Belmont's prewar homes, remodeled the right way

Nearly six in ten homes predate 1940

Belmont has about 27,000 people on less than five square miles of land, part of the dense inner ring of Greater Boston. By census figures, the median home was built in 1938 and about 59 percent were built before 1940. Only around 8 percent went up after 2000. Almost every house here has already been through several owners and a few rounds of renovation, some better than others.

Single-family detached homes make up about 46 percent of the housing, and about 64 percent is owner-occupied. The rest is largely two-families and small multi-unit buildings, many of them owner-occupied with a rental unit. That matters on a remodel because the work often has to happen around a household living one floor away. Owners of those two-families often want the upstairs unit rebuilt for a tenant or a family member, which is a different job from a kitchen downstairs.

Water is almost absent from Belmont's land area, so the site issues are about age and density: small yards, shared driveways, tight setbacks and neighbors close enough to hear every saw. Material staging and debris removal get planned before the first day, not on it.

We show you what we found and write up the repair before continuing.

Opening walls in a house from the 1930s

Plaster on wood lath is standard here. It is solid and quiet, but it is heavy, it cracks when the framing moves, and it makes a mess coming down. We decide room by room if the plaster should come down, be patched or be skim-coated, and contain the dust in every case. Behind it we expect a mix of original framing and past alterations, and sometimes balloon framing with open cavities that need fire blocking.

Lead paint should be assumed on original trim, windows and doors, so lead-safe practices are part of every job in a house this old. Old wiring and plumbing that turn up are replaced by licensed trades, and the work is inspected by the building department under 780 CMR.

We also look at what earlier owners did. A previous renovation that cut a joist for a drain or removed a post without a beam is something we find and fix, not cover. We show you what we found and write up the repair before continuing.

Keeping what makes the house worth owning

Original moldings, built-ins, stair parts and doors are often the reason someone bought the house. Where they can stay, we protect them; where they have to come out, we label them and set them aside for reinstallation. A new kitchen or bath can be modern without stripping the rooms around it of their period detail.

Small lots mean space usually comes from the attic or the basement rather than an addition. We come up from Raynham, about 33 miles south. Steve walks the house with you, attic and basement included, because in a 1930s house those two spaces tell you the most about what the structure has been through. Energy work fits here too: when exterior walls are open, insulation and air sealing can go in, provided the wall is detailed to handle moisture the way an old house needs.

Kitchens in houses this age were often small rooms at the back, sometimes with a pantry beside them. Opening that pantry into the kitchen is a common goal, and it can mean moving a doorway, relocating a radiator and reframing around an old chimney. We look at each of those pieces before a layout is drawn.