Whole-home remodeling in Hagerstown

The City of Hagerstown describes the neighborhoods around its downtown as rowhouse and mansion districts built for boom-era workers and managers, with two-story pre-Civil War houses of early German settlers scattered throughout.¹⁵ Houses from those decades have usually been rewired and replumbed in pieces, so a full renovation is often the first time anyone sees all of the old work at once.

Unless a lead-based paint inspection shows otherwise, the EPA says to treat paint in homes built before 1978 as if it contains lead.¹⁶ For homes built before 1978, the EPA advises hiring contractors who use only lead-safe certified renovators.¹⁷ When trim, plaster and windows are coming out on every floor, ask how dust is kept out of the rooms you're still using and how the site is cleaned at the end of each day.

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.¹⁸ The City of Hagerstown's online service line inventory map lets customers search their address to see the material of the water service line on their property; a status of Unknown means the material is still being verified.¹⁹ With the walls open, replacing old supply pipe all the way to the meter costs far less than it will after the new plaster is painted.

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.²⁰ Get suspect materials tested before demolition is scheduled, not after a crew has started pulling them out.

Hagerstown has four local historic districts: City Center, Oak Hill, Potomac-Broadway and South Prospect Street.¹⁵ The City of Hagerstown says local historic district or landmark designation requires the Historic District Commission to review all exterior improvements and makes owners eligible for county real property tax credits for restoring historic structures, for projects that meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.²¹

Review covers the outside only, so a new kitchen or rewired bedrooms won't go before the commission, but replacement windows, a new rear door or a rebuilt porch will. In a Hagerstown historic district, all exterior improvements to a building, including fences, must be approved by the Historic District Commission before a permit can be released; applications for its review are free.¹²

Maryland has its own credit for owner-occupied historic houses. Maryland's Homeowner Tax Credit can return 20% of eligible rehabilitation costs, capped at $50,000 in a 24-month period, on an owner-occupied house that is a certified historic structure; plumbing work and restoring interior finishes can qualify, but work that is primarily remodeling usually does not.²² The Maryland Historical Trust must approve the work before it begins; work started before review won't qualify and can put the credit for the whole project at risk.²²

Outside the city, the county runs a separate program. Washington County's historic tax credit is 25 percent of qualifying rehabilitation costs, such as roof, chimney, window, masonry repointing and structural repairs, for properties in the county's qualifying historic areas; the application must be submitted before work starts, and unused credit carries forward up to 5 years.²³ Whichever applies, the paperwork has to come before the demolition, so put the application on the schedule ahead of the first crew.

Pulling permits for a big job brings some upgrades along with it. 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.²⁴ When branch-circuit wiring is modified, replaced or extended in kitchens, family rooms, dining rooms, living rooms, bedrooms, hallways, laundry areas and similar rooms, the 2021 International Residential Code requires arc-fault (AFCI) protection for that circuit, unless the extension is no more than 6 feet long and adds no outlets or devices.²⁵

The code's required inspections include the foundation, the rough-in of plumbing, mechanical, gas and electrical systems, framing and masonry, and a final inspection.²⁶ Once a Hagerstown permit is issued and the work needing inspection is done, contractors request the inspection through the city's online inspection portal.¹¹ The City of Hagerstown has adopted the 2021 International Building and Residential Codes and the 2021 International Plumbing Code, each with local amendments.²⁷ Washington County adopted the 2021 International Building, Residential, Energy and Existing Building codes with local amendments on February 27, 2024, effective July 1, 2024.²⁸ Find out early whose local amendments govern your address, since the two offices adopted the same code editions with their own changes.

In a narrow city house with one stair and one bath, staying through the work takes a plan. Ask for a schedule that keeps one bathroom and a sink in service until their replacements work.

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.¹⁶ In a house with no second way through, demolition weeks are usually the time to stay elsewhere. After paint, finishes or new flooring go in, the EPA's typical recommendation is maximum ventilation during installation and for at least 72 hours afterward.¹⁶

Some owners roll the work into a mortgage. The Standard 203(k) mortgage covers major rehabilitation, including structural additions; the work must cost at least $5,000, the property must stay within the FHA mortgage limit for the area, and a HUD-approved 203(k) consultant prepares the work write-up and cost estimate.²⁹ Under a 203(k) loan the contractor gets the permits before work starts, and money is released in stages after the 203(k) consultant inspects and certifies each phase, by two-party check to the borrower and the contractor.²⁹

Smaller jobs have their own version. HUD's Limited 203(k) mortgage lets homebuyers and homeowners finance up to $75,000 into their mortgage for repairs, improvements, minor remodeling and non-structural work.²⁹ Either way, the lender's inspections set the pace of payments, so ask whether the company has worked under a draw schedule before.

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.³⁰ With the walls already open, it costs little to set blocking where grab bars may go, widen a bathroom door and light both ends of the stairs.

If a first-floor bedroom and bath could be needed someday, ask for that layout to be priced now. The Maryland Department of Aging lists the Washington County Commission on Aging, at 535 E. Franklin Street in Hagerstown, as the county's Area Agency on Aging.³¹ NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.³²

The number on this page rings, on a recorded line, at one independent company that handles whole-home remodels in the Hagerstown area. Rooms, sequence, schedule and price are yours to settle with them.

They pay us for the call; you pay us nothing, and we won't call or text you later. How we make money

A contract this size deserves a check of your own before you sign it. Maryland's Home Improvement Commission licenses home improvement contractors and salespersons, and its License Search shows whether a license is current.³³ Check a Maryland license