Property Renovation Services

Houses built around Hamilton County before the 1960s were built with plaster over wood or rock lath, framing on inconsistent spacing, and almost no insulation in the exterior walls. Anything you do to them starts with figuring out what is actually there.

Plaster-to-drywall transitions are the recurring problem. Plaster sits proud of modern half-inch board, so a butt joint between the two shows as a ridge under paint if it is not handled. We either fur the new work out to meet the existing plane or float the transition wide enough that the change is invisible. Which one depends on how much wall you are keeping.

The other constant is what we find once the plaster comes down: knob and tube remnants, undersized headers, joists notched by a plumber in 1974, and exterior walls with nothing in them. We photograph everything, tell you what has to be fixed versus what is optional, and price the change before doing it.

If the walls are already open, insulate. Getting batts or closed cell foam into an exterior wall costs very little when the studs are exposed and is expensive to retrofit later. The same goes for adding sound insulation between a bedroom and a shared wall, or running electrical for lighting you know you want in two years.

Finish level is worth a conversation too. A hallway is fine at a level 4 finish. A great room with a wall of west-facing windows will show every imperfection at four in the afternoon, and that is where a level 5 skim coat pays for itself. We recommend it where it matters and not where it does not.

Renovations in Carmel, Westfield and Zionsville often involve homes that were finished well the first time, so the bar for matching existing trim profiles, textures and ceiling details is high. We plan those matches before demolition rather than trying to reverse-engineer them afterward.