Groton homes: finishing, updating and adding on

A younger housing stock with an older core

The census median year built in Groton is 1987, and about one in five homes has gone up since 2000. Another 18 percent or so predates 1940. So the town's 3,800 homes are mostly late twentieth century houses, with a real minority of much older ones mixed in, and about 82 percent of all of them are detached single-family houses. In practice that means most remodels there are on houses still young enough to be sound, owned by people who intend to stay.

A house from the late eighties or nineties usually has good bones and a dated plan. There is often a formal living room nobody sits in, a kitchen walled off from the family room, builder-grade baths and an unfinished basement holding a lot of square footage. Those are the jobs that tend to pay off in a house of that age: open the plan where the framing allows, rebuild the baths, finish the lower level properly with insulation, moisture control and an egress window wherever someone will sleep.

The older houses ask for patience. Fieldstone foundations, plaster, low ceilings and floors that slope for a reason are normal, and pre-1978 paint means lead-safe practices on every surface we disturb. We are straight with owners about what an old frame can carry and what it cannot, and we would rather tell you a wall has to stay than promise something the house will fight.

You will know who is coming, when, and what they are doing that day.

Room to build on a bigger lot

Groton covers nearly 33 square miles of land for those 3,800 homes, so lots run larger than in towns closer to Boston. That makes additions, a garage with a room above it or a bigger deck realistic, provided zoning setbacks work for your parcel. Larger lots also mean longer runs for new power and water lines to a detached garage or studio, and those trenches get planned before the foundation does.

If the house is on a septic system and the plan adds a bedroom, Massachusetts Title 5 ties bedroom count to the system's design flow. That review can decide if a new room may legally be called a bedroom at all, or if it has to be drawn as a study. We raise it before drawings are made, not after the framing is up.

An addition here rests on footings dug past the frost line, which in Massachusetts is commonly around four feet. New walls are insulated and air sealed to the state code and to the energy code the town has adopted, and the building department inspects the framing, the rough trades and the insulation before anything gets covered.

Working fifty-four miles out

Groton sits about 54 miles northwest of Raynham, toward the far edge of the area we cover. A project that far out runs on a plan. Materials are staged before demo starts, inspections are booked ahead, and days on site are full working days rather than quick stops.

You will know who is coming, when, and what they are doing that day. Steve started this company because he was tired of watching homeowners kept in the dark, and a written scope that spells out what is included, and how changes get priced, is where that starts.

With nearly 88 percent of Groton's homes owner-occupied, most of the people we would work for there are living in the house during the job. We plan dust protection and daily cleanup with that in mind.