Renovate or Raze?
When is a house not worth remodeling?
The homeowner ultimately decides.
By Debi Boucher Stetson
With the number of buildable lots dwindling on Cape Cod, it’s not uncommon these days to see people buying already-developed lots for the location, the view and the land itself, rather than the building that’s on it. If the house doesn’t suit, the mentality seems to be, they can tear it down and start over.
Although “tear-down” has become an accepted part of real estate lexicon, builders say the decision to go in that direction is never made quickly or cavalierly. Some buyers–and some builders–try very hard to avoid the tear-down scenario and instead work with what’s there. But in many cases, that’s not feasible.
“Sometimes you can’t do much but tear it down,” says Rob Padgett, owner of Padgett Builders in Cotuit and president of the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Cape Cod. In some cases, a house is in such bad shape that it’s past renovating. In other cases, the scope of the renovation is too great for the foundation to bear. “For the most part, foundations are built for the house that’s on them,” Padgett points out.
Because every project is different, there are no hard and fast rules on whether to renovate or raze, Padgett says. “It really depends on a lot of variables,” he says, citing cost as the first.
When it comes to cost, it’s often more to renovate than start over, he says. “Generally, if you try to rehab, it’s going to cost $50 a square foot more to do it that way,” he estimates.
In the case of a tear-down, the demolition part is not costly, Padgett says. “Absent any asbestos or lead issues, it’s actually pretty cheap to take a house down,” he says, noting a medium-size house can be taken down in two days.
Other variables, he says, are “the condition of the structure and its age,” and zoning and building regulations, which vary from town to town. If a builder determines that a very old house, particularly one in a historic district, cannot or should not be saved, the local historic district commission often becomes involved.
Most towns have limits on how large additions can be, and there are bylaws that govern how much of a lot can be developed–usually 20 percent. At the same time, building codes are much more stringent than they once were, and that also comes into play in deciding whether to renovate or start over.
Engineer and builder Todd LaBarge of LaBarge Homes in West Harwich notes that many houses in decades past were built on block foundations and no footing–which is not acceptable for today’s building codes. “Also, anytime you want to go up, a lot of the foundations won’t hold an additional floor,” LaBarge notes.
In most cases, he says, the goal of renovating or rebuilding is to gain a larger house. Put in that perspective, the answer to the “raze or renovate” question hinges on how best to accomplish that goal.
“A lot of times it depends upon how independent the addition can be,” LaBarge says, explaining that often, an addition will have its own heating and plumbing systems. “If the tie-in is minimal, you’re going to have minimal costs. For instance, we just did one, a 16- by 24-foot addition. We did a dome foundation, removed an external wall of the old house and replaced it with a steel beam.”
On the other hand, there are cases where an addition just won’t blend. “One job in Harwich Port,” LaBarge recalls, “we struggled for two years trying to come up with a plan to add on. Even though the house was in good shape structurally, it had very low ceilings, so we had to rebuild. From the outside, the addition would have dwarfed the small house, and there was no way to blend the roofline so it looked natural. So after looking at all the options, we decided it was a tear-down.”
Looking at all the options is always key, he says. “It’s ultimately your client’s decision. We want to give them as much information as we can so they can make a good decision.”
Sometimes, the owners have already made up their mind. LaBarge says it’s not uncommon on the Cape these days for people to purchase a house just for the land. “We’re just finishing a project in Harwich Port where the owners never even lived in it,” he says. “They liked the location. They weren’t going to be able to get another property like that. That happens quite a lot.”
LaBarge doesn’t see anything wrong with that. “We live in a pretty special place, and especially some of the houses on or near the water, it’s a pretty significant spot, so you want a significant house,” he says.
ANOTHER VIEW
Other builders, however, don’t like the idea of buying a house just to take it down.
“I’m pro remodel versus tear-down, especially if it’s historical or it’s in an area where putting something new isn’t going to fit in,” says Chuck Rose a Bourne-based builder and a member of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. “I’m not fond of tearing down a cottage that’s in good shape.”
Big houses replacing small cottages is “a problem for everybody on the Cape,” Rose says, adding, “It’s not just here; it’s everywhere. We vacation on Mount Desert Island in Maine, and it happens all the time up there.”
Asked if he sees a lot of cases in which people buy a house just for the lot, Rose replies, “I would say 90 percent of the time that’s what people are doing. In some cases there’s nothing wrong with the house.”
Rose doesn’t accept the idea that most houses are not worth rehabbing. “I think that’s an easy excuse,” he says. “It’s much easier to start with a fresh foundation. A lot of builders don’t know how to remodel. That’s the trick: You have to know how to add to it and make it look the same.”
His firm has remodeled homes of all ages, from an 1850s house in Pocasset, which wound up needing a new foundation, to a 1950s house transformed into a classic Cape. “If you looked at it now, you’d think it was new,” he says.
Older houses have some advantages that can be preserved by remodeling, he says. For one thing, “The wood in old houses is a lot better than any you’ll find today. Lumber today is from fast-growth trees. It’s more porous,” he explains.
Perhaps because he does a lot of remodeling, Rose’s clients tend to be people who would rather remodel than raze. “I find a lot of customers like the integrity of the old places,” he says. “There’s a time and a place for a tear-down, [but] I don’t think it should be right out of the gate.”
Architect Andrew Miao of Architectural Design Incorporated in Orleans also favors remodeling whenever possible. And when it is not feasible, he tries to find ways of salvaging, recycling or reusing either the building materials from the house or the house itself.
“If the materials of a house are in good shape, you can have builders take it apart for reuse,” he says, noting such “deconstruction” fits into the notion of “green” building. “If the house is not appropriate for their needs, we encourage them to donate it.”
Like other professionals, Miao says the decision about whether to save a building or start over must be highly individualized, as every case is different. When old cottages are involved, he says,
sometimes they were built well, and sometimes not. Most cottages were never intended for year-round use, so renovating them can be a huge undertaking. And often, the years have taken their toll.
“You can tell if a house has been taken care of. Even so, there might be hidden things you might not be aware of,” he notes.
While architects and builders have their opinions about the best way to proceed on any given property, it always comes back to the homeowner, who ultimately decides. “We really have to serve the needs of our clients, basically spelling out for them what the costs are, the time frame–it all comes into play,” Miao says. One couple, he notes, started out wanting to renovate but changed their minds and wound up wanting to tear down and start over.
As Rob Padgett puts it, “You let them have the options, you tell them everything they can do, and it’s their decision.” If they choose the option that’s going to be a lot harder for the builder, he says, “then I charge a whole lot more money.”
While tear-downs have become more common of late, the notion that they happen automatically is mistaken, according to Todd LaBarge. No matter how many times it’s done, he says, “I don’t think it’s ever a quick and dirty decision.”
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