Upper Beaches Home Renovations

Upper Beaches Home Renovations Tips

Living in the Upper Beaches is to be part of one the most rapidly changing neighborhoods in Toronto. The amount of store front development on Kingston road alone, would make anyone’s head spin. This segment of Toronto is not without its home renovation challenges but as we all know, neither is any other section of our city. However Upper Beaches home renovations need to have a few more considerations, than say a Lawrence Park home renovation. The Upper Beaches area is all uphill so to speak comprising a few main artery streets such as Kingston road and Gerrard. Which provide your East and West travel but most of the homes are located on the North-South residential streets. All of which have a serious slop to them, which comes from being on the leading edge of the actual Beaches area of Toronto. What was once the lake is now your street. With these large changes in grade , Upper Beaches home renovations have to make sure they address two key areas. The first being drainage and the second being shoring. 

Drainage

 Without proper drainage, living on a hill can pose some serious risks to your home. First thing to always do when looking at a renovation to your home, is to have a look at the lay of the land so to speak on your property and see if you are high or lower than both neighbours or just one. In either case whatever comes from above you during a rain storm or with snow melts, needs to have a safe place to drain away. A lot of clients want to spend money on the inside of their home and forget about the outside drainage. With an Upper Beaches home renovations you must make sure that your home is protected from water infiltration that can come at you quickly from uphill. 

Shoring

 Now although most of the property’ s are located on a hill. Most people don’t want a tremendous side slope to their back or front yards. Most of these home have had limited shoring done over the years and most of that has started to rot away. Always make sure to address the shoring requirements for your property and the best way to figure out if you have any would be to see if your land matches the same pitches as your road. Every Upper Beaches home renovations we have ever dealt with has had some sort of shoring issues.  The beauty of dealing with land shoring is that it can provide a great opportunity to deal with drainage as well. If you don’t deal with your shoring issues, you can almost guarantee that some of your neighbours land will find its way onto yours.