Doors, windows and a house that has settled
Most of York sits on clay, and clay moves with the seasons. After eighty or ninety years a house has moved with it. That is why so many doors here bind at the top corner, why old sash windows stop sliding, and why a deadbolt suddenly needs a shoulder behind it to throw. The fix is nearly always adjustment rather than replacement. Hinges get shimmed, strike plates get moved, worn weather stripping gets renewed, and the door closes with one finger again.
Basement entrances take the worst of it. Side doors sitting below grade get frost, standing water and road salt every winter, so frames rot from the bottom up and the sill goes soft. I repair what can be repaired, replace thresholds and stripping, and tell you straight when a door is past saving.
The York housing stock, street by street
Weston has genuinely old homes, some of them from well before the war. Mount Dennis, Silverthorn and Keelesdale run to small brick detached houses and semis from the twenties through the fifties. Humewood and the streets near Cedarvale have larger semis with high plaster ceilings and deep original trim. Newer infill has gone up on the wider lots, and a fair number of older houses now have a second suite downstairs.
Each of those wants a different approach. The biggest difference is what sits behind the wall: lath and plaster, drywall over strapping, or concrete block once you are in the basement. I check before I drill, every time.
Small jobs, and the bigger ones
A lot of my work here runs an hour or two. Those are worth batching, and I would rather do six of them in one visit than come back six times. This is the sort of list I get handed at the door.
- Doors eased, rehung and locks replaced
- Plaster cracks filled and rooms repainted
- TV brackets fitted on plaster and block walls
- Kitchen faucets, shower heads and running toilets
- Ceiling fans and dimmers swapped like for like
- Flat-pack furniture assembled and levelled
- Baseboards, quarter round and door casings
Bigger projects run over several days: a room stripped and repainted, laminate laid through a main floor, a bathroom refreshed with a new vanity, tiled backsplash and fresh caulking, or a deck repaired board by board. Those get quoted the same way, with the price settled before the first day and materials receipted.
What to have ready
Photos help more than anything else. A picture of the door, the leak or the wall you want a TV on lets me price the job properly before I arrive, and it often saves a wasted trip. If you are supplying materials, have them on site. If you would rather I bring them, I will, and you get the receipts.
Parking is worth a thought too. Plenty of York streets are narrow, with permit parking and mutual drives, so tell me where the van can go and whether the driveway is shared. Access to an outdoor tap and a power outlet helps for anything that involves cutting or mixing.
