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Pre-submission compliance audits and technical gap analysis

Site Inspections

We check the site and the paperwork before you apply, so the first review isn’t a surprise.

Tell us what you’re building

We reply within one business day, sooner if you’ve been refused.

Project reviews and layout drawings are compiled using the best physical evidence available on-site and from official registry baselines. Formal legal boundary staking remains subject to a certified Real Property Report (RPR) executed by a licensed Saskatchewan Land Surveyor.

  • Licensed Professional Engineer (P.Eng.)
  • Years of Development Appeals Board experience
  • Based in Saskatoon, serving Saskatchewan and Alberta
  • Fixed scope, no retainer

Sound familiar?

  • Building a heated shop or garage.

    In-floor heat means NBC 9.36 applies. We check the slab, walls and roof before you order materials.

  • Adding on to a cabin.

    Setbacks on lake lots are tight and health authority clearances are strict. We measure before you draw.

  • About to submit a hand sketch.

    A sketch that leaves questions open gets questions back. We turn it into an answer.

Just been refused. A refusal starts a 30-day appeal window. Send us the letter today and we’ll respond the same business day.

Stalled Permits & Appeals

Small gaps turn into long delays

Applications rarely fail on one big thing. They fail on a septic clearance nobody measured, an insulation spec that isn’t on the drawing, a fire setback taken from the wrong line, or a hand sketch that leaves too much open to interpretation.

Each one is minor on its own. Together they’re a file that goes back and forth for months, and every round gives the reviewer a reason to ask for something new. That’s where the expensive requests come from: the topographic survey you didn’t need, or the redesign at the building manufacturer because the pad was two feet short of a zoning minimum.

We find these while they still cost a phone call.

Not sure your application will pass?

Let’s find out before you submit it.

Request an Inspection

How we can help

Before you apply for a permit, someone should check whether the application will pass. That’s what a site inspection is. We walk the property and go through your plans the way a municipal reviewer will: setbacks, septic clearances, drainage, servicing, and the energy code if the building is heated.

The people who call us for this are homeowners, cabin owners, residential contractors, and small developers. Usually they’re about to submit something, or they’ve just had something come back. A detached shop with in-floor heat that has to meet NBC 9.36. A cabin addition with a setback that doesn’t quite conform. A breezeway the City wants to call an attached garage.

What comes back is a short written list of what’s missing and what it takes to close each item. Sometimes that’s a document you already have. Sometimes it’s a number we can set on the drawing, like a 3% to 5% drainage slope away from the foundation, that answers a question before it gets asked.

The work is led by a Professional Engineer with years of Development Appeals Board experience, so we know what reviewers stop on.

What we check

The inspections we do most

Most of our inspections fall into a few kinds. Each one is aimed at a specific question a reviewer is going to ask.

  • Before you apply

    Zoning gap review

    Your layout checked against the zoning bylaw, the Official Community Plan and health authority setback rules, with every gap listed.

  • Heated garages and shops

    Energy code audit

    If the building is heated, NBC 9.36 applies. We check slab insulation, wall and roof assemblies, and in-floor hydronic systems against it.

  • Slopes, clearances, distances

    Grading and septic checks

    Drainage slopes verified on site, septic clearance distances measured, and earthworks checked so nothing has to be redone after a pour.

The process

How it goes, step by step

Five steps, in the order they happen. Most engagements run through all of them.

  1. Send what you have

    Intake

    Hand sketches, property boundaries, builder floor plans, and any letters from the municipality, including a refusal notice if you’ve received one.

  2. Site against the rules

    Cross-check

    We check the physical site against the zoning bylaw, the Official Community Plan, and the health authority’s setback rules.

  3. What’s missing

    Gap list

    Every missing input, item by item: insulation specs, fire setbacks, septic clearances, drainage slopes, or anything else a reviewer will ask for.

  4. Answer questions early

    Fix it on paper

    Where a number will settle a question, we set it on the drawing. A 3% to 5% slope away from the foundation is the usual example.

  5. Something you can act on

    Report

    A written summary, a Concept Development Report, or a sealed engineering package, depending on what your file needs.

What to send us

  • Hand sketches or your builder’s floor plan
  • The property address, or the legal land description if you have it
  • Any letters or emails from the municipality
  • The refusal notice (Form B), if you’ve received one

Photos of the site help. A survey certificate helps more. Neither is required to start.

Request an Inspection

We reply within one business day, sooner if you’ve been refused.

What comes back

A short written document, not a phone call you have to take notes on.

  • Gap summary: every missing input, in a list, with what closes it

  • Concept Development Report: the fuller version, when the project needs one

  • Sealed engineering package: a P.Eng. stamp on the technical facts, when your file needs weight

Which one you get depends on the file. We tell you before we start.

Sample layout

Fixed scope, no retainer

One inspection. One report. Then you decide.

The scope is set before we begin and the engagement ends when the report is in your hands. If you want help with the application afterward, that’s a separate conversation. There’s no retainer and no monthly billing.

FAQ

Questions we get about this

evan.reekie@rdc.bdes.io

Pre-submission zoning reviews, grading and slope checks, NBC 9.36 energy code audits for heated garages and shops (including in-floor hydronic slabs), septic setback verification, and reviews of applications that have already been refused.

Two things at once. The physical site: lot dimensions, setbacks, drainage, utility routing. And the paper side: zoning bylaws, health authority rules, and the National Building Code. Most problems live in the gap between the two.

A problem found on paper costs a phone call. The same problem found at review costs a redesign, a delayed pour, or a modification charge from the building manufacturer. Early is cheaper every time.

Written findings you can act on. Depending on the file, that’s a short gap summary, a fuller Concept Development Report, or a sealed engineering package that carries a P.Eng. stamp.

Submitting hand sketches that leave too much open to interpretation. When a drawing doesn’t answer a question, the reviewer has to ask, and that’s where redundant surveys and misclassified structures come from.

Next step

One inspection beats three revisions

Check it before you file it

Send us the sketches and anything the municipality has sent you. We’ll tell you what a reviewer is going to find.

Request an Inspection

We reply within one business day, sooner if you’ve been refused.

Same-day reply on refusals.

Request an Inspection