Historic Home Renovation

What older Massachusetts houses are made of

A house built in 1880 or 1920 was put together differently from anything built since. The walls are often plaster on wood lath, sometimes horsehair plaster, solid enough to hold a picture nail and heavy enough to crack when somebody cuts it carelessly. The framing may be balloon framing, with studs running continuously from the sill to the roof and no fire blocking at the floors. The foundation is frequently fieldstone, laid without much mortar and patched over generations.

These are good houses. Many were framed with old-growth lumber, denser than most framing lumber sold today, and plenty have stood for well over a century. They also hide surprises. Knob-and-tube wiring shows up during demo in houses that were supposedly rewired. Previous owners notched joists for pipes, cut out posts to open a room or buried a rotted sill behind new siding. We open things up carefully and look before we commit to a plan.

The walkthrough on an older house takes longer than on a newer one. We go into the basement and the attic, look at the foundation, the sills and the roof framing, and ask what you know about the house's history. The written scope that follows separates what we know from what we will only know when the walls are open, and it says how surprises will be handled.

Lead-safe work on anything before 1978

Any house built before 1978 may have lead paint, and most older Massachusetts houses do somewhere: window sashes, trim, porch railings, the layers under the newer paint. Renovation in those houses follows lead-safe work practices under the EPA's RRP rule. In practice that means containing the work area with plastic, using methods that keep dust down, cleaning with HEPA vacuums and wet wiping, and verifying the cleanup before the area reopens.

This matters most for families with young children or someone pregnant in the house, and it shapes the schedule. Sanding old trim on a whim is off the table. Window work, where old sashes rub and generate dust, gets particular attention. We will explain exactly how the containment works on your job and what rooms you can use while it is in place.

Lead-safe practice is also why we are careful about what gets removed. Stripping every original surface is rarely the right answer. Often the better path is to stabilize, repair and repaint, keeping the old material and the profile that came with it.

We will explain exactly how the containment works on your job and what rooms you can use while it is in place.

Matching trim, plaster and details

Nothing marks a careless renovation faster than new trim that does not match the old. Original casings, baseboards, crown and window stools in older houses were often run on site or milled to profiles that are no longer stocked. When a piece has to be replaced or extended, we match it: sometimes from salvaged stock, sometimes by having the profile milled, sometimes by building it up from standard pieces. Finish carpentry is where you can tell whether a builder cared.

Plaster gets the same thinking. Where plaster is sound, we keep it. Where it has failed, a skim coat or veneer plaster over new board keeps the hard, flat character of the original wall better than standard drywall tape and mud. Old doors, hardware and built-ins are taken out carefully, labeled and stored if they are coming back.

Floors are often the best surprise in an older house. Original hardwood under carpet or linoleum can usually be repaired, patched with matching boards and refinished. We note where boards have to be pulled for a pipe or wire so they go back in the same spot.

Running new systems through old framing

Most owners of older houses want the house to keep its character and work like a new one: safe wiring, good water pressure, real heat, and walls that do not leak air all winter. That is achievable, but it takes planning. Licensed electricians and plumbers run new work through old framing with as little demolition as possible, and every hole has a plan to be closed and finished.

Balloon framing needs particular care. Those open stud bays run from basement to attic and act like chimneys in a fire, so fire blocking goes in at the floor levels wherever walls are open. When wiring is fished through closed bays, the electrician has to know what is there.

Insulation is the hardest call in an old house. Adding insulation to a wall that was built to breathe can trap moisture against the sheathing if it is done wrong. We look at each wall, the siding, the vapor path and the energy code your town has adopted before choosing a method. Air sealing at the attic floor and basement rim is often the place to start, because it does the most good with the least risk.

Heating is often the last system people think about. Old steam and hot water radiators are worth keeping in many houses, since they heat evenly and suit the rooms they were sized for. Where a system is being replaced, the new equipment and piping are planned around the trim and floors we are trying to save.

Exterior changes and the historic district commission

Inside a local historic district, changes to the exterior that can be seen from a public way typically need review by the town's historic district commission before the building department will issue a permit. That can include windows, doors, siding, roofing material, porches and additions. Not every older house is in a district, and the rules vary from town to town, so the first step is finding out what applies to yours.

Where review is required, we help you prepare what the commission asks for, such as drawings, material samples and photos of the existing conditions, and we build that step into the schedule rather than discovering it in the middle of the job. Commissions generally favor repair over replacement and matching materials over substitutes, which usually lines up with doing the work well anyway.

You deal with Steve from the first walkthrough through the final inspection, and you get clear updates as the house reveals itself. Changes are written down and agreed before the work happens. On an older house that means slowing down when a wall turns up something unexpected, and telling you about it the same day.

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