Whole-home remodeling in Austin

Ranch houses rose to enormous popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Travis Heights-Fairview Park district in Austin counts 129 of them, built from the early postwar era through the 1960s.¹⁴ 11%⁸ of homes inside the city date from the 1950s and 1960s. Early Ranch houses surveyed in southwest Travis County put two bedrooms at one end and the living room, dining room and kitchen together at the other; later versions added more bedrooms, several bathrooms and bonus rooms such as dens.¹⁵ Opening the wall between kitchen and den is a familiar whole-house move in a house like that, and it usually means a beam, which brings in the technical review.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's Travis County office says I-35 roughly separates the Edwards Plateau on Austin's west side, with thin soils over exposed limestone, from the Blackland Prairie on the east.¹⁶ The same office says Blackland Prairie clay soils shrink and swell with moisture, opening wide cracks and heaving things like fence posts and patios.¹⁶ On the east side, have the slab checked for movement before a new open floor of tile or wood runs across it.

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 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.¹⁸ Have suspect materials tested while the house is still intact, not after the crew has started pulling it apart.

Austin's HOME Phase 1 code changes allow up to three housing units, including tiny homes, on a property zoned SF-1, SF-2 or SF-3, and remove restrictions on the number of unrelated adults living in a housing unit.¹⁹ Austin's City Council adopted HOME Phase 1 on December 7, 2023, and the city began accepting applications under it on February 5, 2024; Phase 2 was adopted on May 16, 2024.¹⁹

Under Austin's Preservation Bonus, preserved portions of existing structures on a duplex, two-unit or three-unit site may be exempt from gross floor area and floor-to-area ratio limits.¹⁹ On an older house, that can make it worth asking whether renovating what is there and building a small unit behind it fits the lot better than starting over. The HOME Phase 1 rules apply only to duplex, two-unit and three-unit residential uses; a single-family residential use in Austin is still reviewed under the existing regulations, including Subchapter F.¹⁹

Under HOME, duplex, two-unit and three-unit residential uses in Austin are limited to 40 percent building coverage and 45 percent impervious cover, with garages and carports counting toward impervious cover.¹⁹ Austin says some properties have deed restrictions or restrictive covenants that may affect a project, and that verifying them is the applicant's responsibility.²⁰

Austin requires a historic review for structures 45 years old or older whose exterior is being demolished or modified, and for properties zoned as historic landmarks, in locally designated historic districts or in a National Register historic district.¹² Austin requires historic review for a historic landmark, or a contributing property in a local or National Register historic district, before exterior alterations or additions, permanent site work, sign installation or stand-alone new construction.²¹

In Austin, routine maintenance and in-kind repairs do not require historic review.²¹ Most smaller historic review projects in Austin can be approved by staff within five business days; larger ones go to the Historic Landmark Commission, which meets once a month.²¹ If the plan changes the front of the house or adds a second story, leave a commission month in the schedule.

Texas limits how much a homestead's appraised value can rise in a year to 10 percent over the prior year's value, but the market value of new improvements is added on top of that limit; repairs and ordinary maintenance don't count as new improvements.²² In Travis County, a new unit or extra square footage is new value of exactly that kind, while fixing what is already there isn't. With Austin values where they are, call the Travis Central Appraisal District about the plan before you sign.

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 The EPA advises keeping occupants, especially children, away from the work area during a remodel and cleaning up the site before they return.¹⁷

Camp Mabry averages 29 days²³ a year at a hundred degrees or hotter. Ask for a schedule that keeps the cooling, the kitchen sink and one bathroom running until the new ones pass inspection, or budget for a few weeks somewhere else during demolition.

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.²⁴ A whole-house job is the cheapest moment to add blocking for grab bars, widen one bathroom door and set a curbless shower into the slab. In Austin, building a new dwelling unit with habitable space on the first floor must also comply with the city's Visitability Ordinance.¹² So a new unit built under HOME arrives with some of that already in place. NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.²⁵

The number on this page reaches one independent company that handles whole-home remodels in the Austin area, on a recorded line. Scope, sequence and price are worked out directly between the two of you.

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Ask who will pull each permit and look them up. The City of Austin requires trade contractors, general contractors and homeowners acting as contractors to register with its Building and Trade Contractor Services before work starts on a building or trade permit, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors also need a license from the state board for their trade.¹³ On a Texas residential construction job, the original contractor must give the owner a written disclosure statement before the owner signs the contract.²⁶ Before construction starts on a Texas home, the original contractor must give the owner a written list of the subcontractors and suppliers it plans to use, and an updated list within 15 days of any change, unless the owner waives the list in writing.²⁶ Check a Texas license