Hamilton, Ontario
Flooring in Hamilton, Waterdown, Dundas, Ancaster and Stoney Creek.
Waterdown is second only to Burlington by the owner's own count of leads, and Hamilton is third, so between them the City of Hamilton is a large part of the work. It is also the one municipality on this run whose website says in plain words that installing flooring does not need a building permit, and says just as plainly which nearby jobs do. Both are quoted below, with the source.
Since amalgamation, Waterdown and Flamborough, Dundas, Ancaster, Stoney Creek, Binbrook and Glanbrook are all the City of Hamilton, so one Building Division and one set of rules covers the lot. The houses are anything but one kind, which is the other half of this page.
Where in Hamilton
Below the escarpment, on the Mountain, and the towns that joined.
The lower city
Westdale, Kirkendall, Durand, Locke Street, the North End
- Century homes and interwar houses on plank subfloors
- Additions that settled at different rates than the original house
- The subfloor is the job: planing, levelling and screw-down
- Old resilient tile under later floors is a stop-and-test moment, see removal
The Mountain
Central and East Mountain, Meadowlands, Rymal Road
- 1950s to 70s bungalows and side-splits, then 1990s and 2000s subdivisions further south
- Original hardwood under carpet in the older streets, worth checking before buying
- Finished basements on slabs in the newer ones
Waterdown, Dundas, Ancaster
Second by volume, and growing
- Waterdown's newer subdivisions: long open runs and finished basements
- Dundas and Ancaster villages: older stock, tighter rooms, real stairs
- Stairs and railings matched to the floor, in house
Stoney Creek and Binbrook
The east and south edges
- Postwar Stoney Creek below the escarpment, newer above it
- Binbrook's 2000s and 2010s builds: OSB subfloors and engineered joists, flat but bouncy if under-fastened
- Vinyl plank and engineered over concrete in the basements
Hamilton, on the record
Permits and housing stock, from the city and the census.
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Flooring does not need a permit in Hamilton. The city says so.
The City of Hamilton's list of projects that do not require a building permit includes, in its own words, "Installing minor millwork, cabinetry, and flooring such as carpet, laminate or hardwood", along with "Painting or decorating" and "Replacing existing plumbing fixtures in the same location".[1] That covers an ordinary floor replacement anywhere in the amalgamated city.
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Three nearby jobs that do
The same page's list of projects that require a building permit includes "repairs to structural members (i.e. subfloor, roof sheathing, beams, lintels, etc.)", "replacement of interior railings/guards", and "interior alterations including finishing or partially finishing a basement or other spaces".[1] So levelling and screwing down a subfloor is preparation; replacing it as a structural member is a permit. Refacing stair treads is finishing; a new or replaced guard is a permit. Laying a floor in a finished basement is finishing; finishing the basement is a permit. The city also notes that penalties under Section 36 of the Building Code Act run to maximum fines of $50,000 for an individual on a first offence.[1] The Building Division is at 905-546-2720, and when a job of ours crosses one of those lines we say so first.
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How old Hamilton's houses are
The 2021 Census counts 569,353 people and 222,805 occupied private dwellings in the City of Hamilton. Of those dwellings, 73,110 were built in 1960 or before, a third of the total, and another 62,560 between 1961 and 1980.[2] That is 135,670 homes, six in ten, built before 1981. The other four in ten split across 24,990 from the 1980s, 21,365 from the 1990s and 41,660 built since 2001, and 125,130 of all dwellings are single-detached houses.[2]
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What that means on the day
Hamilton has more pre-1960 housing than anywhere else we work, by a wide margin. Those houses have plank subfloors laid on joists that are rarely level, and the national guidelines' flatness tolerance for a floating or glued floor is 3/16" over 10 feet, measured across the whole room.[3] A century-home main floor almost never meets that as found, so planing, self-levelling and screw-down are the first day of the job, not an option on the quote. Two of the reviews on the home page, a century home with two settled additions and a fifty-year-old house full of hidden challenges, are this exact house.
Sources
- City of Hamilton, Building Permit Application Requirements, "Projects that Require a Building Permit", "Projects that Don't Require a Building Permit", and "What are the consequences for not obtaining a Building Permit?" Read 9 September 2026.
- Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population, Hamilton, City (CSD), Ontario (DGUID 2021A00053525005), table 98-316-X2021001, population, occupied private dwellings by period of construction (25% sample data) and by structural type. Read 9 September 2026.
- National Wood Flooring Association, Wood Flooring Installation Guidelines, revised 2025. Subfloor flatness tolerances and how they are measured.
Sources last read
Next step
Century home or new build, the samples come to it.
Free estimate, at your house, firm number before we leave. And an honest word about the subfloor, which in Hamilton is usually the conversation.
- Phone
- 289-689-4242
- referralflooring@gmail.com
- Hours
- Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm.
- Coverage
- WSIB clearance and liability insurance, on request.