Home Remodeling in Wilmington, DE
Kitchen, bathroom and basement work for the rowhouses and city neighborhoods of Wilmington, Delaware.
Wilmington is a rowhouse city. The East Side, St. Mary's and Old Swedes districts are continuous brick rows from the city's industrial growth between 1830 and 1910, with corner storefronts, varied cornices and decorated porches. The next ring out grew along the streetcar: the Delaware Avenue district began as a suburb when the first horse-drawn trolley line left the city in 1864, and the trolley barn at Delaware Avenue and DuPont Street became the Trolley Square shopping center in 1978. Forty Acres, the Highlands, Wawaset Park and Trinity Vicinity fill in around it with houses from the early twentieth century that are still some of the most walkable blocks in the state.
Remodeling a rowhouse is its own trade. The kitchen is at the back, the plumbing stacks in one wall shared with a neighbor, the joists run side to side into party walls, and the basement is stone or brick with a low ceiling. Opening the kitchen to the dining room, fitting a real bathroom into a second-floor hall, and turning a dry basement into usable space are the three projects most rowhouses need, and Dawson's serves every neighborhood in the city for them.
Permits come from the city, not the county
Inside city limits, building permits are issued by Wilmington's Department of Licenses and Inspections at the Louis L. Redding City/County Building on North French Street, not by New Castle County. Structural, mechanical and utility changes need a permit; cosmetic work like paint, tile and fixtures replaced in the same location usually does not, under the finish-work exemption in the residential code the city adopted. The city publishes a step-by-step development review guide, and the permit and inspection fees pay for the review.
Twelve historic districts and what they mean for windows and siding
Wilmington's Design Review and Preservation Commission reviews every building action, including modifications to existing structures, inside the city's twelve historic districts and its neighborhood conservation districts. Forty Acres became Delaware's first Neighborhood Conservation District in 2004. In practice that means a window replacement, new siding or a rear addition visible from the street on one of those blocks goes to the commission before the permit is issued, while the kitchen and bath inside do not. Knowing whether your block is in a regulated district changes the schedule, so it is the first thing Dawson's checks on a Wilmington estimate.
What a Wilmington remodel usually involves
Rowhouse kitchens are narrow and long, and the plans that work keep the plumbing wall where it is and gain space by removing the wall to the dining room or the back porch enclosure. Second-floor bathrooms in these houses were often added after the fact and sit over the kitchen, so the two projects are usually planned together. Basements need a moisture assessment before anything else: stone foundations, old floor drains and a century of grading changes decide whether the space can be finished or should stay storage. Where the answer is yes, a finished basement adds a room to a house that has no other place to grow.
Dawson's serves Wilmington for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Bellefonte, Edgemoor, Elsmere and Greenville.
Wilmington is part of the New Castle County, DE service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Wilmington?
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.