Squeaky floor repair in Lakeview

Lakeview’s housing is concentrated in the fifteen years after the Second World War. The City’s community profile records that Curtiss Aeroplanes and Motors opened what it calls Canada’s first aerodrome and flying school here in 1915, that more than 300 people had settled by 1923, and that during the Depression newcomers moved onto cheap land, built their own homes and farmed small plots. By 1950 the area had turned suburban, with subdivisions such as Orchard Heights and Applewood Acres. The profile’s 2001 census figures show the result (City of Mississauga community profile): of 8,420 dwellings, 34.2 per cent were built from 1946 to 1960 against 7.5 per cent city-wide, and 82.0 per cent before 1981. Single-detached houses made up 58.0 per cent against 44.6 per cent city-wide, though 30.8 per cent of dwellings were in apartment buildings of five storeys or more, and 9.0 per cent needed major repairs, against 5.1 per cent for the city. Twenty years on, the 2021 census for the L5E postal area, Central Lakeview, still shows 30.2 per cent of homes built in 1960 or earlier (Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile). Houses of 1946 to 1960 sit on plank or early plywood subfloor, now 65 to 80 years old, so a squeak there is usually a loosened nail at a joist.

A split board in this white oak floor is being chiselled out so a replacement can be fitted in its place. Many of Lakeview’s 1950s floors are still original, and a board that has split is replaced on its own rather than the whole floor.