Ajax Home Renovations for Safer Bathrooms and Smoother Walls

The large houses built along Lake Driveway in the early 1980s, and many two-storeys from the same decade further north, often came with an ensuite of their time: a deck-mounted soaker tub under the window, a cramped corner shower stall and a long counter with one sink. Owners now tend to turn that arrangement around, giving the floor space to a generous walk-in shower and a double vanity. Pulling out a platform tub often exposes subfloor and wall board that have taken years of splashes, so we open them up and replace anything soft before the new floor goes down. A licensed electrician wires any heated floor or new exhaust fan, and the fan is ducted outdoors rather than into the attic.

In the 1970s new subdivisions spread over the vacant land in central Ajax and across the south-west end, where Duffins Bay Public School was built to keep up. Many houses from that decade and the next were given sprayed stipple ceilings that owners now want smooth. Because texture from those years can contain asbestos, a lab test comes first, and a positive sample is handled by an abatement contractor before we begin. What surprises people is the board underneath: the spray often hid rough taping, so a bare ceiling usually needs a full skim before it will look flat under paint. Closets, halls and stairwells were sprayed at the same time, and we price them in so no room is left textured by accident.

The Town of Ajax keeps separate building guides for a finished basement, an accessory apartment and a below-grade entrance, and many plans touch more than one. An entrance cut through the foundation to an outside stairwell is common for a rental or in-law unit; it needs an excavation and concrete contractor and a drained landing, and the Town's checklist asks for a cross-section through the walkout plus Toronto and Region Conservation Authority clearance where the lot needs it. An apartment that has been in the house for years can take a different route: Ajax Fire and Emergency Services issues a Notice of Violation, and the permit drawings show how each item is corrected. We build to the approved drawings and leave plumbing, wiring and ductwork to licensed trades.

Between 1981 and 1991 the population of Ajax went from about 25,000 to more than 57,000, so a large share of its houses date from that one decade and are reaching the age when several things wear out at once: kitchen, main bath, flooring, interior doors and trim. Treating those as one renovation rather than five separate jobs saves repeat demolition and dust, and lets the finishes match from room to room. We sequence the work so the house stays liveable, coordinate the licensed electricians, plumbers and HVAC technicians the project needs, and prepare the paperwork for the Town's Building Services when a permit is involved, working from drawings by a designer or engineer where the scope calls for them.

Westney Heights got its start in the early 1980s north of Kingston Road, the old Highway 2, selling homes with low-rate mortgages while bank rates sat near 18 to 20 per cent. Kitchens from those years often have a dropped ceiling box over the work area, sometimes still holding fluorescent tubes, with upper cabinets that stop short of the ceiling and a fan that recirculates rather than vents. With the box gone the ceiling is built flat, a licensed electrician lays out pot lights and under-cabinet lighting, and new uppers run to the ceiling. A range hood ducted outdoors replaces the old fan, its route through the wall planned before cabinets are ordered. Where the breakfast nook stays, a built-in bench with drawers often works better than an island.

The centre of Pickering Village has been a heritage conservation district since 2013, covering 58 commercial and residential properties, and the Town has also designated 31 properties individually, a number of them along Kingston Road. A heritage permit is needed before any alteration that may affect a property's character-defining features, which are spelled out in the district plan or the designation by-law, so before original wood siding, porches, trim or window frames are stripped or repainted we suggest checking with the Town what counts. Outside, we scrape by hand, splice in replacement wood milled to the old profile instead of covering it with vinyl, and keep exterior coats to warm, dry weather. The oldest layers may contain lead, so we test before sanding and keep the dust contained.

The houses put up for munitions workers in the early 1940s were meant to be temporary. After the war, the families living in them petitioned to buy them, and permanent foundations were built underneath before the homes became part of the new town. Eight decades on, that past can show as floors that slope toward one wall, door frames that have racked out of square and trim that has been shimmed and re-nailed many times. On a repair visit we work out whether a sticking door or a returning crack points to a house that is still moving or simply to old fixes, then plane and rehang doors, re-secure stair treads and loose railings, and refer anything structural to an engineer.