Careful work on Marion's older coastal homes

A small town with nearly as much water as land

Census figures count about 5,300 people in Marion and just under 2,500 homes. Nearly 94 percent of those homes are single-family detached houses, and about 83 percent are owner-occupied. There are very few multi-family buildings here, so most projects are one household working on one house.

The town has roughly 14 square miles of land and about 12 of water, which tells you where it sits. Marion is on Buzzards Bay on the South Coast, about 22 miles southeast of Raynham, and coastal exposure comes up in nearly every exterior conversation here. At that distance, visits are scheduled with care so the job keeps moving between them.

That profile changes how a project is planned. With few rentals or multi-family buildings, there is rarely a landlord or association in the loop, and decisions sit with the owner. We meet whoever lives in the house, walk every room the work touches, and write the scope around how that household uses the place day to day.

We open walls carefully, record what we find, and talk it through with you before the plan changes.

Older houses, plaster and lead-safe work

The median home in Marion was built in 1962, but about a third of the housing predates 1940. Those older homes bring the familiar New England findings: plaster walls, balloon framing, fieldstone foundations, and wiring older than anyone's memory. We open walls carefully, record what we find, and talk it through with you before the plan changes. Floors in houses this old are rarely level, and we tell you up front whether new cabinets and tile will follow the floor or the floor gets corrected first.

Painted surfaces in any house built before 1978 may contain lead, and in Marion that covers most of the housing. Lead-safe practices, with containment and thorough cleanup, are how we work in these houses, especially around original windows and trim. If a test confirms lead, the containment plan is built around the rooms you are still living in.

If an older house sits inside a local historic district, exterior changes such as windows, siding or porches typically go to the historic district commission before a permit. We plan that review into the schedule rather than discovering it late. Outside a district, the normal building permit still covers the same work.

Roofs, decks and exteriors facing the bay

Salt air off the bay wears on fasteners, flashing, gutters and paint faster than an inland town would see. Wind-driven rain finds any gap in trim or around windows. On roofing, siding and deck work we use hardware made for coastal exposure and take the time on flashing details that keep water moving away from the house. Painted exteriors and wood trim near the water need upkeep, and we tell you which details will need attention again and which should hold up longer.

Decks on older coastal houses often fail at the connection to the house. We rebuild the ledger with proper flashing and through-bolts, set footings below frost depth, commonly about four feet, and choose decking that tolerates sun and salt. Porches get the same treatment, since a porch floor that holds water rots from underneath long before it looks bad.

Only about one home in eight here was built since 2000, so most projects mean working within an existing older house rather than reshaping a new layout. That takes patience and clear updates, the standard Steve set when he started the company. Older roofs here are often due for replacement, and that is the right moment to fix attic ventilation while the deck is exposed.