House Painters in Newtonbrook, North York
Newtonbrook sits around Yonge and Finch in North York, and runs up to Steeles. The City splits it in two. Newtonbrook East runs from Yonge Street to Bayview Avenue, between Finch Avenue East and Steeles Avenue East. Newtonbrook West is the other side of Yonge. It started as a mill settlement on Yonge Street. Cummer Mills stood where Cummer Avenue is now, and the Newton Brook Wesleyan Methodist Church, founded in the 1850s, still stands at 53 Cummer Avenue. In the 1950s it was subdivided for a big residential development.
The first houses went up from the 1920s to the 1960s. Bungalows, split-levels and storey-and-a-half homes. What sets Newtonbrook East apart is what came after. The 2021 census counts 6,165 homes here, and 2,260 of them, about 37 percent, were built between 1981 and 2000. That's more than everything built before 1961 and everything built after 2000 put together.
The houses here run big. In Newtonbrook East, 1,885 homes have four or more bedrooms, close to a third of the neighbourhood, and the average home has 5.5 rooms. Willowdale West averages 4.7. Another 2,560 homes are in buildings of five storeys or more, with condos clustered along Steeles and the M2M towers on the old Newtonbrook Plaza site at Yonge and Cummer.
So a paint plan here usually starts with tall ceilings, long stair walls and the suite downstairs.
Interior and Exterior Painting in Newtonbrook
The two big houses in the sale reports below are both masonry outside. The one on Nipigon is brick, the one on Dumont is brick and stone. On a house like that the paint goes on the wood and metal around the masonry. Soffits, fascia, window trim, garage doors, front doors and railings. We wash, scrape, prime bare wood, and use quality exterior coatings backed by our full workmanship warranty. We do paint and limewash brick too, but we'll tell you straight that painted brick is a long commitment, and on a sound brick house the trim is usually the better spend.
Inside and outside can be booked as one project with a single timeline. See interior painting and exterior painting for the full scope.
Three Newtonbrook Houses, Three Different Paint Jobs
Three Globe and Mail sale reports from inside Newtonbrook East show the range better than any average. Same neighbourhood, all within a kilometre of each other, and they paint nothing alike.
87 Otonabee Avenue was about 50 years old when it sold in 2011. The agent called it "more like a cottage." It had a big open centre under a beamed cathedral ceiling, a brick fireplace and a galley-style kitchen, on a 61 by 100 foot corner lot. A beamed ceiling is slow work. Every beam has two sides and an underside to cut against, and the ceiling between them is a high sloped plane you can't roll from the floor. We stage it, brush the beam edges, and decide early whether the beams get painted or stay wood. That one choice changes the whole room.
135 Nipigon Avenue is the next generation. A brick house built more than two decades before its 2011 sale, altered to about 4,200 square feet, with a skylit foyer and a winding staircase, second-floor ceilings over 10.5 feet, and two rooms with rounded walls, the living room one of them. Each of those is a line on the estimate. A curved wall won't take a straight cut line, so the ceiling edge gets cut by hand around the curve. A winding stair under a skylight needs staging on the treads, and the daylight coming down that wall shows every lap mark, so it gets two full coats with a wet edge.
9 Dumont Street is the custom end. A brick and stone house over 4,000 square feet, sold in 2017, with 10-foot ceilings and what the report called "intricate ceiling treatments" in the library and all five bedrooms. The agent said most houses around it run about 3,900 square feet. Treated ceilings mean extra cut lines and often a second colour, so six of them can take longer than the walls under them. See ceiling painting for how we handle them.
That's why we don't price a Newtonbrook house by the square foot. Square footage hides the ceilings. We walk it room by room, measure the heights, count the stair walls, and price what's actually there.
Condos Along Steeles and at Yonge and Cummer
Close to half of Newtonbrook lives in a building. West of Yonge, 4,390 of Newtonbrook West's 9,090 homes are in buildings of five storeys or more. Across Newtonbrook, the newer condo buildings sit mostly along Steeles.
The big change is at Yonge and Cummer. Newtonbrook Plaza came down in 2018 and 2019 for M2M Condos. Phase one is two towers of 34 and 36 storeys on a shared podium, with 810 units, and by August 2021 that podium was fully above grade. Three more buildings are planned for the rest of the old plaza site. That's hundreds of new suites on one corner, all living by one building's rules.
A tower suite is a different job from a 1960s bungalow, because the building runs the schedule. So we sort the building side first. The service elevator is booked through management, our certificate of insurance goes on file, the cab gets padded, and the work stays inside the hours the board sets. See condo and apartment turnover.
Basement Suites, Rentals and Small Commercial
Here's a pattern from those three sale reports. All three houses had a self-contained suite downstairs. Otonabee's basement was turned into a suite with its own kitchen and a separate entrance. Nipigon's had a separate kitchen and a walkout, "like a self contained in-law apartment," the agent said. The suite under Dumont was 2,000 square feet on its own. And 2,340 of Newtonbrook East's 6,165 households rent.
Our take is simple. Paint a suite between tenants, not around one. Empty, it's walls, ceilings, trim and doors with nothing in the way. Occupied, every room waits on someone's furniture. If you own a house with a suite, call us before the move-out date. See rental property painting.
