What East Bridgewater houses need from a remodel

The houses built before 1940

About 23 percent of East Bridgewater's homes were built before 1940, according to the census. In houses that old, the basement often tells the story first: fieldstone or rubble foundation walls, a dirt or thin concrete floor, sill plates that have been wet more than once. Before we plan a kitchen above that, we want to know what the kitchen is sitting on.

Upstairs, the older houses tend to have plaster over wood lath, smaller rooms with doorways in nearly every wall, and wiring that has been added to rather than replaced. Lead-safe practices apply to anything painted before 1978. We open a test section where it matters, so the written scope reflects the house as it is, and Steve tells you plainly when a repair underneath should come before the finish work you asked for.

That conversation is not always welcome, but it is easier in every sense than tiling over a soft floor. If the joists need sistering or the sill needs replacing, that work goes first. A kitchen is only as level as the joists under it.

We clean the site at the end of each day so you are not living in a construction zone between visits.

The newer fifth of town

At the other end, about 18 percent of homes here have gone up since 2000. Those houses have sound framing and drywall, and the requests are different: a basement finished as a playroom or office, a kitchen island where a peninsula used to be, a bath with a curbless shower and tile carried up the walls. Most of these newer houses are owner-occupied, as is about 81 percent of the town.

Finishing a basement in a newer house still comes down to moisture. We check the walls and slab, plan insulation and vapor control to the current code, frame clear of the foundation, and keep the panel, the water heater and any cleanouts reachable. A basement that looks good and grows mold two winters later is not a finished basement.

Tile is where these jobs are won or lost. A curbless shower needs the floor recessed or built up, a continuous waterproofing membrane and a slope that actually carries water to the drain. We lay the tile out before the first piece is set, so cuts land where you will not notice them. Grout lines that line up with the niche and the window are part of the job.

Nine miles out, on a clear schedule

East Bridgewater is about nine miles northeast of Raynham. At that distance the job sees the person running it, not a rotating cast. Steve walks the house before the scope is written, comes back for the inspections, and is the one you call with a question. When a change comes up mid-job, you see it in writing, with its effect on the number, before anything is built.

The building permit, the licensed electrical and plumbing work Massachusetts requires, and the town inspections are all named in writing up front. If an addition puts a new bedroom on a septic system, a Title 5 review goes into the timeline. We clean the site at the end of each day so you are not living in a construction zone between visits.

Census figures show only about a third of a square mile of water inside the town line, so most of the moisture we deal with here comes from below. Gutters that dump at the foundation, grading that slopes toward the house, a sump pump that has quit. Those are the first things we check when a basement smells damp, because a finished room is only as dry as the ground around it.