What a self-made plan can be used for
A plan you draw yourself is useful in many situations, provided you know what it is: a scale drawing made from your measurements. Here is where, in Québec, it is enough and where you need someone else.
Municipal permits: often accepted for small structures
For a shed, a fence, a deck, an above-ground pool or a carport, many municipalities accept a site plan made by the owner. What they want to see on it: the lot lines, the existing buildings, the proposed structure with its dimensions, and its distances to the lot lines and to other buildings.
- Some cities ask you to draw on a copy of the certificate of location, or require a plan prepared by a professional depending on the structure or the area.
- Minimum distances, heights and permitted areas are in your city's zoning by-law.
- Call the planning department before drawing: they will tell you exactly what they expect.
Lot lines: only a land surveyor establishes a boundary
Your plan shows the lot lines as you measured them or took them from your documents. It does not establish them. In Québec, determining the position of a property line, setting boundary markers and producing a certificate of location are reserved for land surveyors.
- In a disagreement between neighbours or co-owners, a plan to scale helps people understand each other and put numbers on the areas at stake.
- It settles nothing: if the position of the line is disputed, it is the boundary determination (bornage), by agreement or before the court, that settles the matter.
Electricity, gas, plumbing
A diagram you draw yourself is for thinking, for explaining what you want and for preparing a quote. The work itself is regulated: in Québec, electrical and gas work is reserved for contractors holding the appropriate licence, and plumbing is subject to the Construction Code. Planimonde's calculations (wire gauge, voltage drop, power budget) are aids, not a compliance check.
Structure, additions, new buildings
Removing a wall, adding an extension or a storey: a self-made plan shows the intention. Depending on the building and the work, the law requires plans signed by an architect or an engineer, and the city may ask for them even when the law does not. No Planimonde plan tells whether a wall is load-bearing or what a beam can carry.
Co-ownership
Private and common portions are defined by the declaration of co-ownership and the cadastral plan, not by a drawing. A plan to scale is still useful to prepare a meeting, propose a sharing of use or split an expense: present it as an illustration, with your measurements and their source.
Evacuation, occupancy, events
A posted evacuation plan, a room's occupancy or the layout of a public event fall under the requirements of the fire department and the municipality. Planimonde helps draw the plan; approval comes from them.
Before you dig
Fence, pool, tree planting: ask Info-Excavation to locate buried utilities before any digging. The lines are not on any plan you could draw yourself.
What Planimonde states on your plans
Plan types with legal implications (permit, quote, dispute) print at the bottom of each export a notice saying what the plan is and what it is not. Leave it there: it protects you as much as the person reading the plan.