Whole-Home & Rowhouse Renovation in Baltimore

What is a whole-home or rowhouse renovation?

A whole-home renovation covers several rooms or an entire floor at once, managed as one job with one schedule. In a Baltimore rowhouse, that often means taking the first floor down to the framing and rebuilding the stairwell, kitchen, flooring and walls in one pass.

Renovating a whole rowhouse floor at once usually takes less time and disruption than going room by room. The finished floor also reads as one house, which a patchwork of separate room jobs rarely does.

Typical scopes:

• First-floor gut renovations from demolition to paint
• Stairwell rebuilds with new treads, balusters and drywall
• Rental turnovers that bring a vacant unit back to market
• Multi-room refreshes with flooring, drywall, lighting and paint
• Repair projects that fix roof or water damage and the rooms it affected

What does a first-floor gut renovation involve?

A first-floor gut means removing finishes down to the framing, repairing what’s behind them, and rebuilding the floor. On our first-floor gut renovation, the stairwell started with exposed stair framing, debris and old flooring. It finished as an entry hall with white balusters, wood treads, light gray walls and new LVP.

On that same project we finished the rear hallway to the back door with LVP and fresh paint, and installed a compact kitchen with gray cabinets, granite counters, a gas range and a stacked washer and dryer. Fitting laundry into the kitchen is a common move in rowhouses with no room for a separate laundry closet. For more on kitchens, see our kitchen remodeling page.

On a gut job we work in this order:

1. Demolition and debris removal, with the rest of the house protected
2. Framing repairs, stair work and any wall changes
3. Electrical and plumbing rough-in, under trade permits
4. Drywall, then flooring, cabinets and trim
5. Paint, fixtures and a final walkthrough

Rental turnovers for landlords

We treat a rental turnover as one project with one schedule, so the unit goes back on the market as soon as possible. The hardest part of a turnover for most landlords is lining up several kinds of work in the right order, and a single scope takes that off your plate.

A typical turnover combines a kitchen refresh, bathroom repairs, new flooring, drywall patching and fresh paint. In one rental we installed white shaker cabinets, a white subway backsplash, granite-look counters and dark LVP. We choose finishes that hold up to tenants and are easy to match later. If the bathroom needs more than a refresh, our bathroom remodeling page covers full gut-and-rebuild work.

Open floor plans and unusual stairs

Open floor plans and unusual stairs take more planning, because you can see every wall, floor and ceiling from everywhere else. One home had a black metal spiral staircase with wood treads. We patched and repaired the drywall around the stair, laid new plywood subfloor and LVP across the open floor plan, and repainted. That spiral stair house has its own project page.

Running one flooring material through the whole floor is what made that space feel open. LVP suits whole-floor jobs because the same plank can run through the kitchen, halls and living areas. Our flooring installation page covers subfloor prep and material choices.

What affects the cost of a whole-home renovation?

How deep the work goes, and how many rooms it covers, set most of the cost. Paint, flooring and fixtures across a floor is one kind of job; taking the same floor down to the framing is another. The main drivers:

• What’s behind the walls. Rotted framing, old wiring or past leak damage found once finishes come off.
• Layout changes. Moving or removing walls, and whether any of them carry load.
• Kitchens and baths. Each adds cabinets, fixtures, tile and trade work.
• Stairs. Rebuilding treads, balusters and the stairwell walls.
• Flooring area. One material through the whole floor versus room by room.
• Permits and drawings. Alterations, structural work and new trade work all need permits.
• Occupancy. Working around a family in the house takes longer than a vacant unit.

We give a written price after walking every room with you.

Roof leaks and the rooms they damaged

When a leak has damaged the rooms below, we fix the roof first and the interior second. One client had us replace a flat roof, then replace a bedroom ceiling that rain had damaged. The same project included new kitchen cabinets, new flooring across the first floor and fresh paint in every room, plus the outside railing. The client noted that everything was done in an orderly way, with cleanup as soon as each area was painted. Our flat roof replacement page explains the roof side of that work.