How Norfolk County's houses differ, town by town

The oldest housing sits closest to Boston

Census figures put Brookline's median year built at 1940, with roughly half its homes predating that year. Milton is close behind at 1944, with nearly 47 percent built before 1940, and Avon, a town of about 4,700 people, still has about 43 percent of its houses from before the war. Quincy, the county's largest city at about 101,000 people, has a median of 1959 but more than a third of its stock older than 1940.

In houses that age, a remodel starts with what is inside the walls. Plaster over lath, balloon framing that lets air and fire run floor to floor, fieldstone foundations and the occasional run of knob-and-tube wiring turned up during demo are all normal finds. Anything built before 1978 is treated as possible lead paint, so lead-safe work practices are set up before the first wall opens, and the licensed electrician on the job decides what the old wiring needs.

When it helps, we open a small inspection area first, show you what is there and write the scope around it. If a wall carries a load, you hear that before anyone swings a hammer.

In newer colonials the ask is often to open a closed layout, which means finding which walls carry the second floor and sizing a beam for the span.

Single-family towns on the west and south side

Head west toward Dover, Medfield and the town of Norfolk and the housing changes completely. About 96 percent of Dover's homes are single-family detached and 94 percent are owner-occupied; Norfolk sits at 91 and 95. Franklin's median home was built in 1985, Norfolk's and Plainville's in 1982, Wrentham's in 1981. Avon, by comparison, has seen only about 3 percent of its homes built since 2000.

Here the work is the core of single-family remodeling: a kitchen that suited 1985 and no longer does, a primary bath, a basement finished properly once the moisture is dealt with, an addition over the garage. In newer colonials the ask is often to open a closed layout, which means finding which walls carry the second floor and sizing a beam for the span. On a septic lot, adding a bedroom brings a Title 5 design-flow review, and we raise that early rather than after the plans are drawn.

Needham and Wellesley sit in between. Wellesley's median year is 1954 with about 35 percent of homes from before 1940, yet about 17 percent went up since 2000, so the same town holds plaster-walled colonials and houses barely twenty years old. Needham's median is 1963 and about one home in five is from 2000 or later. Planning there goes house by house, which is why the walkthrough always comes before any number.

Rental buildings, multi-families and the coast

Quincy, Brookline and Norwood lean toward renters. Census figures put owner occupancy at about 44 percent in Quincy, 46 in Brookline and 51 in Norwood, with single-family detached homes at only 32, 18 and 46 percent. That means two-families, condos and small apartment buildings, and owners who are landlords or investors as often as residents.

Work on those buildings runs differently. A unit next door may be occupied, so dust control, access and daily cleanup carry more weight and the schedule has to respect the tenants. A unit turnover, a kitchen rebuild in a two-family or restoration after water damage still goes through the building department with inspections along the way, and a pre-1978 building means lead-safe practice in every unit we touch.

Then there is the water. Cohasset has more water area than land, about 22 square miles against 10, Quincy counts about 10 square miles of water and Weymouth nearly 5. Coastal houses take salt air and wind, so siding, trim, decks and roofing get chosen and fastened for that exposure. Ice dams at the eaves are a winter question everywhere in the county. Stoughton, Foxborough and Avon are about 14 miles from Raynham; Wellesley, the farthest, is under 29.