Updating Norfolk's newer colonials and capes

Houses from the 1980s are due for their first big round

Census figures place the median Norfolk home at 1982. Only about 5 percent of the town's roughly 3,400 housing units predate 1940, and close to one in five went up after 2000. This is a younger town than most of eastern Massachusetts, and its houses are reaching the age where original kitchens, baths and windows have done their time. Builder-grade cabinets, laminate counters and fiberglass tub surrounds were standard in plenty of houses from that period, and most are tired by now.

The good news with a house of this era is that framing is usually straight and the systems are rarely as tangled as in a century-old colonial. The common problems are quieter: soft subfloor around a toilet, rot behind a tub surround that leaked for years, attic insulation that was thin from the start. We open those areas early so the price you approve reflects the house, not a guess about it. Original windows from the period often fog between panes or leak at the sill, and replacing them fits naturally into a larger job.

Some of the town's housing does predate 1978. On those houses we follow EPA lead-safe practices whenever painted surfaces are disturbed, and we tell you up front which parts of the job that affects.

If a problem in the house moves the price, you see the reason before you are asked to approve it.

Room to build out on larger lots

About 91 percent of Norfolk's homes are detached single-family houses, and about 95 percent are owner occupied, among the highest shares anywhere we travel. With roughly 3,400 homes spread over about 15 square miles of land, many owners have the room to add a family room, a primary suite or a bigger mudroom without giving up the yard. Colonials and capes of this era take additions well when the rooflines and siding are matched to the original.

If your house is on a septic system, as many homes in smaller Massachusetts towns are, adding a bedroom brings a Title 5 design-flow review. We raise that at the walkthrough, because it can shape what the addition is allowed to be. Expect footings about four feet deep, below the frost line, for any addition or deck.

Decks are a regular request in a town like this. The parts that matter are the ones you never see later: a ledger that is flashed and properly attached to the house, footings set below frost, and framing sized for the span. New England decks also see freeze-thaw every year, so we pay attention to drainage and board spacing that let the surface dry. All of it is permitted and inspected under 780 CMR.

Nineteen miles northwest of Raynham

Norfolk is about 19 miles northwest of our shop, an easy run for planning site visits, deliveries and inspections. Steve holds an unrestricted Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License and has spent 20 years in the trade, the last 6 running Modern Remodeling.

He built the company around communication because he spent years working for guys who lacked it. You get a written scope, regular updates, a clean site at the end of each day and a straight answer when something in the house changes the plan. If a problem in the house moves the price, you see the reason before you are asked to approve it.

Owners in a town like this usually plan ahead, and so do we. Long-lead items such as cabinets, windows and special order tile get ordered once the written scope is signed, so the kitchen is not sitting open waiting on a delivery. When the weather turns, exterior work like decks and additions gets sequenced so framing is closed in before the worst of winter, as far as the season allows.