Whole-Home Renovation in Annapolis, MD

What a whole-home renovation in Annapolis actually involves

Downtown Annapolis houses are old, structurally idiosyncratic and often shared-wall. Interior work has to account for what happens on the other side of that wall, and for the fact that the floor framing was not designed for a modern kitchen's point loads. Critical Area impervious-surface limits are the single most common reason an Annapolis deck or addition has to be redesigned. We establish where you stand against those limits before drawing anything.

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century brick and frame houses downtown, Eastport's watermen's cottages and infill, and mid-century to 1990s subdivisions along the peninsulas.

• Design, engineering and a real budget. Drawings that reflect what will actually be built, structural design where walls come out, and a line-item budget with allowances that are honest rather than lowballed to win the job.
• One permit strategy. A coordinated permit package rather than a series of separate applications filed as each phase surprises everyone. Building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical, sequenced so inspections do not stall the schedule.
• Envelope. Roof, windows, siding, flashing and drainage addressed as one assembly. Doing an expensive interior under a compromised envelope is the most common way homeowners waste money at this scale.
• Structural and layout changes. Wall removals, beam installations, new openings, stair modifications and floor-level reconciliation, all engineered and inspected.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to most of Annapolis

Federal law — the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule — requires that work disturbing painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 be performed by a certified firm using contained work practices, with specific cleanup afterward. Most of Annapolis's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We are certified for this work and it is built into how we set up, not bolted on. Worth asking every other contractor bidding your job whether they are, and asking to see it.

What drives the cost on a Annapolis whole-home renovation

We will not put a price range on a web page, because a number quoted without seeing your house is either a guess or bait. What we can do is tell you honestly which variables move the number, so you can read the bids you get from anyone.

• Structural scope — how many walls come out, and whether the existing framing and foundation support what you want to do.
• The age of the house and what is behind the plaster. Pre-1978 homes require lead-safe work practices throughout, and homes of certain eras may contain asbestos in flooring, mastic or pipe insulation that requires proper handling.
• Finish level, which is the part you control most directly and the part that varies most widely.
• Tight downtown lots with party walls and no side yard, and outside the core, water-influenced lots where the Critical Area line, not the setback, is the binding constraint. That is a Annapolis-specific factor and it belongs in the conversation early.

Months, not weeks, and the honest answer depends on scope, whether you are living in it, and how the reviewing jurisdiction handles the permit package. What we can commit to is a written schedule with milestones, and telling you promptly when something moves rather than at the end.

The mistakes we get called in to fix

• Finishing the interior before fixing the roof and windows. Water does not respect the order you spent your money in.
• Phasing the project into pieces that each require re-opening the same walls. Doing the electrical this year and the plumbing next year means paying for the drywall twice.
• Hiring on price without verifying license status, insurance certificates and whether the contractor has ever pulled a permit under their own name in your jurisdiction.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

We would rather over-disclose than be asked. Maryland: MHIC #111971, issued by the Home Improvement Commission and searchable in the state licensing database. General liability and workers' compensation in force, with certificates sent by our carrier on request and before signing, not after. The licensed trades on your project hold their own licenses and their own policies and pull their own trade permits, which is the legal requirement rather than a preference. Your contract is with us, and so is the responsibility.

Where we work in Annapolis

• 21401
• 21403
• 21409
• Historic District
• Eastport
• Murray Hill
• Wardour
• Hillsmere Shores
• Annapolis Roads

How a Annapolis project runs

1. A free visit that produces a document, not a pitch. No presentation, no same-day discount, no financing conversation before anyone has looked at the house. We measure, we photograph, we ask what is not working, and we leave you with something written you can compare against every other bid.
2. Feasibility against Annapolis rules, before design. We establish what the City of Annapolis, or Anne Arundel County outside city limits will require for whole-home renovation at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow. Where historic review applies, that submission is prepared and filed first, because the building permit is not useful until it clears.
3. Everything priced and agreed before a permit is filed. You see the scope broken into line items, the allowances stated as real numbers rather than vague placeholders, and the process for handling anything discovered mid-project. Only then does the permit package get assembled and submitted, with us answering the reviewer rather than forwarding comments to you.
4. One crew, one schedule, one closeout. MHIC #111971, Our own supervision on site, inspections met by us, and a documented punch walk with the permits closed out at the end.

Whole-Home Renovation across Annapolis and Anne Arundel County

Historic District, Eastport, Murray Hill, Wardour, Hillsmere Shores and Annapolis Roads are all inside our regular working area, along with 21401, 21403, 21409.

Homeowners here usually reach us for more than one thing at a time. Related work in Annapolis: home additions in Annapolis, kitchen remodeling in Annapolis, bathroom remodeling in Annapolis, window replacement in Annapolis.

We came to general contracting from the outside of the house in, which is the part most remodelers subcontract and hope for the best on. That means the same company handling your interior can also handle roof replacement, siding, aluminum siding, gutters, soffit and fascia and window replacement — under one contract, with one warranty conversation instead of three companies pointing at each other about where the water came from.

Annapolis whole-home renovation questions