Flooring installation and refinishing in York

Up the hill from the Humber

The former City of York sits on some of Toronto’s steepest ground. Silverthorn has been called the city’s hidden San Francisco, with twisting one way streets and houses perched above the road. York merged into Toronto in 1998, but its houses still have their own character: mostly older, mostly brick, and often on a slope. Before we talk about wood, we talk about getting it to your door.

Streetcar suburbs: Silverthorn, Fairbank and Oakwood Village

Most Silverthorn houses were built between 1914 and 1930, modest brick and frame homes mixing two-storey detached, semis, storey-and-a-halfs and bungalows. Oakwood Village, once known as Oakwood-Vaughan, grew as an early streetcar suburb, while Fairbank was planned in the 1920s and 1930s and filled in later.

Houses this age have settled. Floors dip near old load points and squeak where boards have loosened. We fix the structure of the floor first through floor repair, then sand. A lot of these floors are worth refinishing, and that usually costs less than starting over.

Baby Point: interwar houses above the ravine

Baby Point was subdivided by Robert Home Smith from 1911, and most of its houses date from the 1920s and 1930s. The larger ones back onto the Humber valley. Original hardwood and wood stairs are part of their value, so we restore before we replace, and bring the staircase along with the floors so everything matches.

Weston and Mount Dennis

Weston was its own town until 1967. East of the railway the houses are largely Victorian, followed by bungalows and sidesplits after the Depression years. Mount Dennis has houses from every decade from the late 1800s to the 1960s, apartment buildings from the 1970s, and new towers rising as the area changes.

That range means one week we are levelling an 1800s floor and the next we are working in a tower on Weston Road, booking the elevator and following the building’s underlay rules. For houses where the old floor is gone, new hardwood installation suits the period better than a click floor.

Old stairs, too

In houses of this age the stairs are often the most worn wood in the building. Treads cup in the middle and nosings round off. Refinishing them with the floors keeps the colour consistent from the front hall to the top landing.

What your quote will show

Every quote lists removal, repairs, levelling, materials, stairs and trims as separate lines, with start and finish dates. If you are near the edge of Etobicoke or midtown Toronto, we work there too. Get a free measure.