Toronto Renovations Where the Neighbours Share a Wall, or a Hallway

Since May 2023, Toronto's zoning has allowed up to four units on residential lots across the city, and in June 2025 Council adopted permissions for buildings of up to six units in the Toronto and East York district. For owners of a large house in the Annex or Riverdale, splitting it into separate homes can now be a renovation rather than a rebuild. A conversion still goes through a building permit with a designer's drawings, and the Building Code calls for fire and sound separations between units. We frame and board those rated walls and ceilings, enclose shared stairs and finish each suite, while licensed trades handle the electrical, plumbing and heating for every unit. Zoning review can shape the plan, so we raise it at the first meeting.

The bay-and-gable house, first built in Toronto in the 1860s and still common in Cabbagetown, the Annex and Yorkville, usually put its kitchen in a narrower wing offset at the rear. That wing sets the limits of the new kitchen. A galley or an L-shape along its long wall usually fits, while an island rarely does unless the wing is widened, which turns the job into an addition with an engineer's design and a permit. On a semi, one side is a party wall, so the range hood duct goes out the back or the open side instead. Before cabinets are ordered, we check whether the wing's floor sits lower than the main house, since joining the two rooms usually means bringing them to one level.

A narrow semi or row house seldom has room for more than one full bathroom, usually upstairs, so we plan the work to keep it closed as briefly as we can and check tubs and vanities against a tight stair turn before ordering. It is also a good moment to look at the water line. The City notes that houses built before the mid-1950s may have a lead water service pipe, and a grey pipe at the meter that scratches easily is one sign. A licensed plumber confirms it and replaces the private section from the property line in, and owners who commit to that can apply to have the City replace its side on a priority basis. We build the waterproofed shower, tile and vanity around that work.

The basement under a narrow Toronto semi is usually one long room the width of the house, with the stair dropping in from the kitchen and the furnace, water heater and laundry grouped near the front wall, where the water service and main drain run out to the street. A supply duct often runs down the middle, so we plan rooms either side of its bulkhead rather than lowering the whole ceiling. If the height is too low to live in, an engineer designs a lowered floor and an underpinning contractor digs it, and on a semi the design has to account for the foundation the two houses share. A separate unit adds a designer's permit set. Framing, insulation, drywall and flooring follow, usually over four to eight weeks.

Many Victorian semis in the old city have a side hall running from the front door past the front rooms, and a long, narrow hall seen end to end shows every flaw in a floor. Thresholds there often step up and down between rooms, and the boards may carry patches from walls that were moved decades ago. We decide room by room whether the original boards can be sanded and refinished or should come up, and lay new planks so they run straight through each doorway to the kitchen at the back. Stair treads in houses of this age are rarely identical, so we measure each one. Where hot-water radiators remain, a heating technician lifts and reconnects them so the floor can continue underneath.

Painting an older Toronto house often starts outside. The carved bargeboards and brackets on a bay-and-gable front sit high above the porch, so they are scraped and painted from scaffolding, and rotted pieces are copied in new wood before priming; porch columns and railings get the same treatment. Indoors, tall baseboards, wide casings and stair spindles carry coats going back to the 1800s. Canada did not limit lead in interior paint until 1976, so a sample is tested before anyone sands those layers. Where old oil paint sits under newer latex, an adhesion primer keeps the next coat from peeling. On a semi or row house the front reads as one facade, so we suggest looking at the neighbours' colours before choosing yours.

Plenty of Toronto offices sit in old factories rather than towers. In Liberty Village, between King Street West and the Gardiner Expressway, buildings that once made carpets, toys and farm equipment now hold design, technology and media firms along with restaurants. A fit-out in a building like that usually means working with exposed brick, floors that have shifted over a century and tall ceilings where ducts and sprinkler lines stay visible. We pour self-levelling underlayment where the old floors dip, build partitions and meeting rooms that meet the brick cleanly, finish drywall and paint, and follow the landlord's rules for loading and work hours. Electricians, HVAC and sprinkler contractors handle their systems, and if the space changes use, we help line up the permit application.