Thornhill Bathroom and Home Renovations on Both Sides of Yonge Street

German Mills filled in with single-family houses through the 1970s and 1980s, and part of the Uplands golf course was sold for housing in 1989, so a great many Thornhill bathrooms date from those years. In a split-level the main bathroom usually sits half a flight above the family room, and a slow leak from a worn tub drain, overflow gasket or wax ring tends to show first as a brown ring on that ceiling. Where we can, we open the ceiling below instead of the tiled floor, so the licensed plumber can replace the drain, trap and toilet flange from underneath. Then the room is gutted, a new tub or shower base goes in, and we close, tape and paint the ceiling downstairs.

Thornhill's oldest houses stand in the village core, and some go back to the 1820s: Homewood Hall on Centre Street was built in 1825, and Colborne Street keeps a row of former homes of mill workers and craftsmen. Floors in houses of that age are often wide boards laid over old joists, so they are rarely flat and seldom stiff enough for tile as they stand. Before setting any, we check the joists for sag and sister new lumber to weak ones, screw down a plywood underlayment and finish with an uncoupling membrane so seasonal movement does not crack the grout. Rooms are often out of square as well, so we plan the layout to put the tapered cuts along the least visible wall.

Brownridge, west of Bathurst, was built mostly in the 1980s, and the BAYT on nearby Clark Avenue, founded in 1981, is one of North America's largest Orthodox synagogues. Many households in this part of Thornhill keep kosher, yet the kitchens they inherited were designed around one sink and one dishwasher. Fitting in a second set usually means borrowing space from the eat-in area, so we measure the whole floor before drawing a plan. Before cabinets are ordered, a licensed plumber confirms where the second drain can tie in and an electrician checks that the panel can take another dishwasher. Families with separate Passover dishes may also want a high cupboard or pantry where those stay sealed the rest of the year.

The East Don rises on the Oak Ridges Moraine just west of Yonge and cuts south-east through Thornhill's ravines; German Mills Creek runs parallel and joins it near Steeles Avenue. Pomona Mills Park follows the East Don north of John Street, and German Mills Settlers Park lines the creek farther east, so some lots back onto valley land. There, an addition, a pool, a deck or new fill may need a permit from TRCA, the Don watershed's conservation authority, besides the city's, sometimes with a slope stability study. Markham's Tree Preservation By-law 2023-164 covers private trees 20 cm or more in diameter at breast height, and Vaughan runs its own tree permit process, so we check both before planning outdoor work.

In a four-level backsplit, the half-buried family room is usually not the bottom of the house: one more level sits under the main floor, holding the furnace, the laundry and storage beneath a ceiling crossed by ducts. Finishing it starts with measuring the clear height under those ducts and planning bulkheads, then framing, insulating and drywalling around the mechanical room so the furnace stays reachable. The stair down usually leaves from the family room, so an office, gym or guest room suits this level, while a rental unit raises the harder question of a separate way in. A suite also changes the paperwork by side of Yonge: in Markham it needs a permit and is then registered with Markham Fire and Emergency Services; in Vaughan the permit comes from Vaughan.

Bayview Glen and Royal Orchard were built up mostly between the 1960s and the 1980s, and in the older houses there, lifting worn carpet sometimes turns up solid oak strip flooring. If the boards are sound and enough wood remains above the tongue, sanding and refinishing them usually costs less than a new floor; where pet stains or an old leak have soaked in, we lace in matching boards first, then sand the whole floor as one. The gap left where a partition once stood gets the same treatment, with new strips woven between the old ends instead of a straight seam across the room. Older floors also squeak, so we screw down loose spots from above or below before the sander comes in.

Thornhill has more attached housing than its big-lot streets suggest: Johnsview Village alone holds 548 condominium townhouses at the south-east corner of Bayview Avenue and John Street. In a condo townhouse, the wall shared with a neighbour is a fire separation, and the declaration may treat it as a common element, so we ask management what can be opened before any board comes off it, then rebuild it to the same rating. In the older split-levels, the stairwell walls climb through two or three levels, so re-taping a cracked joint there means a stable platform over the steps rather than a ladder. Stippled ceilings from the 1960s and 1970s are common too; samples go to a lab for asbestos testing before anything is scraped.