New construction and laneway homes
We do the plumbing on new builds, laneway houses, infill and secondary suites — from design coordination through rough-in to final inspection.
Vancouver's laneway house program and secondary suite rules have made small-footprint builds a substantial part of the residential market here, and they come with plumbing constraints that a standard new build doesn't.
Laneway houses specifically
Connecting to services. A laneway house needs water supply and sanitary connection, usually run from the existing house's services or from a new connection. The route, the depth and the distance drive a meaningful part of the cost. Establish it before you finalise the budget. Small-footprint design. Every metre of pipe run matters. Grouping wet areas — bathroom over or beside the kitchen — reduces cost and improves performance. Heating. Often a small combi boiler, a mini-split, or in-floor radiant, rather than a conventional furnace. Combi boilers · Mini-splits Hot water. A tankless unit or a compact tank is usually the practical choice where space is genuinely tight. Permits. Laneway houses have their own permitting path, and plumbing permits and inspections sit inside it.
Secondary suites
Legal secondary suites need separate considerations — often separate shut-offs, sometimes separate metering, and specific code requirements on fixtures and venting. We work to the municipality's requirements, which differ across our six cities.
What we do
Design review and coordination with your architect or designer · Service connections — water supply and sanitary · Underground and under-slab rough-in · Full rough-in · Gas rough-in and appliance connections · Heating system installation · Fixture supply and installation · Permits, inspections and sign-off · Coordination with the GC and other trades
Get us in early
The cheapest plumbing decisions are made on the drawings. Wet-area grouping, drain runs, the service connection route and the heating choice all become progressively more expensive to change as a project proceeds.
We're happy to review drawings before anyone breaks ground, and we'd rather do that than solve an avoidable problem later.
What it costs
Quoted per project. Written quote after drawing review.
