What East York houses are actually built from
Walk almost any street south of O'Connor Drive and you get the same story: brick, one and a half storeys, built for young families in the forties and fifties. Behind the paint there is usually plaster and lath rather than drywall, and that matters more than people expect. Plaster will not hold a cheap anchor. A shelf that felt solid on the drill pulls away from the wall a month later. I sound out the wall first, find the real framing, and pick fixings that suit what is actually behind them.
Frames move as well. A door that closed cleanly ten years ago catches on the strike plate now, because the house has settled on clay soil and the opening is no longer quite square. Most of the time that is a hinge shim and a plate moved, not a new door.
Basements are their own world. Many were finished in the seventies with panelling and a low ceiling, and anything mounted down there needs a plan for the concrete block sitting behind the studs.
The calls that come in most often
There is a rhythm to the work in East York. Spring brings deck boards and fence posts lifted by frost. Autumn brings weather stripping, sticking doors and the last of the outdoor painting. The rest of the year runs on small indoor jobs, and it is common for one address to have five or six of them waiting.
These are the jobs I am asked for week after week.
- Plaster patching and repainting in post-war brick houses
- TV mounting on concrete walls in high-rise units
- Sticking doors, worn hinges and drifted strike plates
- Faucet, shower head and toilet replacements
- Flat-pack wardrobes built in narrow upstairs bedrooms
- Baseboards and trim fitted after new flooring
- Ceiling fans, dimmers and light fixtures swapped over
Apartments, towers and condo units
The East York towers at Thorncliffe Park and Crescent Town, along with the buildings on Overlea Boulevard and St Clair Avenue East, are concrete from floor to ceiling. Anchors made for a stud wall are no use there, so I carry masonry bits and fixings rated for concrete. Some buildings ask for the service elevator to be booked ahead and want documentation from anyone coming in to work on a unit. Tell me what your management office requires and when the elevator is free, and I will build the visit around it.
Space is tight in those units, so I bring what the job needs and nothing more, and I take the packaging away with me.
How I price, and where I stop
Quotes are free and carry no obligation. I look at the job, give you a fixed price or an hourly rate, and it is agreed before a tool comes out of the bag. Materials come with receipts if I supply them, or you buy your own and I fit them. The area is left clean, and if something is not right afterwards I come back and put it right.
One line I do not cross. Swapping an existing light fixture, switch, dimmer, faucet or toilet is ordinary handyman work. New circuits, panel changes, gas appliances and anything structural belong to a licensed electrician or plumber. I will say so plainly and point you the right way rather than take on work that is not mine to do.
