Whole-home remodeling in Wilmington

The typical brick row house in Wilmington's Quaker Hill district is narrow but several rooms deep: a long side hall, a parlor nearest the street, a dining room behind it and a kitchen beyond.¹⁶ Behind the kitchen, the typical Quaker Hill row house had another room attached to the rear, used as an extra sleeping room, a pantry or a storage shed.¹⁶ In a house laid out that way, a whole-house plan usually reworks the back of the building, where the kitchen, the rear room and the bath above them meet, and the long shared side wall limits where new ducts and drains can run.

Unless a lead-based paint inspection shows otherwise, the EPA says to treat paint in homes built before 1978 as if it contains lead.¹⁷ Delaware runs its own lead renovation program: firms and workers doing renovation, repair or painting in pre-1978 housing that disturbs more than six square feet of painted surface in a room, more than twenty square feet outside, or that replaces windows or demolishes, must be certified by the Division of Public Health.¹⁸ Ask the company for its state lead certification along with its contractor registration.

Beyond flooring, the EPA lists vermiculite attic and wall insulation, roofing and siding shingles, textured paint and patching compounds on walls and ceilings, and hot water and steam pipes wrapped in asbestos blanket or tape among the places asbestos may be found in a home.¹⁹ The EPA advises having an accredited asbestos professional inspect before a remodel that could disturb suspect materials, and not sanding or power-stripping suspect flooring yourself.²⁰ The EPA notes that lead can collect inside galvanized pipe and later reach drinking water, and that solder made before 1986 contained high levels of lead.²¹

Since 1975, Wilmington has designated twelve City Historic Districts to recognize and protect its cultural resources.¹² Inside Wilmington's City Historic Districts, all exterior changes to buildings, structures, objects or sites go through design review; ordinary repair with in-kind materials, maintenance and work meeting preset design criteria can be handled by Planning staff, while proposals involving signage, new construction or demolition may go to the Design Review and Preservation Commission.¹² Wilmington's Design Review and Preservation Commission generally meets on the third Wednesday of each month, and an application must be received and accepted by the Planning Department at least three weeks before the meeting.¹² Build those meeting dates into the schedule before new windows, doors or a rear addition are ordered.

The City of Wilmington offers a 10-year property tax abatement, from the date of the increased assessment, for rehabilitating a building on the National Register or in a City Historic District.²² Delaware's Historic Preservation Tax Credit is 30% of qualified rehabilitation expenses for homeowners, who may receive up to $30,000 in credits per application.²³ Rehabilitation work that is already done doesn't qualify for Delaware's historic preservation tax credit; the application must be approved before the work begins.²³ Both reward planning ahead, so ask about them before the first crew shows up.

Outside the city, the county runs its own review. In a New Castle County Historic overlay zoning district, no exterior alteration, demolition, relocation or new construction may begin without county approval, and the county issues no permit until the Historic Review Board approves a historic resources application.¹⁵ The Historic Review Board is to approve or deny a permit within 75 working days after the county receives a complete historic resources application, whenever practicable.²⁴ Even work that is exempt from a building permit needs a historic resources application in a New Castle County Historic overlay district, and it goes to the Historic Review Board if it does not follow the county design guidelines.²⁵

For very dusty work such as demolition, the EPA describes isolating the work area: sealing it off with no direct access to the occupied rooms, with workers using a separate entrance until cleanup is done.¹⁷ In a rowhouse with a single stair, closing off the back half while the front rooms stay usable is often the only split that works.

When alterations, repairs or additions that need a permit are made, the 2021 International Residential Code requires the home to have smoke alarms where a new house would, including in each bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every story; exterior-only work and plumbing or mechanical work are exempt.²⁶ Ask which code edition your permit office enforces, and have the alarm locations drawn on the plans so a missing detector doesn't hold up the final inspection.

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.²⁷ With the walls already open, blocking for future grab bars and a wider bathroom door add little to the bill. Under the ADA standards a doorway needs a clear width of at least 32 inches, measured between the face of the door and the stop with the door open 90 degrees.²⁸ NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.²⁹

The number on this page connects you, on a recorded line, with one independent company that handles whole-home remodels in the Wilmington area. Which rooms come first, how long it takes and what it costs are settled between you and that company.

That company pays us for the call. You owe us nothing, and nobody from our side will phone or text you afterward. How we make money

Before a deposit changes hands, look the company up on the state's own sites. Delaware's public Contractor Registry lookup lists contractors that properly registered and are considered compliant with Department of Labor laws, searchable by name, ZIP code, certification number, NAICS code or industry; a contractor that drops off the list may not have re-registered, may be under review, or may have been suspended or revoked.³⁰ Contractors working in unincorporated New Castle County must get a New Castle County contractor license, a permit-endorsed license for work that needs a permit, while electrical contractors are licensed by the State; the county's Contractor License Search shows a contractor's license and authorized trades.³¹ Check a Delaware license

Delaware's Consumer Protection Unit home improvement regulations, effective November 1, 2023, require a written contract listing all material terms, bar asking homeowners to sign incomplete contracts or calling a binding contract an estimate, require a completion date unless clearly disclosed, and bar getting a certificate of completion before the work is done; contractors must give buyers a copy of the unit's summary of the rules before the contract is signed.³² Under Delaware's home improvement rules, every promise that acts as an express warranty must be in the contract, any warranty limit must be clear, conspicuous and initialed by the homeowner, and a contractor may not lead the homeowner to think a down payment is the full amount owed.³³