Home Remodeling in Aston, PA
Remodeling for Aston's postwar houses and the older homes of its mill villages.
Aston was settled in 1682 and incorporated as a township in 1688, and for most of the 1800s it was a string of mill villages along Chester Creek: Rockdale, Lenni, Crozerville, Glen Riddle, Knowlton, Village Green and Aston Mills, several with post offices of their own. John Lungren built a paper mill at Lenni in 1798. John P. Crozer bought the West Branch mill in 1824 and turned it to cotton, then bought the Crozerville site in 1826. The Rockdale Manufacturing District became the subject of Anthony Wallace's 1978 history of an early industrial village, and stone mill ruins and stone tenements still stand along the creek.
The township's modern shape came after World War II. Aston had 3,116 people in 1940, 5,576 in 1950 and 10,595 in 1960, and it annexed the Bridgewater Farms area from Chester Township in 1958. Growth slowed after 1970, and the township counted 16,791 people in 2020. So most Aston houses date from the 1950s and 1960s, with the older stone and frame houses of the mill villages mixed in. Dawson's serves the whole township, about forty minutes from Middletown.
A permit list that includes windows and siding
Aston's Building Code Official issues permits to build, enlarge, alter or repair a house and its electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing systems, and the township publishes a plain list of what needs one. Kitchen and bathroom remodels are on it. So are replacement windows, which have to meet the energy code's U-factor, with each window location listed; siding and gutters; roofing, even a single layer; and decks, new or replacement. A basement remodel requires an egress door or window. The permit is posted before work starts, and every inspection needs 48 hours of notice.
Ranchers, split-levels and Capes from the boom
A 1950s or 1960s Aston house has a kitchen walled off from the living room, one bath or one and a half, and often a basement or a lower level. Opening the kitchen, usually through a non-bearing wall, changes how the whole first floor lives. The bath is rebuilt to the studs with new drains and a real exhaust fan. The basement becomes a family room, planned from the start around the egress opening the township requires, with moisture handled first. Outside, sixty-year-old windows and siding are replaced under the township's permit, which is a good moment to insulate and air-seal the walls.
Stone houses in the mill villages
The older houses in Rockdale, Lenni and Crozerville were built for mill owners and workers in stone and frame. Their walls are thick and out of plumb, their kitchens sit in rear additions, and their baths came later. Kitchens there are fitted to the rooms, plumbing follows the paths it already has, and window and siding work keeps the look of a creek village.
Dawson's serves Aston for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Garnet Valley, Chester Heights, Brookhaven and Boothwyn.
Aston is part of the Delaware County, PA service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Aston?
Call Dom with the address and the project, or send the details through the form. The walkthrough is free and the estimate comes in writing.