Home Remodeling in Exton, PA
Remodeling for the old stone houses, 1960s neighborhoods and newer townhome communities of Exton.
Exton is not a borough. It is the crossroads of Route 30 and Route 100 in West Whiteland Township, farmland in the Great Valley until the second half of the 20th century. The township had 1,573 people in 1950 and 4,412 in 1960, and after the Exton Square Mall opened it grew to 12,403 in 1990 and 16,499 in 2000, with shopping centers and office parks filling the land along the roads. The housing arrived in the same waves. Marchwood, just over the line in Uwchlan Township, is single-family houses with basements built from about 1962 to 1971 on lots a little under half an acre. Exton Station is townhomes and condominiums built in phases over nearly two decades, with a median age of about 1990. Whiteland Woods, from about 2002, mixes townhouses, carriage houses and single-family houses.
Behind all of that are the older buildings the township keeps track of. Its first historic resources inventory, in 1982, held 200 properties; the current roster is over 400 sites, homes, converted houses, root cellars, barns and outbuildings. Dawson's serves Exton and the townships its mailing address reaches, about an hour from Middletown.
West Whiteland's Codes Administration Department
Inside West Whiteland, permits come from the township's Codes Administration Department, which handles construction regulations, zoning reviews and use and occupancy permits. The township's own list of work that needs a permit is broad: additions, alterations and repairs, kitchen and bathroom renovations, finished basements, decks, patios and walkways, re-roofing and generators among them. Applications are filed electronically with the drawings attached. The 19341 ZIP code also reaches into Uwchlan, East Whiteland, East Caln and Upper Uwchlan townships, and a house there files with its own township, so the municipality is confirmed before any drawings are made.
Historic resources under the zoning ordinance
West Whiteland's zoning ordinance protects the buildings on that inventory. No Class I, II or III historic resource can be demolished, in whole or in part, without a permit from the zoning officer, and that includes stripping out significant interior or exterior architectural features. The Historical Commission advises on those permits and reviews rehabilitation, enlargement and alteration of historic resources against the Secretary of the Interior's Standards. For a stone farmhouse or an old tenant house on the list, that means an addition, a new window pattern or a gutted interior is designed with the commission in mind from the first sketch, not after the permit is filed.
Ranch houses, townhomes and newer singles
A 1960s Marchwood house has a closed kitchen, small baths and a full basement, so the usual order is the kitchen opened to the dining room, the hall bath rebuilt, then the basement finished into a family room with an egress window where the grade allows. The townhomes at Exton Station and Whiteland Woods share walls, and their associations control the outside, so the work there is indoors: a new kitchen layout inside the same footprint, a walk-in shower, a finished lower level. The single-family houses of the 1990s and 2000s are ready for new siding, new windows and a rebuilt deck.
Dawson's serves Exton for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Downingtown, West Chester, Thorndale and Cheyney.
Exton is part of the Chester County, PA service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Exton?
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.