Home Remodeling in Little Creek, DE
Remodeling for the older houses of Little Creek, Delaware, planned around the town's own flood rules.
Little Creek was Little Landing first, the spot where the Little River met the road that is now Route 9, and a drawbridge crossed there as early as 1802. Through the 1800s it was a busy landing and the home port of an oyster fleet working the bay. By 1888 it had about 350 people and was counted among the more prosperous towns in the state, with police boats patrolling the oyster beds. The town incorporated in 1899. Rail and road took the trade away in the 20th century, and Little Creek settled into the small riverfront town it is now, with fewer than a hundred homes.
Those homes are old. The town's 2016 comprehensive plan puts about half of them before 1939 and nearly four in five before 1959, with a median year built of 1941, where Kent County's is 1989. A field survey by the town's planners in 2005 counted 87 houses. Dawson's serves Little Creek and the stretch of Route 9 around it.
One application for building and flood
Little Creek issues its own building permit, and the town's form is a combined building and floodplain permit application, which says a lot about how the town thinks about construction. It adopted its floodplain ordinance in August 2014, the same summer FEMA's new maps for coastal Kent County took effect, and the mayor serves as the floodplain administrator. Under the new maps the base flood elevation for most of the town rose from nine feet to ten, and to eleven along the river.
The fifty percent line
The rule that matters most for remodeling is this one. The town requires new construction to sit at least eighteen inches above the base flood elevation, which goes past the federal minimum, and the same requirement reaches an existing house if it is improved by half or more of its value, or badly damaged. Whether a project crosses that line depends on its cost against the value of the house. So on a bigger Little Creek project, an addition together with a new kitchen and baths, the first step is an honest budget measured against that value, and then a plan that either stays under the line or is designed from the start to meet the elevation rule.
Houses from the 1930s and before
Houses of that age share some habits. Floors have settled, walls are rarely square and the wiring has usually been added to in layers. Kitchens get replanned around a proper electrical service and today's appliances. Baths get rebuilt from the joists. Siding and windows do a great deal for these houses, and this close to the river it pays to choose materials that tolerate damp: trim that sheds water, openings flashed properly, and decking that can live over wet ground.
Ready to plan a remodel in Little Creek?
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.