Basement renovations in Uxbridge

Town, township and the 1973 merger

The Township's history page traces Uxbridge to Quaker settlers who began arriving in 1806. Their Friends Meeting House on Quaker Hill, built in 1820, is still the community's oldest building. The railway reached town in 1871, Uxbridge became a village a year later and a town in 1885. In 1973 the town joined Uxbridge and Scott townships to form today's Township of Uxbridge in the new Region of Durham.

That history still shapes the work. Statistics Canada counted 21,556 people in the township in 2021, and 11,794 of them in the Uxbridge population centre. Put another way, a large share of residents live outside the town itself, on concession roads and in hamlets where a house usually has its own well and septic system. So the first thing we ask on the phone is simple: are you on town water and sewer, or not?

Fieldstone cellars and 1990s subdivisions

Across the township, about 42% of occupied homes were built before 1981 and about one in five in 1960 or earlier. The town is younger than that suggests. Inside the population centre, roughly 45% of homes went up between 1991 and 2010, so many Uxbridge basements have poured walls, a builder's rough-in and decent headroom. Those jobs are mostly about layout, light and sound control.

The older streets are another matter. The Township's heritage register describes a traditional fieldstone foundation under the 1870s Boyd House on Brock Street West and dressed fieldstone under the old Presbyterian manse on Toronto Street South. Stone walls like these breathe and can wick moisture, so we look at mortar joints, efflorescence and drainage before choosing how to insulate. Our moisture and insulation guide explains why we never trap a damp wall behind foam and drywall.

Wells, septic and the Lake Simcoe watershed

Uxbridge has retained Durham Region's Health Department to issue permits for septic systems and to inspect them. The Region's sewage system page explains that a system is sized partly on the number of bedrooms and plumbing fixtures in the house. A new basement bedroom or bathroom can change that calculation, so we raise it before drawing a layout.

The Region also runs a maintenance inspection program under the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. It applies to septic systems within 100 metres of a lake, pond, river or stream in the Lake Simcoe watershed that were installed before January 1, 2016. The inspection is visual and does not involve digging up the system.

For well owners, the Region provides water testing, and the Township offices at 51 Toronto Street South act as the pickup and drop-off point for sample bottles. Public Health staff collect samples at 9:30 a.m. on weekdays, and samples must be received within 24 hours of sampling. A fresh result is a sensible step before plumbing a new basement bathroom off an older well.

Uxbridge's inspection checklist, stage by stage

The Township's building and construction page lists renovations, plumbing additions, HVAC work and the creation of a second unit, which it calls an additional dwelling or basement apartment, as permit work. It also says foundation waterproofing, new interior finishes and like-for-like fixture swaps do not need one. Applications go through Cloudpermit, and inspection requests made before noon are booked for the next business day. The mandatory inspections that matter most in a basement are:

We schedule the job around those visits so nothing gets covered before it has been seen. Our permit guide compares Uxbridge's process with the other Durham towns we serve.

• Framing, once framing, electrical, plumbing and heating rough-ins are complete
• Insulation, air and vapour barrier, before interior finishes go on
• Fire separation framing, where a second unit needs one
• Plumbing rough-in and HVAC rough-in, before insulation
• Occupancy, covering finishes, handrails, guards and smoke alarms

Registering a two-unit house

The Township's secondary suites page describes a suite as a self-contained unit with its own bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, on any floor of the house. It asks owners to speak with Development Services first, because staff can say whether a second unit is possible on that property at all.

A suite needs a building permit, and then it must be registered. The two-unit house registration form is made under By-law 99-107 and asks for written confirmation that each unit has been inspected against the Ontario Building Code, the Fire Code, Zoning By-law 81-19 and Property Standards By-law 98-151. It also asks whether the house uses municipal water and sewer or a private well and septic system.

We could not find the number of units or parking rules for Uxbridge on an official page, so we confirm them with the Township for your address. Our legal suite guide covers exits, fire separation and the other Code items.

Uxbridge Brook, LSRCA and TRCA

Downtown has a known flood risk. The Township's flood reduction study, prepared with the Region, describes risk along the main branch of Uxbridge Brook from Elgin Pond to just north of Brock Street, caused by a long culvert that encloses the creek from Centennial Drive northward.

Two conservation authorities appear on the Township's fee schedule: Lake Simcoe Region and Toronto and Region. Lake Simcoe Region's permit page says that in a regulated area, permission is needed not only for new structures and grading, but also for increasing the number of dwelling units in a building. So a basement apartment near a watercourse can need conservation authority approval even when nothing changes outside.

Hamlets from Goodwood to Udora, and your budget

The Township's zoning maps include detail sheets for Coppins Corner, Goodwood, Siloam, Leaskdale, Sandford, Udora, Wagner Lake and Zephyr. Leaskdale is where L.M. Montgomery lived from 1911 to 1926. Many properties around these hamlets rely on a private well and septic system, which adds planning to any basement bathroom.

We have not yet published an Uxbridge project. Our completed basement renovations are in Lindsay and Port Hope, and we are glad to talk through either one at your site meeting. For money, the big local variables are foundation type, any drainage repair, septic or well work and whether a bedroom needs an egress window. See our pricing page and cost guide for how we build a written estimate.