Tracing the Origins of the Innovations and Regulations That Modernized Building

Cam Allen L.I.W. NHI

June 3, 2026

In this weekly Q&A column, retired builder/building inspector Cam Allen answers readers’ home renovation questions. Have a question? Enter it in the form below.

We offer an hour-long presentation for service groups, municipal organizations and trade associations on housing and the climate crisis. In the introduction part we picked out some interesting facts on ages, systems and housing. Inevitably I get a number of questions after the fact about, “When was this invented” so I thought it would be a good “Did you know?” column.

Plumbing

I will start with some plumbing history. The City of Boston was the first municipality to have sewers; they hollowed out white oak logs in 1652 and joined them with tar.

Indoor plumbing has been around for a long time, American Andrew Cummings patented the first flush toilet in 1775. By 1872 the city of Toronto inaugurated their water commission to manage potable water and sewers to homes and in 1897 they actually set up numerous public bathrooms with toilets and wash basins.

By 1891 the first valve and siphon patent for a toilet was granted to a British Gent by the name of Thomas Crapper, yes that’s where that nickname came from!

By 1900, 70 percent of Canadian cities had underground sewers and indoor water. Most supply lines were either lead or galvanized and drains were cast iron. Even though the dangers of lead were known in the early 30s, it took until 1975 for Canada to ban lead pipe. I have seen it as recently as 2015 in the city of Kingston Ontario used for the supply line into a home.

Thank goodness for the popularity of the Eatons catalogue, it was the recycled toilet paper of choice for many years. It wasn’t until 1942 when two-ply toilet paper was invented.

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Electricity

While there seems to be a common opinion that Benjamin Franklin invented electricity, in fact commercially viable electrical supply really was a collection of inventors with the first real battery invented by Alessandro Volta and from this discovery came methods of measuring voltage, (hence the name), current and
resistance.

Shortly thereafter in 1831 American Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetism and then Croatian Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison battled it out between Direct Current and Alternating Current with AC becoming the world standard for commercial electricity due to its ability to travel greater distance with a stable power supply.

Hamilton Ontario was the first city with electric street lights in 1883. It is documented that by 1891 28 percent of all American cars were electric powered. We can thank Henry Ford and his low priced Model T for killing the electric car business.

In 1890 construction of Niagara Falls power dam began and by 1921 Ontario Hydro was the largest power utility in the world. Six years later in 1927 the first
electrical code was introduced in Ontario. In Canada today most provinces have their own electrical code.

When you are building or renovating a home you must get two permits, a building permit and an electrical permit for construction. While each province has some minor differences in methods they all have a strict inspection program. In Ontario there is one process that helps the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) called the “Preferred Contractor Program” where a designated, recognized Licensed Electrical Contractor can inspect and sign off his own work. This helps speed home completion along considerably and I admit it was nice to have an electrician on site who could do this so we could close up walls as we needed. The ESA does random checks on these contractors to keep them compliant.

HVAC

When it comes to heating and air conditioning many names that are well known today have been around since the late 1800s. Dave Lennox was the first to mass produce coal-fired furnaces in 1885 and we can thank Willis Carrier for doing the same with air conditioning in 1902.

One point we make during our presentation is, “Who invented the forced air gas furnace and ducting system?” Credit for that should go to a young African- American lady by the name of Alice Parker. At the young age of 24, after putting herself through Howard University with honours, she received the first patent for this type of heating system. Sadly she passed away the following year.

Safety Standards

In Ontario there is a provincial organization called the TSSA (Technical Safety and Standards Authority) who govern all heating installations along with numerous other installations like elevators and propane handling and storage. Every home must have a final TSSA tag on the fossil burning heating installation.

The WETT (Wood Energy Technology Transfer) is a Canadian standard for all solid burning appliances. This is not a government organization, rather a non-profit licensing system that is recognized by insurance companies, banks and mortgage brokers. This certification means the installation is in compliance with recognized safety standards.

Home Assembly Methods

The last part of home building we mention during our presentation is the time periods and methods of wood frame homes. Wood frame homes make up approximately 90 percent of all home assembly methods in Canada.

The one method that is quietly growing in popularity is ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) homes and this is directly related to the climate crisis as concrete homes, properly built, are well documented to better withstand hurricanes and wildfires.

Log and timberframe homes were the first methods for homes once the settlers arrived from Europe and while these methods are still in
use, it’s a tiny percentage. The first adaption of timber frame was known as braced frame and it had a brief popularity from 1800 to the mid 1850s.

Once the circular saw was invented by Samuel Miller in 1777 and in 1810 Tabitha Babbitt invented the saw mill track method of cutting, powered by steam and then internal combustion engines, saw mills quickly became the method for providing dimensioned lumber. This type of framing was called balloon frame – it took over as the wood frame system of choice from 1870 until well into the 1930s. As North America quickly went through their forest stock, the long straight timber needed for balloon framing became harder to find. A builder in California came up with the method called Platform Frame. This allowed individual levels of homes to be assembled and, with some modernization in materials and assembly equipment, is still in use today.

Building Codes

Early homebuilding methods were passed down from generation to generation. However by 1865 the first architectural standards book was printed and was commercially mass printed by 1932. It took until 1941 before Canadians had a National Building Code to use as the standard to build a home.

I often hear how poor homes built today are and while there is some merit to this point, it’s not a fair evaluation. When you consider that a modern, Energy Star basic certified home can handle temperatures that range around 40+ degrees in difference they are amazing. Considering that you can get up on a cold Canadian morning inside your home at a comfortable plus 20°C with the
outside temperature at minus 20°C and your home does this winter and summer for many years, that is quite a feat.

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