Structural Remodeling

When a remodel turns into a structural project

Plenty of remodels never touch the structure. New cabinets, tile, paint and fixtures can all go in without changing a single joist. A remodel becomes structural the moment the plan asks the house to carry its loads differently: a wider doorway in a bearing wall, a room reframed to a new shape, a floor raised to meet an addition, a window moved to where a stud wall used to be, or a second-floor bath that puts tile and a heavy tub over joists that were never sized for them.

Homeowners usually come to us with the finished room in mind and the structure as an afterthought. We reverse that order for the first conversation. Before anyone picks finishes, we want to know what the framing has to do to get you that room, because that answer sets the scope, the paperwork and the order of work for everything that follows.

It also tells you early whether an idea is simple or involved. A doorway shifted two feet along a partition is one kind of job. The same shift in a wall carrying the second floor is another, and you should hear that before the drawings are done.

The sequence: engineer, permit, framing, inspection

In Massachusetts, structural work falls under the state building code, 780 CMR, and is permitted through your local building department. Steve holds an unrestricted Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License, which covers supervising structural work on one- and two-family homes, and we pull the permit.

For anything beyond routine framing, the first step is a structural engineer. The engineer visits, looks at the existing framing and the plan, and produces drawings and member sizes for beams, headers, posts and footings. Those drawings go in with the permit application. Once the permit is issued, demolition and framing happen, then licensed electricians and plumbers do their rough work under their own permits. The inspector checks rough framing before insulation goes in, insulation is inspected where your town requires it, and there is a final at the end.

Where your town has adopted the stretch energy code, exterior walls or ceilings we open may need to come back with insulation and air sealing to that standard. We account for it during planning so it is not a surprise when the walls are open.

The house is picked up at the end of each day, and the rooms you are still living in stay usable through a long job.

Tying new framing into old

The hardest part of structural remodeling in an older house is the joint between new and old. New lumber is dimensionally consistent and dry. Old framing may be full-dimension, out of plumb, balloon framed in a Victorian or a farmhouse, or patched by three generations of owners. Getting new work to sit flush and stay flush takes shims, careful layout and a willingness to measure every bay instead of assuming.

Balloon framing has its own rule. Wall studs run continuously from the sill to the roof, which leaves open channels between floors. When we open those walls we install fire blocking where it is missing, because an open stud bay behaves like a chimney. In houses with plaster walls we plan our cuts so we disturb as little finished surface as possible, and we tell you in advance where patching will be needed.

Old houses also settle unevenly, so a new wall or header framed dead level can meet an existing ceiling that slopes half an inch across the room. We decide with you where to follow the old lines and where to correct them, because the answer changes how the finished room reads. Trim, cabinets and tile installed later all depend on choices made at the framing stage.

Rebuilding floors and adding openings

Two changes come up often. The first is a floor that has to change height, usually to meet an addition, to level a room that has settled, or to make room for a curbless shower. That can mean sistering joists to a new height, building a new floor system over the old one, or removing and reframing the floor altogether. Each choice affects door heights, stair risers and thresholds in the rooms around it, and we walk you through those knock-on effects before you commit.

The second is new openings. Every window, door or pass-through cut into a framed wall needs a header sized for what sits above it, and in a bearing wall that header carries real load down to the foundation through the studs or posts at either end. We check that path all the way down, because a well-sized header sitting on an undersized post just moves the problem somewhere you cannot see it.

Second-floor baths and kitchens deserve a specific mention. Tile, stone counters, a cast iron tub or a large island add weight the original floor was never asked to carry, and older joists were often spaced and sized for a bedroom. We check the floor framing against the new load early and stiffen it before any finished surface goes down, because a floor that flexes will crack grout and tile no matter how well they were set.

One person responsible for the structure

Bigger remodels involve a lot of people: an engineer, inspectors, electricians, plumbers and sometimes a heating contractor. Steve built this company after years of working for outfits that left customers guessing, so on our jobs you deal with one person who knows where every piece stands.

You get a written scope before work starts, a clear note of anything that changes and the reason for it, and updates whenever an inspection is scheduled or passed. When the structure is done and signed off, we show you what was built, so you know what is behind the walls of your own house.

We also keep the order of work honest. If a decision about a beam or a floor height has to be made before cabinets are ordered or tile is chosen, we tell you when that decision is due and why, so nothing downstream gets ordered against a plan that is about to change. The house is picked up at the end of each day, and the rooms you are still living in stay usable through a long job.

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