Basement Suites and Backsplit Renovations Across Scarborough

Basements here span more than half a century. Under the bungalows and storey-and-a-half houses Wexford gained in the 1950s, the basement was meant for a furnace and storage, so low beams and small windows are common, and the window, more than the floor area, often decides whether a room down there can be a bedroom. Morningside Heights, between Finch and Steeles from Tapscott Road to the Rouge River, has no house older than 2002, and its detached two-storeys tend to have taller basements, many still unfinished. Where those basements were never finished, the builder's insulation blanket often still hangs on the upper walls, and we pull it back to check the concrete for damp and cracks before any framing goes up.

The Scarborough Bluffs run about 15 kilometres along Lake Ontario and rise as high as 90 metres, with Birch Cliff, Cliffside, Cliffcrest and Guildwood Village along the top. Inland, the Highland Creek watershed lies almost entirely inside Scarborough, its branches cutting ravines through parks such as Morningside and Colonel Danforth. TRCA, the conservation authority for both, controls building along the shoreline and in these valleys, so an addition, a deck, a pool or regrading near a slope can need its permit as well as the City's, and on a bluff-top lot it usually wants a geotechnical engineer to locate the long-term stable top of slope first. We check whether a lot is regulated before sketching a layout, and the setbacks come from the engineer and TRCA.

Clairlea was among the first parts of Scarborough to become suburban streets, in the early 1950s, and Wexford filled in through that decade, and the houses from those years kept kitchens sized for one cook and a small table. Many Scarborough households now cook with a wok or fry whole spices most days, which makes ventilation the first decision: a hood vented outdoors through the brick and matched to the cooktop, plus make-up air if an HVAC contractor finds the house needs it. Some families add a small enclosed spice kitchen beside the main one, and its sink and circuits mean the plumber and electrician map their routes and check the panel before we draw cabinets. From delivery, cabinets to backsplash usually takes three to six weeks.

L'Amoreaux filled in from the 1950s to the late 1970s with ranch bungalows, split-levels and two-storeys, and Agincourt and Woburn are lined with backsplits and sidesplits from the same decades. In those houses the main bathroom usually sits on the bedroom level, half a flight above a lower floor, so its drain drops through that room's ceiling, and that path limits how far a toilet or shower can move. Replacing fixtures where they stand generally needs no City permit, while moving a drain or adding an ensuite or powder room usually does. A licensed plumber plans the new runs, we open only the ceiling they need below, then rebuild the shower walls with a membrane, tile them and close up the room underneath.

Whether a Scarborough wall can come out often depends on how the roof was built. Many 1950s bungalows have rafters and ceiling joists resting on a central wall that runs the length of the house, so opening the kitchen means an engineer-designed beam, sometimes recessed flush with the ceiling, with posts carried down to footings in the basement. Houses from the 1970s, including much of Malvern, whose first residents arrived in 1972, are more likely to have trusses spanning wall to wall, though we confirm that in the attic before relying on it. We put up temporary shoring, frame the posts and beam pockets to the engineer's details and close the opening for drywall.

Scarborough floors tend to follow the decade a street was built. Pull up the carpet in a 1950s Clairlea or Wexford house and narrow oak strip often lies underneath; if the boards still have wood left above the tongue, we sand and refinish them, weaving in new boards where a wall or a register used to be. L'Amoreaux's split-levels and townhouses of the 1970s were more often carpeted wall to wall from the start, sometimes over particleboard underlayment that swells wherever it got wet and will not hold hardwood nails, so it comes up and plywood goes down before new plank. Sanding throws fine dust, so before the first pass we seal doorways with plastic and cover the return-air grilles so the furnace does not carry it through the house.

Rooming houses were not permitted in the former City of Scarborough until March 31, 2024, when Toronto allowed multi-tenant houses across the city under a licensing by-law. Here a licensed house can rent up to six rooms, and the application includes a floor plan giving each room's size and tenant limit, along with property, pest and waste management plans, followed by a City inspection. When that visit produces a list, we work through the items in our scope, such as doors that will not latch, holes in walls, worn stair treads, loose handrails and failed caulking in shared bathrooms, each priced on its own line. Hard-wired smoke alarms and other electrical items go to a licensed electrician.