Home Remodeling in Coatesville, PA
Kitchen, bath, basement and exterior work for the rowhouses of Coatesville and the townships around it.
Coatesville is the only city in Chester County, and it is a steel town. Lukens Steel and the city grew up together, and the heritage survives in the commercial streets and the residential neighborhoods: the Coatesville Historic District is predominantly rowhouses and duplexes built in four sections between 1850 and 1924, the Lukens Historic District holds the company's own buildings, Midvale Steel built a company town in 1916 with semi-detached houses for its workers, and Carver Court was built by the federal government in 1944 as housing for Black steelworkers and their families. Many of the West End's houses date from before 1940. Around the city, Caln, Valley, East Fallowfield and West Caln townships hold the ranchers, split-levels and later subdivisions.
The Coatesville house is a brick rowhouse or twin from 1880 to 1925, and remodeling it is rowhouse work: a rear kitchen along a shared wall, a second-floor bath over it, a cellar to assess, and a street face that matters to the block. Dawson's serves the city and the townships around it, about an hour and ten minutes from Middletown.
The city's Codes Department
Coatesville issues its own building permits through its Codes Department, which administers the city's building code and its housing standards for existing dwellings. The zoning officer grants or denies a building permit within 30 days of a complete application, and building, plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits are priced from the project's valuation. The townships that ring the city each run their own permit office under Pennsylvania's construction code, so a Coatesville mailing address in Caln or Valley Township files with the township, and Chester County issues no permits itself.
Rowhouses and duplexes from the steel years
A Coatesville rowhouse has brick walls, plaster on lath, a kitchen at the back of the first floor and a bathroom on the second, usually over the kitchen, and a cellar with a stone or brick foundation. The kitchen gains the most from removing the wall to the dining room and running the counter along the party wall where the plumbing is. The bath is rebuilt from the subfloor with a fan the house never had. The cellar is checked for moisture and headroom before finishing; where it passes, it is the only room the house can gain. On a twin or a row, the exterior is planned with the neighbors so the block keeps its rhythm.
Township houses
In Caln, Valley and East Fallowfield the houses are postwar ranchers and split-levels and 1980s-to-2000s subdivisions, and the projects are the usual ones for houses of that age: kitchens opened up, lower levels finished, primary baths rebuilt, and siding and windows replaced at the twenty-five-year mark with vinyl or fiber cement and insulated double-hung units. Homeowners associations in the newer communities review exterior changes before the township permit.
Dawson's serves Coatesville for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Thorndale, Parkesburg, Downingtown and Unionville.
Coatesville is part of the Chester County, PA service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Coatesville?
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.