Painters in Don Valley Village, North York

House Painters in Don Valley Village, North York

Don Valley Village is the North York pocket north of the 401, boxed in by Sheppard Avenue East, Leslie Street, Finch Avenue East, and Highway 404. Don Mills Road runs straight up the middle. About 27,051 people live here across 10,196 homes.

The build date is what matters to a painter. 69% of the homes here went up between 1961 and 1980. Only 10% predate 1960, against 33% across Toronto. This is not a plaster and lath neighbourhood. It is a drywall neighbourhood, and drywall that age fails in its own predictable ways.

The other half of the story is height. 57% of homes here sit in buildings of five storeys or more, above the 44% city average, and 2,845 units are condos. Renters hold 4,870 households against 5,095 owners. That means turnover painting and building rules.

We paint both sides. The split-levels and semis on Van Horne, Esterbrooke, and Linus Road, and the towers along the edges.

What a 1960s and 70s Don Valley Village House Takes

The houses here are split-levels, semis, and detached homes in Georgian, Tudor, and contemporary styles, built on what used to be farm lots. In 1963 Consolidated Building Corporation was advertising three-bedroom houses in this area at $16,550. Sixty years old now, and repainted four or five times.

Drywall that age gives out in the same spots every time. Nail pops down the studs. Taped seams cracking along the ceiling line. Corner bead showing at the archways. Painting over that hides it for a month. We cut the pops out and re-tape what has let go.

Ceilings in this stock are often sprayed texture. If yours is, we test a patch first, because a wet roller on loose texture pulls it off the board. Trim here is painted softwood and the doors are hollow-core slabs. Both take a hard enamel.

Then there is lead. Canadian health guidance says it was common before 1960, and paint made from 1960 to 1990 can carry it in smaller amounts. Only 10% of this neighbourhood predates 1960, so it is not a downtown Victorian job. It still matters under old layers, and dry sanding is what puts that dust in your air.

The Towers, the Condos, and the Rules That Come With Them

Apartments of five storeys or more are the biggest housing type here at 57%, and the rental buildings ring the edges. Half our work here starts on a booking sheet, not a paint deck.

Book the service elevator. Hang the pads. Park at the loading dock, not the ramp. Buildings of three or more storeys with ten or more units fall under the City's RentSafeTO apartment standards, and most front desks want a certificate of insurance on file first. We send ours ahead.

Then it is smell and time. Somebody shares every wall with you, so we use low-odour paint and protect the run to the elevator. A one-bedroom is a day, a two-bedroom with the trim is two. With 4,870 renter households here the deadline is usually the lease date.

Interior and Exterior Painting in Don Valley Village

Inside, split-levels are the ones that make you think. The half-flights carry one wall colour across three levels instead of stopping at a door, so we paint them as one surface.

Outside you get painted wood trim, fascia, soffits, garage doors, railings, and aluminum. Toronto's freeze and thaw cycle is what kills a coat. Water gets behind a failing edge, freezes, and lifts the film off, so we wash, scrape to a sound edge, spot prime, and caulk first.

See interior painting and exterior painting.

Residential and Commercial Painting

Residential work is most of what we do here. We also paint small offices, retail units, and the plazas up Don Mills Road, after hours.

North York General Hospital has sat at the southwest corner since 1968, and Seneca Polytechnic's Newnham campus is at 1750 Finch Avenue East. Both keep clinics, offices, and student rentals turning over nearby.

The Painting Services We Offer

The jobs we handle on a North York home, most of them on the same visit.

• Interior painting

  Walls, ceilings, trim, doors, and closets, with the drywall prep first. Low-odour paint, back in use the same day.

• Exterior painting

  Wood siding, aluminum, brick, porches, and railings. Washed, scraped, and primed first, which is what makes it last a Toronto winter.

• Cabinet painting

  Doors off, degreased, sanded, and sprayed, so there are no brush marks. See cabinet painting.

• Drywall and plaster repair

  Cracks, holes, water stains, and failed seams patched, skimmed, and primed so the repair disappears. See drywall and plaster repair.

• Deck and fence staining

  Backyard wood greys out fast. Washed, dried, and stained so it sheds water. See deck and fence staining.

• Wallpaper removal

  Score, steam, strip the glue, and skim the wall smooth.

• Ceiling painting

  Water stains blocked first, then a flat finish that hides the dips instead of lighting them up.

• Trim, crown molding, and doors

  Filled, caulked, sanded, and finished hard enough for daily knocks.

• Stucco and siding

  Stucco, aluminum, and vinyl, with coatings made to move with the surface.

• Power washing

  Dirt, chalk, and mildew off, so the new coat grabs the surface.

Co Painting did an amazing job on our home interior. They were professional, punctual, and the quality of work exceeded our expectations.

We Are Thirteen Minutes South of Fairview Mall

We work out of 25 St Dennis Drive in Flemingdon Park, off Don Mills Road south of Eglinton. Our door to CF Fairview Mall at 1800 Sheppard Avenue East is 8.9 km. St Dennis to Wynford Drive, over to Concorde Place, onto the Don Valley Parkway, stay on it as it becomes Highway 404, off at Sheppard Avenue East. Thirteen minutes on a clear road. When the parkway backs up we run Don Mills Road instead, up through Don Mills, Henry Farm, and Parkway Forest.

We know the landmarks because we drive them. Fairview Mall on the northeast corner of Don Mills and Sheppard, open since August 1970 and now over 180 stores, with Don Mills station beside it. The Fairview library branch. North York General at Sheppard and Leslie. Oriole Community Centre and Arena, and Oriole GO. Dallington, Godstone, Lescon, and Oriole parks. And the Peanut, where Don Mills Road splits into two one-way legs between Sheppard and Finch around Peanut Plaza.

It is not sitting still either. Cadillac Fairview's master plan for the mall site runs to roughly 4,700 new homes over four phases, the first towers proposed at 58, 48, and 38 storeys beside Don Mills station. Allenbury Gardens replaced 127 older Toronto Community Housing units with townhouses and buildings up to twenty storeys.

Co Painting, 25 St Dennis Drive, North York, ON M3C 1E6. Call (416) 319-8444.

See the Other Areas We Serve

Co Painting serves Don Valley Village and the neighbourhoods around it. Henry Farm across Sheppard, Bayview Village across Leslie, Parkwoods and Don Mills below the 401.