Historic Home Restoration

Putting original character back

There are two ways to work on a historic house. One updates it for modern living, with a new kitchen, opened rooms and new baths. That is historic home renovation, and it has its own page. Historic home restoration is the other one: taking a house that has lost its original character over the decades and putting that character back.

That usually means undoing earlier work. Aluminum or vinyl siding comes off to find clapboards or shingles underneath. Replacement windows that never fit their openings come out. Porch railings that someone swapped for pressure-treated stock go back to turned balusters. Interior trim that was stripped out in the sixties gets rebuilt to match what survived in the closets and the upstairs rooms.

The goal is a house that looks the way its builder intended and is built to last another long stretch. It is careful, slow work, and it suits owners who care about the history of the place as much as how it looks from the street.

Restoration and modern comfort can live together. Insulation can be added where it does not change the look, wiring can be replaced behind original plaster, and storm windows can sit over restored sash. We talk through those choices during planning so they never compromise the exterior you are trying to bring back.

Reading the house before choosing anything

Before we recommend a single material, we look for evidence of what was there. Paint ghosts on clapboards show where trim used to sit. Nail patterns tell you where a porch rail was. Old photographs from the owner, the local historical society or town records can show a front elevation before it was altered. Surviving pieces of trim, often in a back hall or an attic room, give us the original profile.

Steve walks the house with you, and we document what we find in photos and notes. Where the evidence is thin, we say so and talk through what is typical for houses of that period and style in the area. A Federal house in a coastal town is not trimmed like a Queen Anne in a mill city. Where there is no evidence at all, the choice is yours to make, out in the open, and never one we make quietly.

All of that goes into a written scope that spells out what will be restored, what will be reproduced and what is educated guesswork. You see the price for each part, so you can phase the work if you choose.

Each commission sets its own guidelines and meeting schedule, so the first step is reading your town's rules.

Matching profiles, materials and old methods

Most of the trim in an old house was run in a mill that closed long ago. When pieces are missing, knives can be ground to match the surviving profile, or we build the profile up from stock moldings when the result cannot be told apart at arm's length. We tell you which approach we are taking for each piece and why.

Materials matter as much as shape. Old-growth wood behaved differently from today's fast-grown lumber, so for exterior pieces we choose species and grade that will hold paint and resist rot. Lime-based plaster patches bond and move better on old lath than gypsum compounds. Wood windows get repaired with consolidant and new wood where needed, then reglazed with traditional putty.

Methods matter too. Clapboards are back-primed. Fasteners go where the originals went. Paint is removed with lead-safe practices, since nearly every historic house was painted with lead at some point. Shortcuts show on a historic house in a way they do not on a newer one, and the people who notice tend to be the people reviewing the work.

Roofing and exterior color come up on almost every job. Slate, wood shingle and early asphalt roofs each read differently from the street, and some commissions have views on which substitutes they accept. Paint color can be traced through layers on a protected piece of trim when you want to know what the house first wore.

Working with the historic district commission

If your house sits inside a local historic district, exterior changes visible from a public way usually need a certificate from the historic district commission before work starts. That can include siding, windows, doors, porches, roofing material and in some towns paint color. Each commission sets its own guidelines and meeting schedule, so the first step is reading your town's rules.

We prepare what commissions typically ask for: photographs of existing conditions, drawings of the proposed work, profiles of new trim and product information on windows or roofing. We can attend the hearing with you to answer questions about how the work will be done. Applications tend to go more smoothly when they show the homework has been done.

The commission is a separate approval from the building permit. Structural work still goes through the building department under 780 CMR, with inspections along the way, and Steve supervises it under his Construction Supervisor License. We plan around both approvals and tell you plainly how they affect the start date.

Keeping you informed on a slow, careful job

Historic restoration takes patience, and the unknowns are real. A porch sill can be sound at the ends and rotted in the middle. Original clapboards under vinyl siding may be in good shape or riddled with nail holes from whoever hung the siding. We give you our best read up front and update it as the house is opened.

You get regular updates with photos, and any change to scope or price is written down and agreed before it happens. If a commission condition changes the plan, you hear about it from us with the options laid out. Steve started the company to run jobs with better communication, and restoration is where that matters most, because so many decisions come up after work begins.

If a decision has to be made on site, it is made with you. We would rather call you about a sill than make a choice you discover later.

The site is kept clean and protected throughout, including old plantings near the foundation, which on a historic property can be nearly as old as the house.

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