We also paint shops and offices in the plazas along Steeles, booked outside trading hours when the tenant needs it.
The Painting Services We Offer
These are the services we book in Newtonbrook, often on the same visit.
Interior painting
Walls, ceilings, trim, doors and closets, room by room or a whole floor at once. Low-odour paint, so you can stay in the house while we work.
Ceiling painting
10-foot ceilings, beamed cathedral ceilings and treated ceilings with two colours. Staged, cut by hand and finished flat.
Staircase and railing painting
Tall stair walls, winding stairs, stringers, spindles and railings. Spindles get brushed one by one.
Crown molding and trim
Crown, casings, baseboards and doors filled, caulked and sanded so the profiles read sharp, then finished hard enough for daily knocks.
Exterior painting
Soffits, fascia, window trim, garage doors and railings on brick and stone houses, plus siding where a house has it. Prep is what gets paint through a Toronto winter, so we never skip it.
Brick painting and limewash
When you do want the brick itself changed, we clean it, let it dry and use a coating made for masonry. We'll talk you through the trade-off first.
Cabinet painting
The doors come off and get degreased, sanded, primed and sprayed, so there are no brush marks. Main kitchen or the suite kitchen downstairs. See cabinet painting.
Drywall repair and skim coating
Nail pops, open seams, dents and old patches skimmed flat and primed, so nothing shows through the colour.
Suite and rental turnovers
Basement suites and condo units repainted between tenants, walls, ceilings, trim and doors, timed to the move-out.
Great customer service, job done professionally, very happy with the result, definitely recommend.
Why choose us
Why Newtonbrook Homeowners Choose Co Painting
Tall rooms are planned at the estimate
Ceilings over 10 feet, winding stairs under skylights, rounded walls and beamed cathedral ceilings. We plan the staging when we price the job, so it isn't a surprise on day two.
We prep pre-1980 homes the safe way
About 2,750 homes in Newtonbrook East were built in 1980 or earlier, by the 2021 census. If yours is one, we treat the old coats as lead-bearing, contain the dust and prep wet.
The price is in writing, room by room
Older bungalow, 4,000 square foot custom house, basement suite or a condo on Yonge, we see it in person and leave a detailed written estimate before we start.
Insured, and backed in writing
$2 million in liability insurance, a 5.0 rating across 78 Google reviews, a full workmanship warranty, and up to 12 years on cabinet work.
Written Estimates in Newtonbrook
Call or use the form and we come out, walk the job, and put the price in writing before anything starts.
Our base sits at 25 St Dennis Drive in Flemingdon Park, about 11 km from the middle of Newtonbrook East in a straight line and 16.5 km by road. We run St Dennis out to Wynford Drive, take the Don Valley Parkway north to the 401, go west to Bayview Avenue, then north on Bayview and across on Cummer Avenue. That's about 21 minutes when the roads are clear.
Co Painting, 25 St Dennis Drive, North York, ON M3C 1E6. Call (416) 319-8444.
FAQ
Newtonbrook Painting Questions, Answered
Do you paint the big 1980s and 1990s houses in Newtonbrook?
Yes, inside and out. They're the biggest age group here. The 2021 census counts 2,260 homes in Newtonbrook East built between 1981 and 2000, about 37 percent of the neighbourhood.
My ceilings are over 10 feet. Does that change the price?
Yes, and it should. High ceilings need staging or planks instead of a stepladder, and they take longer to cut in. We measure the heights at the estimate, so it's in the written price from the start.
Can you paint a winding staircase under a skylight?
Yes. We stage on the treads, brush the cut line along the stringer, and roll the tall wall in two full coats with a wet edge, because daylight from a skylight shows every lap mark.
We have a beamed cathedral ceiling. Do the beams get painted too?
That's your call, and we settle it at the estimate. Painted beams get brushed on every face. Beams left as wood need a clean cut line on both sides. Either way, the ceiling between them gets staged.
Can you repaint our basement suite between tenants?
Yes. Empty is the best time to do it. Walls, ceilings, trim and doors, with nothing in the way. Tell us the move-out date and we'll plan around it.
Do you work in the condos along Yonge and Steeles?
Yes. We book the service elevator through management, file our certificate of insurance, pad the cab and work inside the hours the building sets.
Is my older Newtonbrook house likely to have lead paint?
If it was built in 1980 or earlier, we assume the old coats carry lead. About 2,750 homes in Newtonbrook East fall in that window. We contain the dust and prep wet.
Do you offer cabinet spraying?
Yes. The doors come off and get degreased, sanded, primed and sprayed. We paint cabinets rather than stain them, and cabinet work carries a warranty of up to 12 years.
How do I get a price?
Call (416) 319-8444 or fill out the form. We come out, walk the house room by room and leave the price in writing.
See the Other Areas We Serve
Co Painting serves Newtonbrook and the neighbourhoods around it in North York, including Willowdale, Bayview Village and Bathurst Manor.
Inside Newtonbrook East we cover everything from Yonge to Bayview and Finch to Steeles. That takes in Otonabee, Nipigon and Madawaska Avenues, Newton Drive, Cummer Avenue and Doverwood Court, and the condos along Steeles.