Legal basement suite · Northwest Calgary · September 2026

A one-bedroom legal suite, scanned the week it was finished

A finished legal basement suite in northwest Calgary, scanned in 3D the week it was handed over. Walk it, measure it, and see what the standard ABLS suite spec looks like once it is built.

Walk it in 3D Book a consult

Interior area: 520 sq ft (48.3 m²)
Layout: Living, kitchen and dining, bedroom with walk-in closet
Bathroom: 4-piece, tub with tiled surround
Laundry: In the suite, stacked
Ceiling height: 7 ft 8 in in the living room, up to 8 ft 10 in
Scanned: iGUIDE 3D tour, 14 camera positions

3D tour

Walk it, measure it

The scan is the whole suite as built. Stand in each room, check the ceiling height, and measure a wall for your own furniture.

Floor plan of the legal basement suite, with dimensions — Measured from the 3D scanOpen full size ↗

sq ft interior: 520
bedroom: 1
bathroom: 4-pc
living room ceiling: 7'8"

Open the tour full screen ↗

More of the suite

Around the suite

Kitchen and the hall toward the bedroom and bathroom doors — Kitchen, and the hall to the bedroom

Stainless range and microwave hood against the marble-look tile backsplash — Range, microwave hood, 12 by 24 tile

Alcove tub with marble-look tile to the ceiling and a chrome shower set — Tub surround, tiled to the ceiling

Custom vanity with quartz top, rectangular sink, chrome faucet and mirror — Custom vanity, quartz top

The suite's stairs with vinyl plank treads and metal nosings — The suite's own stairs, metal nosings

The suite's entry door with its own light switches — The separate entrance

Bedroom corner with the egress window and pot light — Bedroom, egress window

Vanity and toilet from the bathroom door — From the bathroom door

Suite kitchen, wide view toward the entry door — Kitchen, looking toward the suite entrance

Room by room

What you get, as built

Each room, what went into it, and where a choice was the owner's at the design selection.

L-shaped suite kitchen: quartz counter, marble-look 12 by 24 tile backsplash, stainless range, microwave hood and dishwasher

Kitchen and dining

59 sq ft kitchen, open to the dining space

Quartz countertops, standard on every ABLS suite kitchen
Cabinets to the ceiling, flat-panel, chosen at the design selection
12 by 24 inch tile backsplash, full height behind the counter
Spaces for a full-size range, fridge and dishwasher, with the range hood vented
Undermount sink under the window line, pot lights over the work surface

Why it's built this way

A suite kitchen is a real kitchen, not a kitchenette. Tenants stay longer in a place they can actually cook in, and the City's requirements for a secondary suite assume a full kitchen anyway.

Living room

143 sq ft

LVP flooring through the living space, chosen from a range of styles
Pot lights on a switch, no ceiling fixture in the way
Resilient channel and insulation in the ceiling above, so upstairs footsteps stay upstairs
Knockdown ceiling, Sherwin-Williams or Cloverdale paint in the owner's colour

Suite bedroom with an egress window, a pot light, and doors to the walk-in closet and the hall

Bedroom and walk-in closet

127 sq ft bedroom plus the closet

Egress window sized so an adult can climb out, which is what makes the room a legal bedroom
Walk-in closet behind its own door
Solid-core bedroom door, chrome hardware, MDF jamb extension and casing on the window

Why it's built this way

Egress is the item that most often decides whether a basement can become a suite at all. The window well, the sill height and the clear opening are all set by code, and they are designed in before the first wall goes up.

Bathroom

44 sq ft, 4-piece

60 by 30 inch alcove tub with 12 by 24 inch tile to the ceiling, standard, not an upgrade
Custom vanity with a quartz top, rectangular undermount sink and chrome faucet
Delta shower head and faucet in chrome
Mirror, vanity light, and an exhaust fan ducted outside

Why it's built this way

The bathroom gets the same finish standard as an ABLS basement development. A tenant should not be able to tell from the bathroom which floor of the house they are on.

Laundry

Stacked washer and dryer inside the suite, behind a door
Its own water, drain and dryer vent, so nothing is shared with upstairs

The suite's own stairs down from the separate entrance, vinyl plank treads with metal nosings

Entry and hall

Separate entrance, so the tenant never walks through the main home
Its own stairs, LVP with metal nosings
Storage room off the hall
The mechanical room stays accessible for the suite's furnace and the water heater

What you cannot see

What the City checked

The photos show the finish. The inspection cared about these.

Fire separation

A rated ceiling and walls between the suite and the main home, so each is protected from the other.

Interconnected smoke and CO alarms

Alarms in the suite and upstairs wired together. One sounds, they all sound.

Dedicated electrical panel

The suite runs on its own panel, so the tenant's breakers are the tenant's.

Its own furnace

A second furnace for the suite, the cold-air return dropped to floor level, and the bathroom fan ducted outside. Heat that serves the suite, not borrowed from upstairs.

Ceiling height

Code asks for a minimum of 1.95 m through the living space. This suite measures 2.34 m in the living room.

Permits and registration

Development and building permits, trade permits, inspections at each stage, and the City registration that makes the suite legal to rent.

Next step

Find out if your basement can do this

A site visit answers ceiling height, egress and where the entrance goes in about an hour, before you spend anything on drawings.

01A call backA short call about what you want to build, what your lot allows, and what it usually costs to be wrong about.
02An hour on siteWe measure, look at access and grade, and tell you what is buildable. No obligation, no charge.
03A written quoteItemized line by line, with the spec attached, so you can see what moves the number.

Prefer to talk? (403) 667-9800, Monday to Friday, 9am to 10pm. WeChat wxabls.