Residential & Commercial Renovation and Construction Services in Simcoe County

Queens Home designs and builds custom homes, additions and full renovations across Simcoe County. Our office is at 64 Hurontario St in Collingwood, inside the county, so the crew on your project is based here rather than driving up from the GTA for each site visit. We handle luxury home design in Simcoe County the same way we handle the build — design, municipal permits and construction under one contract, with one project running at a time until it is finished.

Rated 4.8 out of 5 across 19 Google reviews. Read them on Google · Call the Collingwood office on 705-996-6693 for a free consultation.

Who handles luxury home design in Simcoe County?

Queens Home Inc. is a design-and-build construction company with a permanent office at 64 Hurontario St, Collingwood, ON L9Y 2L7, working throughout Simcoe County — Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Barrie, Innisfil, Horseshoe Valley, Springwater, Clearview and Oro-Medonte — and into neighbouring Grey and Dufferin Counties and Muskoka. We take on custom homes and cottages, home additions and garden suites, full home renovations, kitchens and bathrooms, and we file and manage municipal permits and approvals in-house rather than subcontracting that step. Because we run one project at a time, the same crew is on site each day until the work is finished.

Four kinds of property, four different builds

Simcoe County is not one building market. A shoreline property in Wasaga Beach, a chalet near the escarpment, a farmhouse on twenty acres in Clearview and a serviced lot in Barrie sit under different servicing, different approval routes and different construction seasons. The design decisions that follow — where the foundation goes, how the house is heated, when the excavator can get on site — are driven more by which of those four a property is than by the square footage. It is why luxury home design in Simcoe County starts with the site and its servicing rather than with a floor plan.

Where your permit actually comes from

This is the part that surprises people who have built in the GTA. Simcoe County is an upper-tier municipality, and it does not issue your building permit. Permits come from the lower-tier town or township the property sits in, each with its own building department, its own fee schedule and its own timelines. Barrie and Orillia are separated cities, so they run their own process outside the county entirely.

Where the property is	Who issues the building permit	What commonly adds an approval step
Collingwood	Town of Collingwood	Zoning review for setbacks and lot coverage where the footprint changes
Wasaga Beach	Town of Wasaga Beach	Shoreline and dune provisions; conservation authority review near the water
Springwater, Clearview, Oro-Medonte, Essa	The individual township	Private well and septic servicing on most rural lots
Innisfil, Bradford West Gwillimbury	The individual town	Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority review near watercourses and wetlands
Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny, Tay	The individual town or township	Shoreline setbacks and site access on Georgian Bay lots
Barrie and Orillia	The city — separated from the county	Fully serviced, so the constraint is usually zoning rather than servicing

What building in Simcoe County actually involves

• Well and septic servicing. Outside the serviced cores, most properties run a private well and a private septic system. Under the Ontario Building Code, adding a bedroom or a second bathroom can require a septic capacity review — and sometimes a replacement bed — before a permit is issued. On a custom build it sets where the house can physically go, because the septic bed and its clearances are sited first.
• Conservation authority review. Land near a watercourse, wetland, steep slope or floodplain also needs a permit from the conservation authority — the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority through much of the west and north of the county, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority around the lake. It runs alongside the municipal permit, not after it, so it belongs in the schedule from the start.
• The winter window. Excavation and foundation work has to be sequenced around the freeze. A project that misses its fall window waits for spring, which makes the order the trades are booked in matter far more than it does in the city.
• Access and site conditions. Long private drives, seasonal roads and shoreline lots decide what equipment can reach the site and when. On rural acreage it is often the limiting factor on the build sequence rather than the design itself.
• Older service capacity. Many county homes and converted cottages still run an undersized electrical service. A renovation adding a kitchen, laundry or heat pump usually needs the panel upgraded as part of the work rather than after it.

Our recent work across Simcoe County and the surrounding area

These are completed Queens Home projects in the county and the cottage country immediately around it. Note that The Blue Mountains sits in Grey County rather than Simcoe — we work across both, and across Dufferin and Muskoka.

• Custom cottage build — Birch Grove Dr, Horseshoe Valley
• Kitchen renovation — Garden Ave, Innisfil
• Full house remodelling — Knox Rd, Wasaga Beach
• Bathroom renovation — High St, Collingwood
• Master bathroom renovation — Holden St, Collingwood
• Full house renovation — Kandahar Ln, The Blue Mountains

Services across Simcoe County

Most enquiries reach us as one of these. Luxury home design in Simcoe County usually starts under design and build, where the drawings, the approvals and the construction sit with the same team, and then moves into a custom build or a full renovation.

• Design and build services — including luxury home design
• Custom home and cottage construction
• Home additions and garden suites
• Full home renovations
• Kitchen renovations
• Bathroom renovations

Towns and areas we cover

Within Simcoe County we work in Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Barrie, Innisfil, Horseshoe Valley, Springwater, Clearview, Oro-Medonte, Essa, New Tecumseth, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny and Tay. For home additions specifically, our Collingwood page covers the Town of Collingwood process in detail. We also build in Grey County — including The Blue Mountains and Thornbury — in Dufferin County, and up into Muskoka.

Common questions about building in Simcoe County

Does Simcoe County issue building permits?

No. Simcoe County is an upper-tier municipality and does not issue building permits. Your permit is issued by the lower-tier town or township the property is in — the Town of Collingwood, the Town of Wasaga Beach, the Township of Springwater and so on. Barrie and Orillia are separated cities and run their own building departments independently of the county. Queens Home files and manages these applications in-house.

Do I need a conservation authority permit as well?

Often, yes. If the property is near a watercourse, wetland, steep slope or floodplain, you will usually need a permit from the conservation authority in addition to the municipal building permit — typically the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority in the west and north of the county, or the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority around the lake. The two applications run in parallel, so the conservation review should be identified at design stage rather than discovered once drawings are finished.

Will adding a bedroom affect my septic system?

It can. On a property with a private septic system, the Ontario Building Code sizes the system against the number of bedrooms and fixtures. Adding a bedroom or a second bathroom can therefore trigger a septic capacity review, and in some cases a replacement bed, before the permit is issued. On rural lots this is worth checking before the design is finalised, because the answer can change what the addition looks like.

When should a Simcoe County project start?

Work backwards from the excavation. Foundation and exterior work needs to be finished before the freeze, and permits plus any conservation authority review take time ahead of that, so design and approvals generally need to be underway well before the season you want to build in. Interior renovations are far less seasonal and can run through the winter.

Book a free consultation

Tell us what you are planning and we will walk the property, work out which approvals it will actually need, and give you a written scope and timeline before any work is booked. There is no charge for the consultation and no obligation to proceed.

• Call the Collingwood office: 705-996-6693
• Visit us: 64 Hurontario St, Collingwood, ON L9Y 2L7
• Rated: 4.8 out of 5 across 19 Google reviews

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Written by Amir Fotovvat, who leads Queens Home Inc., the family-owned construction and renovation company behind custom home builds and full-house renovations across the GTA and Ontario’s cottage country. The family’s building tradition began in 1970 and travelled with them to Toronto — more than 55 years of craftsmanship now stands behind every Queens Home project. Queens Home works out of 64 Hurontario St, Collingwood, ON L9Y 2L7 — 705-996-6693.
Last updated 9 September 2026.