Home Remodeling in Viola, DE
Remodeling for the railroad-era houses of Viola, Delaware, with the septic system in the plan from the start.
Viola began in 1856 as Canterbury Station, a stop where the new railroad crossed the road to Canterbury, with a few farmhouses nearby. In 1880 the first postmaster, Charles Coolbaugh, renamed it for his daughter. A lumberyard, a sawmill, a husk factory that made cornhusk mattresses and a tomato cannery grew up along the tracks, and nearly every farm around it had peach orchards at the turn of the century. The town incorporated in 1913. Main Street and the railroad still run side by side through the middle of it.
In 2002 the State Historic Preservation Office found much of Viola potentially eligible for the National Register, calling it a well-preserved example of a small Kent County town that developed along the railroad line, with buildings from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. The census counted 64 houses in 2010, and a good share of them were built before 1940. Dawson's serves Viola and the farm roads around it.
The compliance letter
Viola's own step is a compliance letter saying the project meets the town's zoning. For a house or an addition, the planning and zoning committee reviews it and recommends to the board of commissioners, and the board decides. Smaller work, a fence, a shed, a deck or a pool, can get its letter from the town manager directly if it meets the zoning. Either way the letter goes to Kent County's permitting division, which issues the building permit. The town also charges contractors a yearly license fee, so the paperwork for a Viola project starts before the first county form.
Septic and small lots
There is no public sewer in Viola. Every house is on its own septic system, and the median residential lot is about four-tenths of an acre. The town's plan notes that some owners may have trouble getting a permit for a new system because the lots are small. That matters for remodeling in a way most towns never have to think about. Adding a bedroom or a bath can change what the system has to handle, and an addition or a deck has to stay clear of the tank and the drain field. On a Viola project, knowing where the system sits and what it was sized for comes before the design.
Railroad-town houses
The older houses are frame, built for farm and rail families and improved in pieces since. In 2011 and 2012 the town took part in a state energy audit program, and several households had problems like missing insulation fixed. The same gaps turn up in any remodel here, and a kitchen or bath with the walls open is the time to insulate and air seal. New windows and siding over a properly wrapped wall finish the job, and they are also the work that keeps these houses looking like the railroad town the state described.
Ready to plan a remodel in Viola?
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.