Toronto‘s older semis and Victorians are the most interesting tile work we do. Floors are rarely level, walls are rarely plumb, and no two rooms are quite the same dimensions.
Layout planning is the whole job
In a new build you can start from a centre line and work out. In a 1910 semi, if you do that you end up with a half-inch sliver of tile in one doorway and a full tile in the other, and it will bother you every day.
We dry-lay the first run before mortaring anything. It costs an hour and it decides how the finished floor reads. Where the out-of-square is significant, the right answer is often to align the layout to the most visible sightline and absorb the discrepancy where nobody looks.
What else these houses throw up
- Original plank subfloors that need plywood over them before tile
- Significant slope — an inch across a room is not unusual
- Narrow stairs and no parking, which affects how material gets in
- Knob-and-tube or old plumbing occasionally discovered mid-demolition
- Rooms that were three rooms, with subfloor transitions where walls used to be
Condo work
The other half of our Toronto work is condos, which is a completely different set of constraints: building rules, elevator booking, restricted noise hours, protection of common areas, and often a certificate of insurance filed with property management before we can start. We handle all of that, but it needs planning, and it is why condo timelines are less flexible than house timelines.
Where we work
The Beaches, Leslieville, Riverdale, East York, Danforth, Midtown and the downtown core.
Be wary of a quote given over the phone
For an older Toronto house specifically, a number given without a site visit is a number that will change. We would rather come out, look properly, and give you something you can rely on.
Get a free estimate
Ultra Renovations Inc has been installing tile across Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa and the wider GTA for over ten years. We are a registered Ontario corporation, fully insured, and rated 5.0 on Google.
Call (647) 648-8985 or request a free estimate and we will come out, measure properly, look at your subfloor, and give you a written quote for your Toronto home at no cost.