Region of Waterloo · Service area
General Contractor in Waterloo
Basement ARUs, coach houses, kitchens, additions and clinic fit-outs across Waterloo, from MacGregor-Albert near Uptown to Clair Hills and Columbia Forest.
Every long-term rental unit in a low-rise Waterloo building needs a City rental licence before the tenant moves in, from a basement ARU to a coach house. CarpentryBoys Inc. is the general contractor for Waterloo basements, coach houses, kitchens, additions and clinic fit-outs. We build each unit so the licence paperwork matches the permit drawings.
Renovating in Waterloo
What’s different in Waterloo
| Permit office | City of Waterloo Building Standards (official site, opens in a new tab) |
|---|---|
| Zoning by-law | By-law 2018-050 citywide. A letter of compliance in about 10 business days reports zoning, open permits and heritage status. |
| Extra units | Up to 4 units and one coach house building per property. Height 10 m, or 13.5 m for a four-unit building. |
| Coach houses | One or two units, up to 6 m tall, 1.2 m side setback, never in the front yard. |
| Rental licence | Class A (owner off site) or Class B (owner on site). New 2026 licences cost $460 to $786. |
| Heritage district | MacGregor-Albert, beside Uptown, holds about 135 of the City’s roughly 170 designated properties. |
| Conservation authority | Grand River Conservation Authority along Laurel, Clair and Forwell creeks and the Grand River. |
| Utilities | Enbridge Gas and Enova Power. West-side wellhead protection areas sit over the Waterloo Moraine. |
Housing stock
Uptown brick, 1960s family streets and west-side subdivisions
The oldest houses stand near Uptown, in MacGregor-Albert, Mary-Allen and the streets around Waterloo Park. They date from the late 1800s to the 1930s, with deep porches, rubble or brick foundations, low basements and the occasional stretch of knob-and-tube. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Westmount and Lincoln Village filled with bungalows and storey-and-a-halves. Lakeshore and Beechwood added split-levels and two-storeys on wider lots. Northdale, between the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, went furthest toward rentals, and much of it has been replaced with student buildings. Laurelwood, Clair Hills and Columbia Forest followed from the 1990s on. Their poured basements reach close to 2.4 m (8 ft), often with a bathroom rough-in, which makes them the common ARU candidates.
Neighbourhoods we work in: MacGregor-Albert · Northdale · Lincoln Village · Lakeshore · Beechwood · Clair Hills
Services in Waterloo
Nine services, each with its own local page
Frequently asked questions
Renovating in Waterloo: local questions
Yes, if you rent it for more than 30 days. Waterloo licenses rental units in low-rise buildings, which covers basement ARUs and coach houses. Class B applies when you live on the property and Class A when you don’t. The application needs a licensed electrician’s inspection, a gas appliance inspection or declaration, a measured floor plan and a parking plan. New 2026 licences cost about $460 to $786.
Waterloo requires one space for one unit, two for two or three units and three for four units. Each must be at least 2.8 m wide and 5.5 m long. Driveways can be up to 7 m wide but can’t extend in front of habitable floor space. On-street parking is limited to three hours, so the street doesn’t replace on-site spaces. The fourth unit is where parking gets tight.
Possibly, but Northdale is not a typical low-rise area. Much of the land between the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier was rezoned to encourage taller residential and mixed-use buildings. The rules for your Northdale lot may differ from the four-unit ARU provisions elsewhere in Waterloo. Check the zone on the City’s map or in a letter of compliance first. The unit count, parking and licence class follow from it.
Reviews from CarpentryBoys clients near Waterloo
03 / In our clients’ words
“Very professional, hard working they know their job very well. They built our legal basement, we are totally satisfied with their work. Highly recommended.”
Rated 5.0 out of 5 across 13 customer reviews on Bark.com
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