Kitchen remodeling in Northborough, MA

The houses this is written for

The stock here is antique houses around the old centre, a large body of post-war capes, ranches and split-levels, and considerable colonial-style development from the 1980s onward.

The kitchen at the top of the stairs

Come in the front door of a Northborough split and you are on a landing. Half a flight up is the kitchen, boxed in by a wall to the living room and another to the dining area, with the ducting in the ceiling below. Half a flight down is the family room. The kitchen is the most used room and the most cut off.

A raised ranch is a close cousin with the same problem. The kitchen is on the upper level at the back, over the garage or the family room, with a bearing wall to the living room that carries the ceiling and often sits over a beam below. In both house types the request is the same: connect the kitchen to the dining and living space properly.

Where the load path actually goes

The wall people want gone in a split looks harmless. It is also frequently the wall carrying the ceiling joists, and below it, because of the half-flight offset, there may be nothing but a stair opening. So a header up top is only part of the answer. It often needs a post continuing down a level, and sometimes a footing under it.

We trace the load from ceiling to ground before a layout is drawn, and open a small section of drywall to confirm what the framing is doing rather than assuming from the plan. That is priced before we commit to a design. Guessing and finding out during demolition is how a kitchen job turns into a structural repair with a kitchen attached.

Ducts, drains and power in a split

The ducting in a split-level runs through the ceiling of the lower level, which is the floor of the kitchen. Move a sink or add an island and the new drain has to thread through joists that already carry a trunk line. We map the ducts and the waste line before the island is placed, and say so if the sink has to shift.

Northborough is largely on municipal water and sewer, so pressure and treatment are rarely a concern and a disposal is fine. On the outlying parcels on septic, the disposal comes out of the plan, because a Title 5 system does not want food waste. Panels vary here. Many have been replaced, but a new kitchen still adds circuits and we count the spaces early.

Colonials, capes and the old centre

The colonial-style houses from the 1980s onward are a different job. They already have a kitchen open to a family room and an island, and what they need is a refresh: the cabinets are worn, the counters are laminate or early tile, the layout wastes space. The structural work is small; the value is a better plan inside the same walls.

The post-war capes and ranches have the closed galley and the bearing wall to the living room, and the antique houses around the old centre have small back kitchens with a pantry and a stack in the wall. In every case the range hood is vented outside through an exterior wall with rigid duct. We do not fit recirculating hoods.

Sequence and what to expect on site

Our order is written scope with the structure settled, demolition, framing and any footing work, rough plumbing and electrical, inspection, then insulation, drywall, cabinets, counters, tile, trim and paint. In a split the framing stage is the one that takes longer than people expect, because the work spans two levels and the post and footing must be inspected before the floor is closed.

Access in Northborough is good. Suburban lots with real driveways mean the dumpster and the cabinet delivery go where they should. Properties along the Route 20 corridor can have an awkward turn in, which changes how a truck parks and nothing else about the job. Most of the town is simply easy to work in, and neighbours are rarely affected at all.

Questions we get asked about Northborough