General Construction

The building work our own crew does

Much of the work on a remodel happens before there is anything nice to look at. Walls come down, floors come up, new framing goes in, and the house spends a few weeks looking worse than when you started. General construction is that stretch of the job, and it is where most of the quality in a finished room is decided.

At Modern Remodeling our own people do this work. They take out what is coming out, build what the plans call for, prepare the cavities for the licensed trades and the insulation, and come back at the end for trim and finish. Permits and the scheduling of licensed electricians and plumbers belong to the general contracting side of the job, which has its own page. This one is about the building.

That split is deliberate. Owners with a defined project, a kitchen being gutted or a back room being added, mostly want to know who will be swinging the hammers and how carefully. The answer is our own crew, with Steve overseeing the work, rather than a rotating cast of people you meet once.

Steve has spent 20 years in the trade, the last six running his own company, and the standard he holds the crew to is plain: better communication, and making sure the job is done right. On the building side, done right mostly means nothing gets covered up until it is correct.

Demolition that protects what stays

Demo sounds like the easy part, and it is where a lot of avoidable damage happens. In an older Massachusetts house the plaster coming off may be keyed into lath that runs behind the wall you are keeping, and pulling it carelessly cracks the next room. Cabinets come out with plumbing and wiring still behind them. Floors come up over joists that may have been cut decades ago.

We start by protecting the rest of the house: floor protection on the path in and out, plastic and zip doors at openings, heating returns sealed so dust does not travel through the system. Utilities to the work area are shut off and confirmed off. In homes built before 1978 we assume lead paint may be present and follow lead-safe work practices under the EPA RRP rule, which governs how surfaces are disturbed and how the debris is handled.

Once things are open, we look before we build. Water staining, rotted sills, undersized headers, balloon framing with open stud bays from basement to attic: all of these are common in New England houses, and the time to find them is before new work goes on top. If something changes the scope, you see it and hear about it before anything else happens.

You are often living in the house while we work, and the state you find it in at six o'clock matters.

Framing, sheathing and the backing nobody sees

New walls, new openings, a reworked floor system under a bathroom, a header where a doorway is widened. The carpentry has to be plumb, level and square, because every finish that follows will show it if it is not. Cabinets will not sit flat on a floor that dips, and tile telegraphs a wall that bows.

On additions and exterior walls, sheathing goes on tight and is fastened properly, and openings are prepared so windows and doors can be flashed the right way. Inside, we put in the blocking that matters later: backing for wall cabinets, solid wood where a grab bar may go in a bath, framing behind a heavy mirror or a television, nailers at inside corners so drywall has something to land on. None of it shows when the job is done. All of it is far easier to put in now than to fish in later.

Rough framing is inspected by the building department under the state building code before anything closes it in, and we do not move to the next step until it passes.

Getting walls ready for insulation and drywall

Between framing and drywall there is a stretch of work that decides how the room will perform for decades. Penetrations through top and bottom plates get sealed, rim joists get attention, and gaps around windows and doors are filled before insulation goes in. Many Massachusetts towns have adopted the stretch energy code, which tightens what is expected for insulation and air sealing, and we build to whatever applies where you live.

We make sure the licensed electrician's and plumber's rough work is in and inspected, put steel plates where pipes and wires could meet a screw, and check that nothing will interfere with the insulation or the board. After insulation is inspected, drywall goes up. In older homes with plaster on the remaining walls, getting a new wall to meet an old one cleanly takes shimming and patience, and it is one of the places where an experienced crew shows.

Insulation itself is checked before any board goes up, because a compressed batt or an unfilled bay behind a tub is invisible once the wall is closed. Where the existing house has no insulation at all, which is common in older walls we open, we talk with you about what makes sense to add while the cavity is open, since that chance does not come back cheaply.

Trim, finish and the state of the house each night

Trim is where the precision of everything underneath becomes visible. Casings that meet in a tight miter, baseboard scribed to an uneven old floor, stair parts that line up, built-ins that sit square to the wall. We cut and fit this work on site to the room as it actually is, not as the drawing assumed it would be.

Throughout the job, the site is cleaned at the end of each day. Tools are put away, debris goes out, walkways are clear and the protection stays up. You are often living in the house while we work, and the state you find it in at six o'clock matters. A clean worksite is one of the first things we talk about with an owner, and we hold to it.

When the building work is done, we walk it with you room by room, note anything that is not right, and fix it before we call the job finished.

See the rest of our construction work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.