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Framing Inspection Checklist for an Ontario House: Braced Wall Panels and Nailing, Beams and Posts to Footings, Hangers, Truss Bracing, Notches and Holes, Openings, Fire Blocking and Photos
Framing & Building Systems
The Framing Checklist: Walk It Before the Inspector, and Again Before the Insulation
The municipal inspector checks the frame against the Code and the approved drawings. This list is for you. It is aimed at what the inspector may not have time for, what is cheap to fix with the studs bare and dear once the drywall is up, and what you will want to know in ten years. It is not a list of how to fix structure; when something looks wrong, the answer is a phone call. Walk it with your framer, a tape and a phone full of storage.
Two Walks, One Inspection
Ontario builds to the 2024 Building Code, O. Reg. 163/24, in force January 1, 2025. Wood framing is Part 9, Section 9.23. The framing inspection comes once the structure is up and before anything is covered. Your first walk is the day before it, so the framer has time to fix things. Your second is after the plumber, electrician and duct installer have been through, because that is when holes get drilled in places they should not be.
On the houses we build the outside walls are ICF, so the framing is the I-joist floors bearing on the ICF walls, the trusses set on top and the interior walls on the slab. The list below works for a full wood-frame house too; there is just more of it.
The rule that sits above every line: a beam, joist or floor that is sagging, cracking or moving means keep weight off it and get an engineer or a qualified contractor now. Not after the inspection. Now.
Walls and Bracing
The 2024 Code added Subsection 9.23.13, bracing for resistance to lateral loads. In plain words, some parts of the wall have to stop the house leaning like a tired bookshelf, and the drawings now show where. Most of Ontario is in the Low category.
- Braced wall panels where the drawings show them, at the length shown. A big window moved a foot at the last minute can eat one.
- Sheathing nailed at the spacing on the drawings. The 2024 Code asks for more nailing than many crews are used to; look at the edges of a few sheets.
- Anchorage to the foundation as drawn. The Code increased it.
- Walls with braced panels sitting on continuous support: floor joists, blocking or rim joists underneath, not open air.
- Stud size and spacing as on the plans, and tall walls framed to their own design, not stretched from the ordinary table.
Big window walls, open plans and walkouts are where houses run short of braced wall length. If yours has all three, expect questions. The wall bracing page explains the new rules.
Floors, Beams and Posts
- Every beam where the drawings show it, the size and ply count written on the plan matching the one in the house. An LVL needs sizing software output or an engineer’s stamped report behind it.
- Every post carried down to proper support: a post on a beam on a post, all the way to a footing. Follow each one down with a flashlight. A post standing on subfloor is a question for the framer today.
- Joist hangers on every joist that needs one, the right hanger for the joist, every nail hole the maker calls for filled.
- Exterior steel beams primed; the 2024 Code now requires it.
- I-joists installed to their CCMC evaluation and the maker’s instructions, which includes the maker’s hole chart. Holes in the web only where the chart allows; nothing cut through a flange, ever.
- Dimensional joists crowned up, so the hump in the board points to the ceiling and settles flat, and studs in a wall with their crowns all one way.
- Subfloor glued and screwed if that is what was quoted. Walk it in socks; squeaks are cheaper to find now.
Floor choices, ducts and hole rules are on the I-joist and floor truss page. If someone wants to move a post or shorten a beam on site, that is a redesign by whoever sized it, not a judgment call, and the LVL versus steel page explains why.
Roof and Trusses
- The truss shop drawings on site, sealed and signed by a Professional Engineer and supplied by the truss plant. Match the truss marks to the layout.
- Restraint where the truss designer marked it on those drawings, and the permanent bracing and anchorage the building designer specified. Temporary bracing is the framer’s job while the roof goes up; it is not the finished bracing.
- No truss cut, notched or drilled except as the manufacturer allows. A truss trimmed to fit a chimney or a stair needs a repair detail from the truss designer before anyone closes it in.
- Girder trusses where the drawings show them, with their hangers.
- Rafter-to-joist nailing as drawn on a stick-framed roof; the 2024 Code increased it.
- Interior partitions not nailed hard to the bottom chords. CMHC explains that the warm, dry bottom chord shrinks more than the top, worst in the first year, and clips let it move. The truss uplift page has the detail.
