Why Old Markham Village Homes Are Upgrading to Vinyl Flooring
Most homes in Old Markham Village were built between the late 1960s and the early 1990s — detached and semi-detached two-storeys with wood subfloors, the kind that have settled and shifted through decades of Ontario winters. If you're standing on original hardwood that's been refinished once too many times, or on laminate that was installed during a 2005 renovation and is starting to show its age, you're at exactly the crossroads most homeowners here reach: do you patch it again, or do you finally do it right? Vinyl Flooring has become the answer for a lot of these homes — and not because it's cheap, but because it's the most honest match for what these houses actually go through.
What 30-Year-Old Wood Subfloors Actually Do to Your Flooring Options
The subfloors in Old Markham Village homes are typically ¾-inch plywood or OSB laid over dimensional lumber joists. They're not flat. They're not perfectly level. After three decades of seasonal expansion and contraction, there are soft spots near doorways, slight crowning in the middle of rooms, and the occasional squeak that no amount of screwing down has fully cured. Solid hardwood on a subfloor like this is a gamble — the movement in the wood below transfers directly into the planks above, and you'll see gapping and cupping within a few years. Engineered hardwood is more forgiving, but it still has limits. Luxury vinyl plank, on the other hand, is designed for exactly this kind of imperfection. Its rigid core construction bridges minor subfloor variation, and its floating installation means it moves independently of whatever is underneath it. That's not a marketing claim — it's just how the product is engineered.
Why a 22mil Wear Layer Actually Matters in a Family Home
Not all vinyl flooring is the same, and wear layer thickness is the number that separates a floor that lasts from one that doesn't. A 12mil wear layer is fine for a bedroom. A 22mil wear layer is what you want in a kitchen, a hallway, or anywhere a dog, a stroller, or a pair of winter boots is going to make contact with the floor on a daily basis. The Lee Flooring Mistry Birch — currently available at a clearance price through BBS Flooring — is built with a 22mil wear layer on a 7mm core with attached pad. That pad matters too: it adds warmth underfoot, reduces sound transmission between floors, and means you're not laying additional underlayment before installation. For a home that's been lived in hard for 30 years and is finally getting a proper renovation, this is the spec you want. You can see the full product details for the Mistry Birch by Lee Flooring on our website — and if you're considering it, don't wait on the clearance pricing.
The Honest Case for Vinyl in Old Markham Village's Main Living Areas
The layout of most homes on streets like Parkway Avenue, Robinson Street, and Bullock Drive follows a similar pattern: a tiled foyer that opens into a main floor with a living room, dining room, and kitchen — often connected by a central hallway. Upstairs, three or four bedrooms and a full bath. These are homes where a single flooring product running through the main floor creates a sense of continuity that makes the space feel larger and more intentional. Vinyl Flooring in a warm, natural-wood tone like Mistry Birch does that without requiring the humidity management that real hardwood demands. You're not installing a humidifier. You're not worrying about the kitchen sink area. You're just living in the house. That's the practical argument — and in a neighbourhood where most people have been in their homes for 15 or 20 years and are renovating to stay, not to sell, it's the right one.
What to Expect When You Book a Measurement with BBS Flooring
Before any flooring goes down, we offer a free in-home measurement — which in a home like the ones in Old Markham Village is genuinely useful, not just a sales formality. We're checking subfloor condition, transitions between rooms, threshold heights at exterior doors, and whether the existing baseboards can be reused or need to be replaced. These are the details that determine whether an installation goes smoothly or creates problems six months later. We'll also tell you honestly if the subfloor needs prep work before vinyl goes down — because skipping that step is how you end up with a floor that telegraphs every imperfection underneath it.
If you're ready to move forward, or just want to see samples in your home before committing, call us at (647) 428-1111 or come into the showroom at 6061 Highway 7, Markham. We carry the Mistry Birch in stock and can walk you through the full Lee Flooring lineup.