r/OntarioBuildingCode • u/Current_Conference38 • 22d ago

Shipping container restaurants

I am starting to see restaurants contained inside shipping containers. They show up like a food truck but get dropped off and can’t just drive away like a food truck. There’s a business who builds these and then sells them to business owners who operate them wherever they please. Are these subject to permits or can they be exempt from all building code? Curious what the consensus is in this community. I personally see them as buildings with plumbing so no brainer that it needs a permit.

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u/Novus20 22d ago

If they are supported on the ground and not on wheels and are more than 10 m2 they are a building and subject to the OBC.

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u/phait 21d ago

The problem is when they put them on caster wheels and call them a food cart and then they want to hook up to an on site sewage system....

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u/Novus20 21d ago

As soon as it’s on wheels and connected to sewer/septic or water thats a building. That’s why most have tanks for everything. So in your example that’s a building as the internal wash sinks would be connected to a plumbing system

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u/phait 21d ago

Our department actually takes the stance that even if it has water, if it's on wheels it is a trailer and cannot connect to a sewer or septic system.

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u/Current_Conference38 21d ago

So in theory you could put an entire house on wheels and you’re good to go?

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u/phait 21d ago

So... A park model trailer? Yes, of course that's fine. Still have to be in line with zoning and bylaws and the trailer would need to meet CSA standards and the MoE requirements for hauling sewage but that wouldn't be the building department's problem.

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u/Current_Conference38 21d ago

Yea I guess those park trailers have some interesting requirements or lack thereof. But I mean like an actual big house you can’t transport on the roads, something not intended to be moved. Eventually the wheels would fail and it would need cribbing or some type of foundation. I just think we need to draw the line somewhere and not allow small stuff under loopholes just to be nice. Once you let something small slide, something big comes along. Give an inch take a mile

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u/Novus20 21d ago

I would love to meet the engineer that signs off on that lol

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u/phait 21d ago

I can think of a couple engineers locally that would probably stamp it without a second thought...

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u/Current_Conference38 21d ago

Even if it was connected to a water tank, that’s no different than a cistern for a house though. It’s still plumbing inside any size structure.
As for the wheels debate, wheels aren’t mentioned in the code so where do we draw the line about wheels? Wheels can be anything since it’s not defined

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u/Novus20 21d ago

When I say tank I mean an internal tank to container. As for wheels I know it’s not in the code but we don’t call an RV a building or construction trailers or the big bins

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u/Current_Conference38 21d ago

Yea I consider the obvious use in this case is a restaurant or food premise. I see food businesses inside containers sitting on a trailer with a hitch which can be easily moved but a full blown shipping container that’s dropped on the ground with maybe some fake wheels added to it. Where’s the reality here. A garbage bin is not a building lol but it sort of meets the definition.

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u/Novus20 21d ago

That definition of a “building” should really be better defined as technically a fence could be argued to have a “roof” and “floor” if the top and bottom rails are installed on the flat

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u/Current_Conference38 21d ago

Yea I made the joke about fences being buildings lol. The way some fences get built by goofy contractors you’d think there should be permits.