Deck Design & Permit Platform
GableBird takes a homeowner from a deck idea to a permit application. They describe the deck in a sentence or two and add a few phone photos, and GableBird turns that into a 3D design, local costs, permit drawings and the city’s forms. It’s live, and Ontario decks are where it goes furthest.
Getting from “I want a deck” to a permit means drawings, a site plan and city forms that most homeowners have never seen. The building code also decides things a homeowner doesn’t think about, like when a deck needs a guard and how tall it has to be. Before anything gets built, someone has to turn an idea into paperwork the city will accept.
The homeowner only has to describe what they want. GableBird turns a sentence and a few phone photos into a 3D model of the deck on their house. They change it by asking in plain words, and the AI says what it changed. As the design changes, GableBird rechecks the building rules that change affects, shows local costs, and keeps a short list of what’s still missing.
GableBird is live. Decks in Ontario are where it goes furthest: a homeowner starts with a short description and a few photos and ends up with a ten-file permit application for their city, ready to upload to the city’s permit portal themselves.
The model of the deck sits on the homeowner’s own house. Instead of learning a design tool, they ask for what they want, like a wider deck or stairs on the other side. The AI updates the model and says what it changed, so nothing moves without them seeing it.
Demo project · the 3D deck on the house, edited from the Ask AI panel
Each step does one job. The homeowner never fills out a long form up front. GableBird asks for details only when the next step needs them.
Start with a deck, a fence, a bathroom or a basement.
Write what you want in a sentence or two and add a few phone photos.
A 2D plan with draft drawings, and a list of what’s still missing.
A ballpark range first, then prices from local stores. Anything without a price says so.
A phone photo can’t measure a door frame exactly. When the AI isn’t sure about a measurement, it asks the homeowner for the number, and the final permit waits until they confirm it. A wrong measurement can cost a homeowner weeks, so a guess is never allowed to reach the city.
Under Ontario’s building code, a deck more than 600 mm off the ground needs a guard: 900 mm tall up to 1.8 m, and 1,070 mm above that. GableBird checks rules like these as the design changes, and when the design changes it rechecks only the rules that change affects.
A permit application has real consequences, so the product is careful about what it decides on its own.
When a measurement from a photo is uncertain, GableBird asks for the number instead of guessing, and the final permit waits until the homeowner confirms it.
Early drawings say “not for the city” at the top. They stay that way until the homeowner adds their property details and the real permit set replaces them, so nobody sends a draft to the city by mistake.
Everything that stops the application sits in one numbered list, written as plain questions, with a Fix button beside each one. The homeowner never has to hunt through forms to find what’s wrong.
GableBird puts the whole application into one download and says plainly that nothing has been sent yet. The homeowner uploads it to the city’s permit portal.
