In Canada, modular home is used for a house and for a garden room alike. Both are made in a factory and finished before they arrive. The projects behind them are not the same.
One is a dwelling unit — a home, or a second unit added to a lot. The exemptions in section 3 are written for accessory structures used for storage or kept non-habitable, so a unit built to be lived in is not what they cover. It is permitted, reviewed and inspected as living space.
The other is a backyard room: detached, non-habitable, and kept inside the limits your province sets for structures that need no building permit. Floor area is the first of those limits, and the use you put the room to is another.
The Wavyroom Basic and the Wavyroom Loft are the second kind. Both are 99 sq ft, used as a home office, a studio, a workshop or a yoga room. Wavyroom is the backyard-room brand of Spacewavy, and both are sold in Canada.
Read the conditions in section 3 and the other side of the line describes itself. Ontario's exemption asks for no plumbing; British Columbia's asks for no drainage plumbing and for the structure to stay non-habitable.
A unit built to be lived in is the reverse of that. Water and sewer, a foundation designed for the unit, service connections, drawings for review and inspections through the build are each a separate piece of work on the property, arranged one at a time.
A backyard room keeps the purchase in one place: the room itself, manufactured before it reaches you and set down on site in a day. What is left over belongs to the property — how the unit reaches the yard, where it sits, and how services get to it.
Send us the address and a description of the spot — the approach from the street, what is around it, what is already on the lot. We work through the property-side items with you before you order, and that is when the full picture comes together.
A backyard studio is a detached, non-habitable space in the yard, and it can be installed without a building permit where it meets the limits and conditions that apply to it. The two provincial thresholds we work from:
| Jurisdiction | Permit-exempt up to | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 15 ㎡ (161 sq ft) | One story, detached, storage use, no plumbing. |
| British Columbia | 10 ㎡ (108 sq ft) | Single story, accessory use, detached, non-habitable, no drainage plumbing. |
Both of our rooms are 99 sq ft (about 9.2 ㎡), under both area limits above. The unit was sized to the 10 ㎡ (108 sq ft) line — British Columbia's, and the tightest area threshold among the markets we sell in.
Area is only the first condition in either column, and the second one is use. Ontario's exemption is written for storage use and British Columbia's for non-habitable accessory use. How you plan to use the room sits with the floor area, not after it, so we take it up at the start rather than once a room is on order.
Both provinces also write one story into their exemptions. The Loft stands 12 ft tall and carries a 43 sq ft loft over part of the room. Whether a platform inside a single room reads as a second storey under that wording is for your local authority to say, as is whether those 43 sq ft count toward floor area. We put both questions with you rather than answer them in advance.
A permit exemption is not a zoning exemption. Setbacks, lot coverage and permitted use are set by zoning, which sits on top of the thresholds above. Utility hookups can need a permit of their own, and wildfire, flood or heritage overlays apply as well. We confirm those items with you against your address.
Both models hold 99 sq ft of floor: a backyard room under the area limits, installed in a day.
| Wavyroom Basic | CA$29,900 |
|---|---|
| Wavyroom Loft | CA$36,000 |
Both prices are for the unit, in Canadian dollars.
The CA$6,100 between them buys height and what height makes room for. The Loft stands 12 ft against the Basic's 9.5 ft and carries a 43 sq ft loft over part of the room. It opens with a sliding door rather than a folding one, windows are included, and a desk-and-cabinet unit can be added to it.
Start with the Wavyroom Basic when one level holds what the room is for — a desk and a chair, a mat, a workbench. Look at the Wavyroom Loft when something has to go up and out of the way of the floor. Each guide takes that model line by line: the full spec, what the price covers, and the permit conditions as they apply to it.
Tell us the address and we will check it for you. We come back with what your jurisdiction allows on that lot, which of the two rooms fits it, the price in your currency, and what the delivery needs on site — Ask Wavyroom