10/20/2026
Project Concord | EP 02: Laneway vs Garden Suite
One of the key differences between a garden suite with a basement and a laneway suite with a basement comes down to setbacks.
With a laneway suite you’re pushing the build all the way to the property line. But it never sits flush against it, and here’s why: the foundation has to be waterproofed, and the crew needs room to actually do that work. That’s the gap you see along membrane so water drains the way it should
- Keep water and vapour out of this building for a very long time
There’s a design element here too. We stepped the wall in to make it work.
With a garden suite you get more distance thanks to the minimum setback requirement, so there’s more room to work. In a laneway with a basement it’s tighter, and getting machinery in can be a challenge. We got lucky on this one.
That’s part of why there’s a premium on