Winchester's older houses, opened up with care

Nearly four in ten homes predate 1940

Winchester, part of Greater Boston, has a housing stock that skews old. Census figures put the median build year at 1953, and about 38 percent of its roughly 8,200 homes went up before 1940. Only about one in ten has been built since 2000. So most remodels here happen inside a Victorian, a period colonial or a solid mid-century house that has already been changed by two or three earlier owners.

Older walls need their own approach. Plaster on lath cracks when it is disturbed, so we decide in advance where it is removed and where it is kept and patched. Balloon framing, common in houses of that age, runs wall cavities from the basement to the attic, and those open channels get blocked when the walls are open. Knob-and-tube wiring turns up during demo more often than owners expect, and it goes to a licensed electrician to be replaced, not buried behind new drywall.

Paint on surfaces from before 1978 is handled as lead until testing says otherwise. That means EPA RRP lead-safe practices, containment of the work area and a cleanup that leaves the rest of the house livable during the job.

Winchester is about 36 miles north of Raynham, and you deal with Steve and get clear updates the whole way.

Six square miles and close neighbors

About 22,800 people live on just over six square miles of land here, which works out to roughly 3,800 people per square mile. Lots are tighter, and that shapes the job. Where a dumpster goes, where lumber is staged and how the driveway stays usable all get decided before the first delivery, and the site is closed up and swept each day because the neighbors are close.

Tight lots also change how a house grows. A sprawling addition is often not an option, so space comes from an attic converted to a bedroom suite, a rear bump-out, or a reworked first floor that finally uses the rooms well. Any addition still needs footings below frost depth and framing inspections, and if the house sits in a local historic district, exterior changes go before the commission first.

Inside, older houses on small lots often mean narrow stairs and tight halls, so cabinets, tubs and sheets of drywall have to be planned around how they get in. We measure the path before ordering anything large, protect stair treads and banisters on the way through, and keep the work area sealed off so the rooms you are still living in stay clean.

Kitchens and baths inside old walls

About 70 percent of homes in Winchester are single-family detached, and the rest are a mix that includes two-families and attached homes. Roughly 83 percent are owner occupied. Owners in houses like these usually want the character kept and the function fixed: a kitchen that works for today with trim and windows that still match the house, or a bath with custom tile laid on a floor that has been leveled first, because old floors are rarely flat.

Every job starts with a walkthrough and a written scope that covers what is being built and what is still unknown behind the plaster. Winchester is about 36 miles north of Raynham, and you deal with Steve and get clear updates the whole way. Changes are written and priced before they are built.

Older houses also settle. A wall that looks plumb from across the room can be off by an inch over its height, and a ceiling may dip toward the middle. We check with a level and a laser before cabinets or tile go up, then shim, sister joists or float the surface so the new work sits true without making the old work around it look worse.