Bringing Burlington's 1960s and 70s Homes Up to Date

Where the housing comes from

Burlington grew quickly in the post-war decades, and much of the urban area south of Dundas Street and Highway 407 filled in over that period. Much of Brant Hills dates from the 1970s, with two-storey houses alongside bungalows and split-levels. Tyandaga, built around the City's public golf course, was developed from the early 1970s into the 1990s. Millcroft came later, with its first homes going up in the mid-1980s around a golf course and larger executive houses following over the next decade and more. Aldershot in the west end and Roseland, laid out near the lake in the 1920s on garden-suburb lines, mix older character houses with later infill and rebuilds.

Burlington houses from the 1960s and 1970s tend to share a familiar list of tired items: original or first-replacement kitchens, narrow doorways between rooms, dated trim, and floors worn unevenly by decades of foot traffic. None of that is a reason to move, and most of it can be fixed without touching the structure.

Opening up a main floor built for another era

For owners of these homes, the usual goal is a main floor that works the way people live now. Every house is different, but a typical update might include:

• Removing or widening the partition that boxes in the kitchen, once we know whether it carries load
• A new kitchen with a more practical layout, usually three to six weeks of work
• New flooring run continuously through the main level, replacing a patchwork of carpet, sheet vinyl and tile
• Patching walls and ceilings wherever partitions have moved or openings have changed
• A full repaint, including trim, doors and closets

A load-bearing partition can often still be opened, but only once a structural designer has specified the beam and the City has issued a permit for the work. Preparing that design is outside our work; our part is helping you bring in the right professional early and then building exactly what they specify.

Not every project needs walls to move. A dated house can often feel far fresher with new flooring and a complete repaint, in much less time than a full renovation. Split-level homes add their own detail: short stair runs between levels, where flooring, stair nosings and trim all have to meet cleanly so the transitions do not look patched together.

Downtown, the lake and the countryside to the north

Near downtown and along Lakeshore Road, a lot of the houses are older and carry the marks of earlier owners' projects, so we allow for floors that dip and walls that lean a little. Past repairs are not always what they seem, and we open things up carefully before committing to a finish plan.

North of Dundas Street and Highway 407, Burlington changes character completely. That land lies within the Greenbelt, much of it also governed by Niagara Escarpment Plan rules, and it is home to rural properties around communities such as Kilbride, Lowville and Mount Nemo. Properties there can come with extra planning rules, so for anything beyond interior work we suggest checking with the City and the Escarpment Commission before designs are final. We visit rural Burlington homes in person before pricing, so your estimate reflects the house itself rather than photos.