Whole-home remodeling in Richmond

Whole-house projects in the city tend to land in houses that have already been through generations of piecemeal updates. Richmond's Fan Area Historic District, nearly a hundred city blocks of turn-of-the-20th-century town houses with more than two thousand buildings, is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register.¹⁰ Behind the plaster in a house like that you can find wiring, gas piping and drains from several different eras, and the plan has to decide which of them stay.

Unless a lead-based paint inspection shows otherwise, the EPA says to treat paint in homes built before 1978 as if it contains lead.¹¹ EPA's lead renovation rule requires anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 to be lead-safe certified, and the EPA says about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint.¹² When demolition moves from room to room for weeks, lead-safe dust control becomes a daily routine on the job rather than a single step.

Where new loads will bear on an existing foundation, Richmond asks for a sealed engineer's letter or report confirming the foundation can carry them.⁹ That comes up when a renovation adds an upstairs bathroom, a heavy tile floor, or a beam where a bearing wall used to stand. Richmond does not require residential plans to be prepared by a registered design professional; the applicant, owner or contractor may draw them, but structural elements that fall outside the Virginia Residential Code's limits need sealed engineering documents.⁹

The National Park Service recommends running new pipes, ducts and wiring as inconspicuously as possible, through secondary spaces, closets, the attic or the basement, so character-defining rooms and finishes aren't destroyed.¹³ In a rowhouse that keeps its mantels and stair, ask where the new risers and duct runs will go before the drawings are final.

Richmond's Commission of Architectural Review, set up by City Council in 1957, reviews all exterior changes to structures in the city's Old and Historic Districts and bases its decisions on the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and the city's Old and Historic Districts design guidelines.¹⁴ Richmond's City Old and Historic Districts include Church Hill North, Union Hill, Jackson Ward, Monument Avenue, West Franklin Street, West Grace Street and Shockoe Valley, among others.¹⁴ The commission looks at exterior changes, and a whole-house job often reaches the outside: new windows, a rear addition, a moved door or a condenser in view of the street.

The Commission of Architectural Review's secretary can approve some projects on staff review, such as painting, replacement doors and porch decking, new handrails and porch rails, porch roof replacements and exterior storm windows and doors, and applications approved by staff carry no fee.¹⁴ The Commission of Architectural Review meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month, the third in December, and applications are due weeks ahead; for its November 24, 2026 meeting the deadline is October 30.¹⁴ Simple items may clear on staff review, while anything that needs the full commission belongs at the front of the schedule.

Virginia's state historic rehabilitation tax credit, open to owner-occupied homes, equals 25% of eligible rehabilitation expenses for a certified historic structure, such as a contributing building in a listed historic district, if the whole project meets the Secretary of the Interior's Standards.¹⁵ Virginia's Department of Historic Resources lists new plumbing systems and updating kitchens and bathrooms among eligible expenses, while appliances and additions are not.¹⁵

For an owner-occupied home, Virginia's state historic tax credit counts only if eligible rehabilitation spending reaches at least 25% of the building's assessed value within a consecutive 24-month period, or 60 months for a phased project.¹⁵ Virginia's historic tax credit runs on a three-part application, with Part 1 certifying the building as historic, Part 2 reviewing the proposed work and Part 3 reviewing the finished work; the state program's application deadline is one year after the project's completion date.¹⁵ A gut renovation of a contributing house can clear that spending bar by itself, so confirm the listing and contact the department before demolition, while the review of proposed work can still shape the plan.

In a city house with one stair, the crew and the family share the only route to the upper floors, which makes a clean line between work zone and living space hard to hold. 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.¹¹ For the demolition stretch, that often means staying somewhere else for a while.

Once permits are open, the inspector looks past the rooms you renovated. 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.¹⁶ At the final inspection, Richmond's building inspector checks smoke detectors, handrails, guardrails, required egress and access to the attic and concealed spaces.⁹

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.¹⁷ A whole-house renovation is an easier time than any other to add blocking for future grab bars, widen a doorway or put a full bath on the first floor, because the walls are already open. NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.¹⁸

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