Townsend's older homes and roomy lots, done right

A big town with few people per square mile

Fewer than 300 people live on each square mile of Townsend: census figures count roughly 9,100 residents and 3,500 homes on almost 33 square miles of land. About 83 percent of houses stand on their own lot as single-family homes, and roughly 84 percent are lived in by their owners. The median house dates to 1976, yet close to 16 percent were built before 1940, so the town carries a real spread of ages.

Newer construction since 2000 makes up about 13 percent of the total. Put together, that means a Townsend project could be almost anything: a century-old house with additions from three different decades, a 1970s cape that needs its first real kitchen update, or a younger home with an unfinished lower level.

That ownership rate means most calls come from people who live in the house and want the work done once. Rentals are a small slice. On a property with some acreage, the list often reaches past the kitchen and baths: a mudroom where boots and firewood come in, a deck rebuilt off the back, a roof that has seen too many winters.

We expect it, build time for investigation into the written scope, and walk you through what we find before anything is decided.

What an older country house keeps behind its walls

A house from before 1940 in rural Massachusetts can have fieldstone in the foundation, rough-sawn framing, plaster on wood lath and wiring that has been added to several times. Knob-and-tube sometimes turns up only once walls are open. We expect it, build time for investigation into the written scope, and walk you through what we find before anything is decided. Old sills resting on stone can be soft where water has wicked into them for decades, and the floors above often sag because of it. We check sills and joists from the basement before a kitchen is planned overhead, since leveling a floor is far easier before cabinets sit on it.

Additions are a common ask on larger lots. New footings go about four feet down, the usual Massachusetts frost depth. Plenty of rural homes run on private septic, and a new bedroom on a septic system means the state's Title 5 rules review the design flow, so we look at the system early. It decides what can be built before anyone finishes drawings.

Lead paint is part of the plan as well. Any surface painted before 1978 gets treated as if it may hold lead, and we use lead-safe methods whenever we cut, sand or strip it.

Working 61 miles from Raynham

Townsend lies about 61 miles northwest of our shop, toward the outer edge of the hundred-mile area we work in. We take on jobs out here when we can run them properly, which means materials ordered and staged before demo, a schedule you can see, and no half days lost to driving back for a part.

Sixty-plus miles from the shop, communication carries more weight. You know who is coming, when, and what is next. If a delivery slips, you hear it from us, not from an empty driveway. The site is picked up before the crew heads home, and Steve does not call a job done until it is right.

Winters out this way are hard on houses. Ice dams form along the eaves where heat leaks into the attic, and the water they push under the shingles shows up as stained ceilings and wet insulation. When we open a ceiling or replace a roof, we look at attic ventilation and air sealing too, because stopping the heat loss is what stops the ice. Freeze-thaw cycles also work on decks, steps and foundations, and exterior work is built with that in mind.