Whole-House Renovation in Central Pennsylvania

Our Services

Taking an old house down to what is worth keeping, and rebuilding the rest properly.

Goodridge Construction Group takes on whole-house renovations across Columbia, Montour, Luzerne, Union and Northumberland counties. This part of the state is full of houses built between 1880 and 1940 that are structurally sound, beautifully detailed, and running on systems from three generations ago.

A whole-house renovation is a different animal from a remodel. The walls come open, the systems come out, and what we find changes the plan. We price these with an honest allowance for the unknown rather than a tidy number that falls apart in week three, and we tell you before you commit which parts of the house are worth saving.

Electrician inspecting a circuit breaker during an energy efficiency and conservation assessment, performing electrical panel upgrades and residential electrical system upgrades, including smart home electrical upgrades to improve home electrical performance.

When a Whole-House Renovation Makes Sense

Not every old house should be gutted, and we will say so. Here is roughly where the line sits.

It usually makes sense when:

  • The structure, foundation and roofline are sound but everything inside is tired
  • Two or three major systems are at end of life at the same time, so the walls are coming open anyway
  • The layout no longer works and moving walls is the only real fix
  • The house has detail worth keeping: trim, stair, doors, hardwood, original windows in good frames
  • The alternative is buying a house you like less in a place you like less

Every older house in this area hides some version of the same list. None of it is a surprise to us.

What usually turns up:

  • Knob and tube wiring, often still live in parts of the house
  • Galvanized supply lines that have closed up to the diameter of a pencil
  • Balloon framing with no fire blocking between floors
  • Sills and joist ends rotted where a porch roof or gutter failed decades ago
  • Little or no insulation, and plaster worth saving in some rooms and not others

With the walls open, this is the cheapest it will ever be to do these properly.

Systems work includes:

  • Complete rewire, new service and a correctly sized panel
  • Replacing supply and drain lines, and adding proper venting
  • New heating and cooling, including ductwork or ductless systems where ducts will not fit
  • Insulation and air sealing, which matter more than window replacement in most old houses
  • Smoke and carbon monoxide detection throughout, to current code

Old houses move. Most of what looks alarming is a hundred years of settling, and some of it is not.

Structural repair includes:

  • Sill, joist and beam replacement, including sistering where full replacement is not needed
  • Foundation repair, parging and drainage correction on stone and block foundations
  • Floor leveling, within reason, because a perfectly flat floor in an 1890 house is neither possible nor desirable
  • Removing walls with properly sized headers, and adding support where previous owners removed them without
  • Porch, roof and chimney structural work

This is the question people underestimate, and it has a real cost either way.

How we plan the job around you:

  • A full gut normally means moving out, and it is faster and cheaper when you do
  • Phasing is possible, floor by floor or wing by wing, and usually adds time and money
  • Dust containment and a working bathroom and kitchen if you are staying through part of it
  • A written schedule with the dates the house is and is not habitable
  • Honest advice about which option actually suits your family, not whichever is easier for us

Houses we renovate in:

  • Berwick, Bloomsburg, Danville, Nescopeck, Catawissa and Mifflinville
  • Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke, Kingston and the Back Mountain coal-era housing stock
  • Lewisburg and Mifflinburg, including homes under historic review
  • Sunbury, Northumberland, Milton and Shamokin
  • Farmhouses and outbuildings throughout the five counties

Old Houses Reward Patience and Punish Shortcuts

The reason whole-house renovations go wrong is almost never workmanship. It is a contractor who priced the visible work, hit the hidden work in week three, and had no plan for it. We open up and look before the number is final, we carry an honest contingency, and we tell you what we found the day we find it. The result is a house that keeps what made it worth saving and stops costing you money in the walls.

Contact Goodridge Construction Group to walk through your house and get a written, line-by-line estimate. We work throughout Columbia, Montour, Luzerne, Union and Northumberland counties.

Request a Walkthrough