Canada Building Codes: The NBC, Province by Province on Chippy Tools

Shower & Bathtub Waterproof Finish (NBC 9.29.2)

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The requirement

The National Building Code doesn’t set one waterproofing height for a bathroom. It sets three, and which one applies depends on the fixture (NBC 2020, Division B, Article 9.29.2.1 “Waterproof Wall Finish — Where Required”):

Fixture	Waterproof finish required to
Shower stall	At least 1.8 m above the floor
Bathtub fitted with a shower	At least 1.2 m above the rim
Bathtub not fitted with a shower	At least 400 mm above the rim

A shower stall gets the tallest wall — 1.8 m — because it’s the wettest spot in the room. A bathtub with a shower head over it sits lower, at 1.2 m above the rim. A tub with no shower at all only needs the splash-zone height, 400 mm above the rim.

Canada Footing Sizes (NBC 9.15)

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The requirement

The footing is the wide concrete pad at the bottom of your foundation. It spreads the weight of the house out over the ground so the building doesn’t sink. In Canada, the National Building Code (NBC) 2020, Part 9, Section 9.15, gives you the footing sizes straight — no soil test needed — as long as you’re on good, stable ground.

When the simple tables work. These prescriptive sizes only apply to houses and small buildings on stable soil that can carry 75 kPa or more (Art. 9.15.1.1). The footing has to sit on undisturbed soil, rock, or compacted granular fill (Art. 9.15.3.2). If your soil is weaker than that, your spans are long, or the loads are heavy, you’re off the table and into engineered design — see the “not on this website” note below.

Canada Minimum Ceiling Heights (NBC 9.5)

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The requirement

The National Building Code sets a smallest floor-to-ceiling height for the rooms in a house. Most of the house sits on one number, and an unfinished basement drops a little lower (NBC 2020, Part 9, Article 9.5.3.1 and Table 9.5.3.1).

Here’s the quick version:

Where	Minimum ceiling height (NBC 2020)
Habitable rooms — living, dining, kitchen, bedrooms	2.1 m (about 6 ft 11 in)
Bathroom, toilet room, laundry area above grade	2.1 m (about 6 ft 11 in)
Hallway, passage, main entrance vestibule	2.1 m (about 6 ft 11 in)
Unfinished basement, and under beams and ducts	2.0 m (about 6 ft 7 in)

Under the NBC a kitchen counts as a habitable room, so it sits on the same 2.1 m as the living and dining rooms — not on a lower figure. You measure the height from the finished floor straight up to the ceiling.

Canada Ramp Slopes (NBC 9.8)

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The requirement

For a ramp on a normal house, Canada gives you a plain number to work to. The rule book is the National Building Code (NBC), Part 9 — the housing and small-buildings part.

The steepest a house ramp can be is 1 in 10. That means for every 10 mm you climb, you travel 100 mm along. It’s the same limit whether the ramp is inside the house or outside it.

NBC Stair & Guard Rules: Riser, Run, Handrails, Guards

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The requirement

A stair has to fit the space, but still be safe to climb. The National Building Code sets that with a few numbers. They sit in Part 9.8 of the NBC.

The two that matter most are the riser and the run:

Riser — how tall each step is. The NBC allows a maximum of 200 mm and a minimum of 125 mm. Every riser in a flight must be close to the same: no more than 6 mm between two steps next to each other, and no more than 10 mm across the whole flight.
Run — how deep each step is, measured from the front edge of one step to the front edge of the next. The minimum run is 255 mm, up to a maximum of 355 mm. That gives a tread depth of about 255 to 280 mm.

Two more numbers you set out on the job: