Also AvailableASK US ABOUT THE REST.Seismic retrofit, radon mitigation, roofing, and property maintenance are all work we take on. They appear here as a list rather than as their own pages because we would rather point you at what we are actually known for. If one of them is what you need, call and ask. If somebody who does only that would serve you better, we will say so.
Next Step
Not sure which one you need?
Most projects cross two or three of these. Describe what you want to change and we will tell you what it actually is.
Licensed, bonded, and insured in Oregon. CCB 174033.
Demolition
WHAT WE FIND.
Selective demolition on a Portland house from the 1900s to the 1930s reveals a familiar list. Knob and tube. Galvanised supply. Balloon framing with no fire blocking. Post-and-pier or rubble foundations. Previous work done without a permit and without much thought. We open a house expecting most of that, which is why our estimates carry a contingency rather than a fiction.
Structure
POSTS, BEAMS, AND FOUNDATIONS.
Structural work on an old house is about load paths more than strength. A wall you want gone is carrying something to somewhere, and the fix is a beam sized for the load with posts and footings that can actually receive it. In a house on post-and-pier that path frequently has to be built as part of the job. Ordinary work, and not a small line.
Systems
REWIRE AND REPIPE.
Once a house is open, systems get replaced rather than repaired. Full rewire with a panel sized for how people live now. Repipe, because galvanised has been narrowing since it went in. Mechanical sized for a house that is about to be insulated properly, which is usually smaller than what is being replaced. Doing any of these later means opening finished walls, so they all happen now.
Envelope is the work nobody photographs and everybody feels. Air sealing first, then insulation, then windows, in that order of value per dollar. In this climate the detail that matters most is drying: a wall assembly that gets wet and cannot dry is worse than one nobody touched. We build for the rain we actually get rather than the one in the product brochure.
Layout
OPENING IT UP.
Old Portland houses were drawn as a series of small rooms and almost every remodel here undoes some of that. How far you can go is a structural question, and in a balloon-framed house the answers are less obvious than in modern framing. We would rather establish what is possible before an architect draws an open plan that turns out to need a beam nobody budgeted for.
Historic Character
KEEPING WHAT IS WORTH KEEPING.
The thing worth spending money on in an old house is the part nobody makes any more. Original trim, doors, hardware, and fir flooring can be salvaged, repaired, and matched, and a house that keeps them still reads as its period afterwards. A house that swaps them for stock profiles reads as a remodel forever. We plan salvage at demolition rather than discovering it in a skip.
On a full remodel the honest answer is usually to move out. Phasing a house so a family can stay adds time, adds cost, and puts dust where people sleep. There are jobs where it works, generally when scope is confined to one floor or one wing. There are jobs where it does not, and we would rather say so at the estimate than four weeks into the dust.
Frequently Asked
WHOLE-HOME REMODELS, ANSWERED.
How much does a whole-house remodel cost in Portland?It moves with condition and finish level more than square footage, and a figure quoted before anyone has been in the crawlspace is not a figure. On an old house, structure, systems, and envelope come before anything visible.Do you handle knob and tube wiring?Yes, and the recommendation is nearly always full replacement rather than partial. Splicing new work onto old knob and tube leaves a system no electrician will sign off and no insurer likes. Once a house is open it is the cheapest it will ever be.What happens if you open a wall and find rot?We price a contingency for exactly this, because on a hundred-year-old house it is not an if. What we do not do is find it and hand you a surprise. You see the condition, you see the cost to put it right, and you decide, in that order.
Related Work
REMODELS BY NEIGHBORHOOD
LAURELHURSTTudor and Craftsman stock from the 1910s and 1920s.
ALAMEDARidge-top early-century homes in Northeast Portland.
