Home Remodeling in Media, PA
Remodeling for the borough of Media and the townships that share its ZIP code.
Media was laid out on purpose. When Delaware County moved its seat from Chester, it bought four farms totaling 480 acres, and the borough incorporated on March 11, 1850 inside borders that have never changed. The West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad came through in October 1854 and the town filled in along it; a 1940 guide noted that almost all of Media's houses had been built since the Civil War and sat far back on shaded lawns. In 1975 the borough designated three historic districts of its own: Courthouse Square, from Olive to Orange streets between 2nd and Jasper; Lemon Street, from Baker to Front; and the Providence Friends' Meeting House district, from Front to 2nd.
A Media mailing address is not always the borough, though. The 19063 ZIP code reaches into Upper Providence, Middletown and Nether Providence townships and into Rose Valley, and each of those keeps its own permit desk. Dawson's serves the borough and the townships around it, a little under an hour from Middletown, Delaware.
Code Enforcement and HARB
Inside the borough, the Code Enforcement Department reviews and issues building, mechanical, electrical and plumbing permits, and it inspects residential properties every year and again whenever ownership or occupancy changes. In the three historic districts there is a second step. Any exterior alteration visible from a public way needs a certificate of appropriateness, and the Historic Architectural Review Board, which meets the first Monday of the month as needed, reviews the application and recommends to Borough Council whether to grant it. The borough publishes HARB guidelines, and a window, siding or porch project inside a district gets drawn to them before it is filed.
Victorians on the borough grid
The older borough houses are late Victorians, Queen Annes, Colonial Revivals and foursquares, brick or frame, with tall ceilings and plaster walls. Remodeling a kitchen in one usually means working inside a narrow back room: new cabinets scribed to walls that are not square, a wider opening to the dining room where the framing allows it, and wiring and plumbing brought up to date while the walls are open. Upstairs baths are rebuilt over new subfloors with real ventilation. Interior work like this needs the permit and its inspections but not HARB, which only reviews what the street can see.
Outside the borough line
Past the borough, the houses sit on larger lots and the projects shift: a kitchen opened to the family room, a finished basement, a rear deck or a primary suite added over the garage. Upper Providence, Middletown Township and Nether Providence each administer Pennsylvania's construction code on their own, and Rose Valley is a separate borough, so an estimate there starts with the right municipality's application.
Dawson's serves Media for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Wallingford, Swarthmore, Brookhaven and Aston.
Media is part of the Delaware County, PA service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Media?
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.