Restoration Register

Heritage carpentry and joinery in Hamilton and Niagara

Hamilton's escarpment neighbourhoods and the older streets of Dundas hold a large stock of Victorian and Edwardian houses whose porches are all failing on roughly the same schedule. Rebuilding one faithfully is a joinery job, not a decking job, and the difference shows from the sidewalk.

The work is verandah and porch reconstruction, turned posts and spindles, sawn brackets and bargeboard, doors and door surrounds, and clapboard repair. The right method is to assess member by member, keep everything sound, splice new material into old where rot is localised, and take a pattern off a surviving element before removing it. Hamilton in particular has a substantial stock of houses where a previous owner replaced a wood porch with concrete steps and a wrought-iron rail. Reversing that is a common project here and needs evidence, which usually comes from archival photographs, the Hamilton Public Library's local history collection, or a neighbouring house by the same builder.

What to ask before you hire

  1. How will you establish what was originally there? On a reversal project the evidence comes first, from photographs or from a comparable house.
  2. What are you keeping? Ask for the assessment element by element rather than a lump sum to build a new porch.
  3. Will you replicate the profiles or use stock sections? Stock rail and post sections are the single clearest tell of a non-heritage rebuild.
Grant funding

Hamilton's Heritage Property Grant Program funds to $150,000, the largest published municipal amount in Ontario. Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and St. Catharines all run programs but do not publish their amounts.

Contractors on this page

Also serving this area

Listed in a neighbouring region and covering this one.

Part of

More in the Hamilton & Niagara region

Get quotes for your project

Tell us about the job and we will pass it to up to three listed heritage trades who work in your area. It is free and there is no obligation.

All heritage service pages · Grants by municipality