Kitchen remodeling in Wayland, MA

The houses this is written for

The stock here is antique houses near the old centre, a notable body of mid-century modern and contemporary homes, and substantial later colonial construction on large wooded lots.

Knowing which house you are standing in

Before anything else we establish whether the house is conventional stick framing or one of the post-and-beam moderns, because every decision that follows depends on the answer. In a modern, the structure is the finish. Beams are exposed, ceiling boards span from beam to beam, and there is no cavity above to run a duct through. In a colonial there is a platform floor over the kitchen and plenty of room to work.

The antique houses near the old centre are a third case, with a kitchen in a back room or a later addition, plaster on lath, and framing that has been altered more than once. There is no standard Wayland kitchen, only a standard first visit: open a small area and find out what is there.

Working in a post-and-beam modern kitchen

In these houses the kitchen usually opens onto the living space already, so nobody is asking for a wall to come out. What they want is better cabinetry, a counter that works, proper light and appliances that suit how they cook. The discipline is restraint. Cabinet runs have to respect the module of the structure, and a tall unit dropped in front of an exposed post looks wrong to anyone who understands the house.

The glazed walls are the other constraint and the reason people live in these houses. Cabinets should not fight the glass, so upper storage often moves to a single wall or to full-height units at one end, with the window wall left alone. Where the original single glazing is being replaced, we look at what the frames are bearing on and how the sill detail sheds water before anything is ordered.

Running services where nothing can be hidden

A conventional kitchen hides its plumbing and wiring in floors and ceilings. A modern with exposed structure and a low-slope deck above has almost nowhere to put them. So we design the service routes first, not last: a purpose-built chase, a furred bulkhead that looks deliberate, or a run brought up inside a cabinet back and turned at high level where it will not be seen.

Slab-on-grade adds its own rules. Where supply pipe or radiant tubing is buried in the slab, we locate it properly before anyone cuts, and we plan the layout to work with the existing drain position rather than trenching across a heated floor for the sake of a drawing. Moving a sink in these houses is possible but it is never casual, and we price it honestly.

The colonial kitchen and the wall everyone wants gone

In the later colonials on the wooded lots the job is the familiar one. A closed kitchen, a wall to the dining room or family room, and an island that either does not exist yet or does not work. The wall may be bearing, and where it is the span is usually manageable with a sized header and posts carried down to the girder. We check the direction of the joists above before committing to a design.

The services inside that wall need the same attention as the structure. A sink waste, its vent, and often a second-floor bath vent share the cavity, along with the counter circuits. Those get relocated deliberately into a new chase or the opening is sized around them. What we do not do is cut a beam pocket through a stack and work out the plumbing afterwards.

Town water, septic and land near the river

Parts of town are on public water and plenty of the larger lots are on their own systems, so the first job is establishing which you have. On a well we measure pressure at the kitchen and look at treatment, because a dishwasher and an ice maker inherit whatever the water is like. On town water the plumbing question is usually just the age of the supply pipe in the house.

Where there is a Title 5 system, a kitchen that adds a prep sink adds flow, so we check what the system can take before design. We also leave disposals out on septic as a matter of course. Some parcels carry conservation constraints close to the river, so if a project touches the exterior at all we establish the constraints on your specific address at the beginning.

Venting, sequence and protecting what is already there

The hood is vented outside through an exterior wall, on the shortest run the plan allows, with a damper and a properly flashed termination. In an open-plan modern the hood is a visible object in the main living space, so its size, finish and duct route are design decisions rather than an afterthought. We settle them at the same time as the cabinetry, not once the boxes are on site.

The work runs in the usual order: design and written scope, demolition, structure, plumbing and electrical rough, inspection, then insulation, drywall or board, cabinets, counters, tile and paint. On these properties protection is a real line in the scope. Drives and planting take the hit from deliveries if nobody plans for it, and exposed beams, terrazzo, slate and original woodwork get boxed before the first tool arrives.

Questions we get asked about Wayland