We’re planning on building a small bedroom / kitten addition on the back of our old timer house. The building is about 75 years old and it has lots of things about it that don’t stand up to today’s safety standards. For example, the guardrail around the second floor stairwell is only 30 inches high, some of the bedroom windows haven’t opened for years because they are paint shut and the stairs to the basement are like a ladder. We’re worried that when we get a building permit for the new addition that the building inspector will see these problems (and maybe others we don’t know about) and ask us to change and repair them. Is this a real concern?

This is a very common concern for people in older houses who are planning renovations but don’t want to spend a good part of their limited budget on unexpected and unplanned upgrades. The good news is that you do not need to be concerned that the municipal or regional building inspector will require us to complete upgrades outside the scope of the building permit.

As a rule of thumb, any upgrades that the building inspector may require are limited to the area of the building in which the renovation occurs. So, if a set of existing stairs that is “non-conforming” will serve as access to and from the new addition it would be reasonable for the inspector to ask for an upgrade to these stairs. Or, if an existing window will serve as a safe escape from the new bedroom the same logic would apply. However, it would not be reasonable for the inspector to ask for upgrades to areas of the building beyond the limits of your planned addition.    

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This article was written by Steven Cannon, a Registered Building Official and partner in Lynch Building Inspection Services Ltd. of Nelson, British Columbia. It originally appeared in The Nelson Express.

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