Kitchener Fence by-law

[Pheidippides]

What is the reasoning behind the requirement of 1.2m setback from an interior sideyard property line when building a deck greater than 0.6m above grade at any point?

Is it fire code related?

For a townhouse with a rear sliding patio door that is essentially adjacent to the property line and more than 0.6m above grade it would be impossible to build a deck that is level/walk-out would it not?


Kitchener's fence by-law

[embe]

Didn't dig into the details, but if a deck is a certain height above grade it needs to have a railing (to prevent the average person from falling off). There would likely need to be a certain distance between that railing, and an existing (or future) fence.

[Coke6pk]

2' is the height I believe is when code requires a railing.

To build such a deck, could one apply for a variance?

Coke

[jamincan]

You're sure the variance is actually required? It would certainly be the appropriate way to get relief from the setback requirements of the ZBL. In simple terms, you have to show that it's minor, desirable, and is in line with the intent of the ZBL and OP.

[Canard]

Are these codes seriously written (illegally) in imperial?!

[Pheidippides]

They have both units of measure.

[tomh009]

So. A deck 0.6m high or higher (the info package incorrectly specifies 24" or 0.61m) requires a building permit. (Lower ones do not so no rules apply.) And usual setback rules apply whether you are getting a permit for a deck or a house -- you would need to request a variance, which you would likely get.

Or build the deck at 0.59m of height.

[KevinL]

Anyone who purchases lumber or other home improvement products can tell you the importance of having regulations in Imperial. EVERYTHING is in feet and inches.

[tomh009]

Anyone who purchases lumber or other home improvement products can tell you the importance of having regulations in Imperial. EVERYTHING is in feet and inches.

Such as 2x6 lumber that's neither 2" thick or 6" wide?

Anyway, if you cut the lumber yourself, you can measure it in metres, feet or cubits, completely your choice. But metres are our legal units of measurement, so that's what gets used in our legislation.

[ijmorlan]

Anyone who purchases lumber or other home improvement products can tell you the importance of having regulations in Imperial. EVERYTHING is in feet and inches.

Actually plywood thicknesses are metric. Of course the thicknesses chosen happen to be very close to 1/2”, 3/4”, etc., but the official measurements are in millimetres.

It’s a travesty that we haven’t finished SI conversion. It should be required that all items sold in Canada must default to displaying and using SI. If you want to re-configure your stove to display Fahrenheit, fine, but everything should start in SI, thereby giving everybody the choice to use it if they want.

Also the government should switch to using A4 paper and require it in all contract (RFP, etc.) submissions. I think pretty quickly offices in general would start using A4 for everything and we could get rid of our weird letter/legal sizes.

[timc]

Paper ... submissions? Are those things still handled with paper?

[ijmorlan]

Paper ... submissions? Are those things still handled with paper?

OK, I hope not, but my real point is that it’s ridiculous that we don’t use international standards especially when, in addition to being international standards, they are actually better designed than our parochial standards. Anyway, lots of paper is still used, and I assume the federal government is among the large users of paper.

[KevinL]

Anyway, if you cut the lumber yourself, you can measure it in metres, feet or cubits, completely your choice.

Sure, but it will come out of the yard in an even number of feet, so if you want to reduce offcut waste...

[Canard]

Glad some people get it!

Kevin, I’m a mechanical designer. I’m well aware of what stock materials are sold in. That doesn’t change the fact that anything from the government (any level) should/must be in SI.

It’s completely disgusting to me that the Region put out posters for ion with imperial units in it. WTF world are we living in?

I design everything in metric and have lots of tricks up my sleeve to get stock (imperial) plate thicknesses back to nice metric numbers. Any machine I design always has perfect metric numbers between all critical surfaces. This makes it easier for anyone else to work with instead of getting horrible fractional stackups caused by gross units.

And look at any road or LRT design plan. It’s all done in metric. (As it should be!!!!!!!)

Canada has been metric for half a century. I’m not American. There’s no discussion here.

[KevinL]

I am aware of your preferences, Iain, but I have to hew to the fact that across North America, housing continues to hold to inches and feet. And even if Canada is metric in many ways (food and gasoline in litres, distances in km), there are still tacit standards like personal height and weight that use imperial. It's not changing soon, and I'm not sure how anyone can easily push for that change.