A Harwich remodel you can follow from anywhere

What the Harwich numbers point to

Census figures count about 13,400 people in Harwich and roughly 10,500 housing units. Spread the residents across households and a few thousand homes are left over, which on Cape Cod usually means second homes, summer places and houses that stand closed for part of the winter. Close to nine in ten units are detached single-family houses, and a little over four in five of the occupied ones are lived in by the people who own them.

The median Harwich house was built around 1975. About one in seven goes back before 1940 and about one in eight has gone up since 2000, so the bulk of the town is houses somewhere near fifty years old. That age tells us a lot before we walk in: a kitchen laid out as its own room, fewer electrical circuits than a modern kitchen wants, thin insulation in 2×4 walls, and a bath that has probably been redone once already, often over the original subfloor.

The older slice needs a different approach. Plaster walls and older framing methods come with it, and any house built before 1978 may carry lead in its paint layers, so we follow lead-safe work practices (EPA RRP) whenever painted surfaces in a house that age are disturbed.

You hear from us at each stage, with photos of what is inside the walls before they get closed up.

Running the job when the owner is somewhere else

A good number of Harwich owners will not be standing in the kitchen while it is rebuilt. That is workable, but only if the decisions come early. Before anything is torn out we walk the house with you, write the scope down room by room, and settle cabinets, tile, fixtures and finishes so the work never stalls waiting on a choice made by text from out of state.

Steve started this company after years of working for guys that lacked communication, and clear updates are the part of the job he holds the line on. You hear from us at each stage, with photos of what is inside the walls before they get closed up. If something changes, you see it in writing with a number attached before anyone acts on it.

Inspections are handled through the building department under the state building code, 780 CMR, and the usual sequence runs rough framing, rough electrical and plumbing by licensed trades, insulation, then final. We coordinate access for each visit, so nobody has to drive down for a ten-minute walkthrough. The site is cleaned and the house is locked at the end of every working day.

Salt air, empty winters and what wears out first

Harwich is a coastal town, and the outside of a house there takes salt, wind and freeze-thaw that an inland house is spared. Deck framing, railings, exterior trim and roof edges are usually the first things to fail. When we build or rebuild a deck we choose hardware and fasteners meant for salt air, flash the ledger properly, and set footings below frost depth, which in Massachusetts is commonly about four feet.

A house that sits empty for months has its own problems. Small leaks run unnoticed, baths stay damp, and ice dams form on low roof edges with no one home to see the stain spread across a ceiling. When we open a room we look for those signs and tell you what we found, even when it was not in the original scope.

If the plan adds a bedroom and the house is on septic, Massachusetts requires a Title 5 review of the system's design flow. We raise that at the first meeting, because it can change what the addition looks like.