to build or buy and that in the long run it should save them money.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.