Whole-home remodeling on Long Island

Levitt & Sons built homes in Levittown from 1947 to 1951.¹⁶ Levitt houses were built on a concrete slab with embedded heating pipes instead of over a costlier excavated basement.¹⁷ A full renovation of one of those houses has no basement to run new pipes through, so heating and plumbing changes mean working around, or breaking into, the slab.

Unless a lead-based paint inspection shows otherwise, the EPA says to treat paint in homes built before 1978 as if it contains lead.¹⁸ For homes built before 1978, the EPA advises hiring contractors who use only lead-safe certified renovators.¹⁹ When demolition moves from room to room, every room needs its own lead-safe setup, not just the kitchen.

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 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.²¹

Under Suffolk County's Sanitary Code, applications filed on or after July 1, 2021 for a new or expanded single-family house, or a major reconstruction, on a septic system must use an innovative and alternative onsite wastewater treatment system (I/A OWTS).²² Suffolk's Sanitary Code defines a major reconstruction as rebuilding or modifying an existing structure where the cost is more than 50 percent of the structure's market value, as determined by a New York State certified real estate appraiser, not counting the land.²²

Suffolk's Sanitary Code counts as an expanded single-family residence any addition or change that requires new or modified sewage disposal, or that adds bedrooms beyond the number the Department's Office of Wastewater Management previously approved.²² Work on an existing Suffolk house is exempt from the I/A system requirement when it is not a major reconstruction and adds no bedrooms beyond those previously approved, but wherever bedrooms are added, at least a conforming conventional septic system is required.²² Converting a den or attic to a bedroom counts, so settle the bedroom count before the drawings go to the town.

Suffolk helps pay for the new system. $20,000²³ is the county grant ceiling for an approved installation. To qualify for Suffolk's septic improvement grant, the property must be an existing single-family home, two-family home or single-family home with one accessory apartment, with a valid certificate of occupancy, current property taxes and a deed on file with the County Clerk.²³

In Nassau the question comes up less often. Nassau County's two sewage treatment plants handle 85 percent of the sewage collected in the county, while some North Shore communities are still served by cesspools.²⁴ Tens of thousands of homes and small businesses in Nassau County are still served by cesspools and septic systems, and the county's S.E.P.T.I.C. program offers grants to replace them with nitrogen-reducing I/A systems.²⁵ The county grant tops out at $20,000²⁵. Nassau's septic grant is open to single-family and two-family homes on an existing septic system or cesspool that are not connected to a sewer or inside an existing or proposed sewer district, with a valid certificate of occupancy and no open property tax liens.²⁵

In New York, a building that is substantially improved, meaning the work is valued at more than half of the structure's market value, falls under the same floodplain development rules as new construction.²⁶ A whole-house renovation is exactly the kind of project that can cross that line, and the cost counted is usually the whole job, not one room.

In a mapped A flood zone with a base flood elevation, New York requires the lowest floor of a new or substantially improved building, including any basement, to sit at or above the base flood elevation plus two feet.²⁶ Floodplain management in New York is run locally: work in a FEMA special flood hazard area needs a floodplain development permit from the municipality, whose designated floodplain administrator is usually the building inspector.²⁶ If your lot is in a mapped flood zone, ask the building department for its substantial improvement worksheet before the design is final.

Islip requires new construction to meet the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, the State Energy Conservation Construction Code, the National Electrical Code, Suffolk County Department of Health Services rules and the town code.¹² The energy rules reach renovations too, so new insulation, windows and ductwork have to meet them wherever the walls are opened.

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.²⁷ That is the national model code; your town applies New York's version, so ask which alarms the inspector will expect in rooms you aren't touching.

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.¹⁸ In a one-story ranch that is hard, because the bedrooms and the kitchen share one floor; many families move out for the loudest weeks.

A simple dust barrier, the EPA says, is 6-mil plastic sheeting taped over doors and other openings, with sheeting also taped over the room's heating, cooling or ventilation registers so dust doesn't spread or get into the ducts.¹⁸ In a Cape or high ranch, keeping one level sealed off and lived in works only if a toilet and sink stay working there.

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.²⁸ With the walls already open, a first-floor bedroom and full bath, wider doorways and blocking for grab bars cost far less now than as a separate job later. 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 Long Island area. Which rooms come first, the schedule and the price are settled between you and that company.

That company pays us for the call; you pay us nothing, and we won't phone or text you afterward. How we make money

New York State does not license home improvement contractors, but some local governments do, including New York City, the City of Buffalo, and Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties; where a local license is required, the Department of State says to hire only a licensed contractor.³⁰ Nassau County's Office of Consumer Affairs licenses home improvement contractors, and its daily-updated lookup shows each license's status and what work the contractor's insurance does and doesn't cover.¹⁵ Suffolk County's License and Complaint Violation Look Up searches county license records, including home improvement, master plumbing and master electrical licenses, by license number, name, business name, phone or address, along with complaint and violation information.³¹ Check a New York license

If a New York home improvement contract has progress payments, it must list each payment in dollars and cents and the stage of work it pays for, and each payment must bear a reasonable relationship to the work done, materials bought or expenses owed at that point.³² On a job this size, tie each payment to a finished stage, such as rough-in inspections passed.