Updating Stow's newer colonials and older farmhouses

Twenty-year-old houses and their first remodel

Stow is a town of about 7,100 people and 2,600 homes spread over more than 17 square miles, and one of its census numbers stands out. The median year built is 1975, yet roughly 22 percent of homes went up after 2000, a large newer share for a small town. Many of those are colonials with open first floors, attached garages and full basements the builder left unfinished.

Two decades in, the original kitchens and baths are showing their age. Builder-grade cabinets sag at the hinges, tub surrounds start to leak at the seams, and flooring in the busiest rooms is worn through its finish. Builder-grade trim and interior doors often get replaced at the same time, while the room is already open. The structure is usually sound, so the work centers on layout, finish quality and how the space gets used now.

The unfinished basement is the obvious room to gain. We check for water first, then frame, insulate and air-seal to the energy code in force and plan egress for any bedroom. Ceiling height, the location of the mechanicals and where daylight comes in decide how the space can be laid out. On a septic system, any new bedroom means a Title 5 design-flow review first.

We put those decisions in front of you early, in a written proposal, so the work is not left waiting on them.

The older Stow houses

About 18 percent of homes in town were standing before 1940. Farmhouses and early capes come with plaster walls, framing cut to old dimensions, fieldstone foundations and, in some, knob-and-tube wiring nobody has disturbed in decades. Lead paint is likely on original trim and gets lead-safe handling. Where one of these houses has been added onto over the years, the old and new sections often settle differently, and the joint between them is where cracks and leaks show up.

With nearly 85 percent of homes owner-occupied and about four in five single-family detached, these older houses tend to stay in families for a long time. Additions and kitchen rebuilds suit that kind of ownership, and every new footing has to sit under the frost line, typically about four feet.

At around 410 residents per square mile, Stow lots tend to have room for work outside the house: decks off the kitchen, screened porches and additions that pull a family room toward the yard. A deck built twenty years ago with nails into the band board is worth checking too, since ledger attachment and footings are where older decks fail. A new deck gets footings, flashing and ledger hardware done to code, whether it is built in wood or composite.

Planning a Stow project

Stow lies roughly 42 miles northwest of Raynham, a drive that shapes the calendar more than the work. Deliveries arrive before the day they are needed, inspections are booked ahead, and if a schedule has to move you hear it from Steve directly rather than finding out when nobody shows up. Exterior work and decks are planned for the months when the ground is workable.

For a newer house, a lot of the job is choices: cabinet layouts, tile, lighting, where the basement stairs land. We put those decisions in front of you early, in a written proposal, so the work is not left waiting on them. Dust gets vacuumed up before the crew heads home, and the finished rooms around the work stay under cover.

Newer houses also tend to have newer systems, which helps. A basement finish might only need a licensed electrician to add circuits and a plumber to rough in a bath, rather than replacing anything. When a system is near the end of its life, we say so before it is buried behind new walls. Opening a wall once is better than opening it twice.