Faucet installation in Etobicoke splits neatly in two. Along Lake Shore Boulevard West and through Humber Bay Shores the work is in condo towers, where the building controls the water and the job has to fit a booked window. Inland, in Alderwood, Mimico and Long Branch, it is 1950s bungalows with original taps and a basement laundry tub.
I replace kitchen and bathroom faucets, shower heads, toilets, drains, supply lines and shut-off valves, and I quote before anything is touched.
In the Humber Bay Shores and Islington towers, nothing starts until the water is arranged. If a suite has no working isolation valves, the riser has to be shut down by building staff with notice given to neighbours, and I need the service elevator booked to bring in a toilet or a sink. Builder single-lever faucets in those units usually fail at the cartridge first. The Alderwood and Mimico bungalows are the opposite problem: plenty of access, but sixty-year-old laundry taps that come off in pieces.