Renovating Aurora's Heritage Houses, Backyard Decks and Bayview Basements

A permitted deck in Aurora gets two inspections, and the first one sets the pace. Before any digging, we arrange an Ontario One Call locate so buried gas, hydro and cable lines are marked. Then the pier holes are dug to the depth on the drawings and left open: the inspector has to see them before they are poured and backfilled, so we book that visit as soon as the holes are ready and keep them covered and dry in the meantime. Framing, decking, guards and stairs follow, and the second inspection comes when the deck is complete. Owners who prefer to skip a custom set of drawings can complete the template in the Town's Deck Construction Guide with every measurement filled in.

Regency Acres, around Murray Drive and its public school, filled with houses in the 1960s and 1970s, and half a century on, many have been altered by more than one owner. Before planning a renovation in one, it is worth asking the Town for the property's permit history. A wall taken out, a basement finished or a porch enclosed without a permit tends to surface when a house is sold, and it is cheapest to put right while the walls are open anyway. Where an earlier owner removed a bearing wall, an engineer checks whatever beam went in, and any new structural work is applied for through the Town's CityView portal. Settling both now also leaves the next buyer a clean file.

A rec room, gym or office in an Aurora basement can often go ahead without a building permit: the Town's permit page puts a finished basement with no structural alterations and no added sleeping accommodation among the jobs that need none. Adding a bedroom generally brings a permit back into the picture. A rental unit is a bigger step again: Zoning By-law 6000-17 allows a second suite in a detached, semi-detached or link house, and creating one takes a building or change-of-use permit. Even the permit-free rec room is not inspection-free, though: new circuits, outlets and lights still get an Electrical Safety Authority inspection, booked by the licensed electrician who installs them.

The Hills of St. Andrew, which runs north from Orchard Heights Boulevard between Yonge and Bathurst, was largely built up in the 1980s, and kitchens of that decade often hang their upper cabinets beneath a boxed soffit. Owners want it gone so new uppers can reach the ceiling, but a soffit is not always empty: it may hide a duct to the bedrooms above, a plumbing vent or the range hood's exhaust run. We open a small inspection hole before ordering cabinets. An empty box comes down and the ceiling is patched; where a duct runs through, an HVAC contractor may reroute it into a joist bay, or we keep a slimmer soffit along one wall. A vent stack stays put unless a licensed plumber can move it.

Many of the older houses around Yonge and Wellington were built before indoor bathrooms were usual, so theirs came later, fitted into a former bedroom, a hall closet or a back wing, with joists notched for the drains. Owners restoring one often want a cast-iron clawfoot tub. Full of water with someone in it, that tub rests its whole weight on four small feet, so we open the floor first, check what the old notches have left of the joists, and reinforce them under the tub's footprint, calling in an engineer where the damage is serious. A licensed plumber replaces any old cast-iron or galvanized pipe we uncover and runs the supply lines for a floor-mounted tub filler before the floor is closed.

Houses in Bayview Northeast and Aurora's other subdivisions of the late 1990s and 2000s often have ceramic tile through the front hall, kitchen and breakfast area, with hardwood or broadloom in the living and dining rooms. Many owners now want one floor from front door to patio. That means lifting the tile and its setting bed; the subfloor under it rarely sits level with the rooms next to it, so we add plywood underlayment or plane high spots until the new boards run flat through every doorway. The kitchen needs one more check: if the new floor sits higher than the old tile, the dishwasher can end up trapped under the counter, so we measure its clearance and run the flooring beneath it.

When an Aurora house becomes two units, much of the fire separation between them is drywall, and most of its weak points are overhead. In a Bayview-area basement the ceiling is crossed by ducts, drains and a steel beam, and the separation only works if each one is wrapped or boxed in the rated board the drawings call for, not hidden behind a lighter bulkhead. The furnace room and the stair to the upper unit are usually enclosed as well. We hang the board tight at the wall tops, tape and fill every layer, and seal around pipes, wires and duct openings with fire-stop material. Mineral wool in the ceiling, worth adding at the same time, also helps the two households hear less of each other.