Openings, Square and Fire Blocking, Then the Photos
- Window and door rough openings measured against the window order, with headers as drawn. A window arriving an inch bigger than its hole is a bad morning.
- Walls plumb and corners square. Check a few with a level and a tape across the diagonals. Cabinets, tile and trim show every mistake here.
- Fire blocking in concealed spaces where the drawings and the inspector call for it, and put back after the trades drill through.
- Blocking for grab bars, handrails, heavy cabinets and the TV while the studs are bare.
- Lumber dry enough to close in; the wet lumber page covers what to do if it is not.
Then photograph every wall and ceiling before insulation, with a tape in the shot and a corner you will recognize. Beams, posts, hangers, the truss labels, every hole through a joist. Ten years from now it is how you hang a shelf without finding a pipe. The rest of the walk is on the before-drywall checklist.
What a Missed Item Costs Later
| When the walk finds something | Range, before HST | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Engineer’s structural inspection | $600 to $1,200+ | a GTA engineering firm |
| Engineer, hourly | $150 to $300 | a GTA engineering firm |
| Engineer on a structural change, Toronto, Peel, Halton | $900 to $2,500 | a GTA contractor |
| New footing under a post | $1,500 to $4,500 | a GTA contractor |
| PSL post, each | $400 to $1,200 | a GTA contractor |
| Drywall after a structural fix | $1,000 to $3,000 | another GTA contractor |
| Minor joist reinforcement | $1,000 to $5,000 | a BC foundation company, not Ontario |
| Repairing a cut truss | quoted per job | depends on the truss designer’s repair detail |
October 2026 prices. Finished-job and service prices (Level 4 work in our terms); no Ontario price was found for a truss repair or for sistering joists.
Why Ontario prices are all over the map: the engineers, contractors and marketplaces we checked for this page could not agree on what an engineer costs to look at a frame. A GTA engineering firm started at $600 with a site review; a national marketplace and a GTA contractor went to $3,500. The gap is how far they drive, whether it is a look and a letter or full stamped drawings, and Toronto versus everywhere else. Budget about $1,200 for a site visit and a letter, the top of that firm’s inspection range and our pick, and get two or three quotes on the same written scope.
Here is why the walk pays. Say you find a post standing on the slab with no footing under it. At framing: a footing at $3,000, the middle of the range, plus four hours of engineer at $225 is $3,000 + $900 = $3,900. After the basement is finished, add drywall at $2,000, the middle of its range: $5,900, plus whatever floor comes up. Same post, $2,000 more for waiting.
Questions people ask
When is the framing inspection on an Ontario house?
Once the structure is framed and sheathed and before insulation or drywall covers it. Your municipality sets the exact stages on the permit; many also inspect the rough-ins at about the same point.
What does the framing inspector look for?
That the frame matches the approved drawings and Part 9 of the 2024 Code: bracing and nailing, beams and posts carried to support, hangers, truss drawings and bracing, holes and notches, openings and fire blocking.
Can my framer cut a truss to fit a stair or chimney?
No. Nobody cuts, notches or drills a truss except as the manufacturer allows. A modified truss needs a repair detail from the truss designer before it is covered.
Can I drill holes in I-joists?
Only where the maker’s hole chart allows, in the web, at the sizes and spacing it shows. Never through a flange.
What should I do if a beam or floor is sagging during construction?
Keep weight off it and call an engineer or a qualified contractor now. Do not wait for the inspection.
Know what the frame should cost before you walk it
The house framing calculator prices labour only or labour and materials by floor area and shape, with the truss package and a crane day. If the framing quotes are on the table, the $99 review reads up to three of them and tells you what each one left out.
Sources and further reading
- OBOA: structural design for Part 9: the building officials association on the new Section 9.23.13 bracing for lateral loads, braced wall bands and panels.
- Residential building permit requirements (Clarington): truss shop drawings sealed by a Professional Engineer, and when professional design is needed outside Part 9.
- Trusses and engineered wood products declaration (Arran-Elderslie): how a municipality accepts trusses and engineered floor joists, and who is responsible for bracing and anchorage.
