Accurate Designs

Accurate Designs Accurate Designs is a custom home design, renovation & construction firm. We can manage your custom home or renovation project from start to finish.

We specialize in design and building permit drawings. We can project manage the entire construction process as well.

You're buying a house to tear down and rebuild. The size of the old house doesn't set what you can build.The current zon...
10/22/2026

You're buying a house to tear down and rebuild. The size of the old house doesn't set what you can build.

The current zoning by-law does. It controls coverage, floor area, height and setbacks. The old house may have been built under older rules.

Many older houses are larger, or closer to the lot line, than today's by-law allows. That status often doesn't carry over to a new build.

If you plan around the old footprint and the by-law allows less, you find out at permit stage. That means redesign and delay.

Get the current by-law limits in writing before you buy.

Comment LOT and I'll send you the one-page lot checklist.

10/22/2026

A builder's job isn't construction. It's coordination.

Jobs go wrong in the gaps between trades: who goes first, and what has to be done before the next trade starts.

Resolve complexity on paper before it costs on site.

Start with a feasibility conversation. Link in bio.

A corner lot looks large. The buildable area is often smaller than it looks.A corner lot has two street sides, and setba...
10/21/2026

A corner lot looks large. The buildable area is often smaller than it looks.

A corner lot has two street sides, and setbacks apply to both. A pie-shaped lot loses area where it narrows.

Easements and utility corridors take more. They show up on the title or the survey, not on the listing.

The footprint ends up much smaller than the lot size suggests, and the house you planned may not fit.

Ask for the survey and the setback requirements before you offer.

Comment LOT and I'll send you the one-page lot checklist.

You have a floor plan you love. Before you fall further for it, check it against the lot.Lot coverage limits how much of...
10/20/2026

You have a floor plan you love. Before you fall further for it, check it against the lot.

Lot coverage limits how much of the lot the building can sit on. Floor area limits the total square footage of all floors above grade. The by-law sets both, not the design.

Garage, basement, porches and covered decks may count toward floor area. That varies by municipality and address.

A plan you fall in love with, drawn before these numbers are known, usually gets reduced later. That means redesign, and sometimes a variance application.

Test the house against the limits before you make an offer.

Comment LOT and I'll send you the one-page lot checklist.

If you're comparing quotes for a custom home, ask one question first: what has actually been decided?An estimate is a nu...
10/20/2026

If you're comparing quotes for a custom home, ask one question first: what has actually been decided?

An estimate is a number built on what's been decided so far. Everything undecided is a gap.

Allowances fill some gaps. Exclusions leave others. A low allowance makes a low number today and an extra later.

A fixed price needs a finished scope: drawings done, scope defined, finishes selected.

After that, a change is a change order. Nothing extra proceeds without written approval.

Compare quotes by what's been decided, not by the number.

Start with a feasibility conversation. Link in bio.

You found a lot and the price works. The next question is what the zoning lets you build on it.Zoning sets the permitted...
10/19/2026

You found a lot and the price works. The next question is what the zoning lets you build on it.

Zoning sets the permitted use, the height and how much of the lot you can cover. Those numbers decide the size of the house.

Most buyers check the price first and the zoning second. By then the offer is firm.

If the zoning doesn't allow the house you planned, you own a lot that can't hold it. That costs more than any design fee.

Get the by-law and the zoning in writing from the municipality before you offer.

Comment LOT and I'll send you the one-page lot checklist.

10/16/2026

You found a lot you like. Before you make an offer, find out what you're allowed to build on it.

Five checks:

1. Zoning. It sets what you can build before any design starts.
2. Coverage, floor area and height. A floor plan you love can be larger than the lot allows.
3. Setbacks, easements and rights-of-way. On a corner or pie-shaped lot they can take a large share of the buildable area.
4. Grade, drainage and services. Grade sets the finished floor height. Services found late add cost you did not price.
5. Trees, heritage, conservation and rural limits. These can restrict where you build or add approvals and time.

Miss one and you find out after closing, when it costs the most.

We've designed and built 800+ custom homes.

Comment LOT and I'll send you the one-page checklist.

The foyer floor is the first thing you cross when you come through the front door. This mosaic isn't set yet. It's laid ...
10/15/2026

The foyer floor is the first thing you cross when you come through the front door. This mosaic isn't set yet. It's laid out dry.

The crew placed the whole pattern on the slab first. They checked how it looks and that it's square to the surrounding walls. A laser line runs across the floor, and the drawing is taped down beside them.

Once it's set, it stays where it was set. A mosaic that's out of square shows at every wall.

The dry layout is cheap. Pulling up a set floor isn't.

Resolve complexity on paper before it costs on site.

Start with a feasibility conversation. Link in bio.

A curved stair is the first thing you see when the front door opens. This one has five different radii, so every tread i...
10/13/2026

A curved stair is the first thing you see when the front door opens. This one has five different radii, so every tread is different.

Each tread fits one spot and no other. The stair was built off site. The stringers and treads arrived separately.

Mix two treads up and the stair has to be taken apart and put back together. That's a coordination problem, not a carpentry one.

The curve was decided on paper first. The radii. The rise and run. The headroom at the turn. How it lands on both floors.

Catch a wrong number on the drawing and it's a line on a plan. Catch it with the treads cut and it's a rebuild: cost and delay.

Resolve complexity on paper before it costs on site.

Start with a feasibility conversation. Link in bio.

You can't tell what a lot is hiding by looking at it. This one looked like a routine teardown and rebuild.During demolit...
10/07/2026

You can't tell what a lot is hiding by looking at it. This one looked like a routine teardown and rebuild.

During demolition we hit wet, unstable soil. We stopped before removing the old foundation. It was helping hold back the ground between this lot and the homes on either side.

Geotechnical testing showed the bad soil ran to bedrock, about 20 feet down. The site had been part of a river system in the late 1800s and was filled in later for housing. A tree stump buried 15 feet down confirmed it.

Conventional footings don't work on soil like that. The structural engineer specified helical piles: steel shafts screwed down until they reach load-bearing ground. We chose 97 off-the-shelf piles over 62 custom ones. They came in faster and cheaper.

All of this happened before a single new wall went up. Temporary shoring alone ran about $100,000, and site costs passed $300,000.

This is why we test a site before committing to a foundation design. Find this after you've started building and it costs far more, in money and in schedule.

Start with a feasibility conversation. Link in bio.

Address

Mississauga, ON

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+14167681290

Website

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