Old Toronto is the hardest place in the GTA to install windows properly, and that is exactly why I like working here.

Nothing in a hundred year old house is square. The frames have settled, the openings are all slightly different, and the brick around them is soft. You cannot measure one window on a Victorian semi and assume the one beside it is the same. It is not. I measure every opening on its own, every time.

What the homes are actually like

Victorian and Edwardian semis, rowhouses, and the odd detached that has been added onto three times. Original wood sashes that have been painted shut for thirty years. Bay windows on the front that are structurally part of the house, not just a window.

Bay windows are their own job

A front bay is not a window replacement. It is a small rebuild. The seat, the header and the flashing all have to come apart and go back together right, and if the roof over the bay is not detailed properly you get water in the wall and you will not see it until the plaster stains. Anyone quoting you a bay in five minutes from the sidewalk has not looked at it.

Heritage and permits

Some Toronto neighbourhoods sit in heritage conservation districts and there are rules about what you can change on the street facing side. If your house is in one, I will tell you before you order anything, not after.

Neighbourhoods I work in

The Junction, Roncesvalles, High Park, Leslieville, Riverdale, The Danforth, The Beaches, The Annex, Little Italy, Parkdale and Davenport.

The practical side

Narrow lots, street parking, no driveway. I plan for it. I am not going to block your neighbour in for a week or leave a pile of old frames on the sidewalk. That should not be a selling point but in this city it is.

The product matters, but the installation is what really makes the difference long term. In a house this old that is not a slogan, it is the whole job.