Remodeling in Reisterstown, MD

Three kinds of Reisterstown house

Reisterstown’s housing falls into three broad groups, and each comes with different rules.

The 1960s and 1970s houses are a large share of the town. At roughly half a century old or more, the projects are the ones you’d expect at that age: original kitchens and bathrooms, unfinished or tired basements, and decks that have been patched more than once.

The 1990s and 2000s neighborhoods are the other large group. Kitchens and baths in these homes are on their first big replacement cycle, and townhouse decks are reaching the end of their life.

Main Street and Glyndon are the small, old core. Few in number, these buildings need the most care: log and stone walls, Flemish-bond brick, wood windows and porches.

Our Reisterstown kitchen remodeling, Reisterstown bathroom remodeling and deck building in Reisterstown pages cover the specifics for each.

Which county issues a Reisterstown permit?

That depends on the parcel, because the 21136 ZIP is shared with part of Carroll County, which has its own permit office and rules. We look up the county before we talk about permits on any Reisterstown job. Everything on our Reisterstown pages about permits describes Baltimore County’s requirements. If your parcel turns out to be in Carroll County, we check that county’s requirements for your project instead.

Glyndon’s historic district and the Main Street listing

Glyndon, right next door, is a Baltimore County historic district, and that comes with real review. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has to approve exterior changes there. Replacement windows and siding are on the list. So are new fences and decks. Glyndon’s Victorian-era frame cottages and their front porches are exactly the sort of thing the review protects.

Main Street’s Reisterstown Historic District is a National Register listing. It brings no county design review on its own, but it opens the door to the county’s historic tax credit for eligible repair work. Kitchens, bathrooms and other remodeling-type work don’t qualify, while masonry repointing, structural repair, window restoration and roof repair can.

Four things we check on a Reisterstown parcel

Before we visit, we check four things about the parcel: the county, whether it sits in Glyndon’s historic district or the Main Street National Register district, whether county maps show floodplain on it, and whether it runs on well and septic. Each one changes what the permit asks for. Then we come out, measure, and talk through the scope with those answers in hand.

Older masonry and frame repairs

On the oldest buildings, the work is usually repair: rotted porch framing, failing siding and trim, and rooms that need new drywall, flooring and paint inside old walls. Our whole-home renovation page covers that kind of project. In Glyndon, start with the commission’s calendar. It meets the second Thursday of the month, except in August and December.