Adding or removing walls and framing in Lititz, PA
Adding or removing a wall in Lititz is quoted as a project after a walk-through — a written estimate you sign online, not an hourly rate.
New walls, walls taken out, doorways added or closed up, closets built, rooms split or joined — the framing and drywall that changes how a house is laid out.
What it costs
Quoted as a project. We set up a walk-through, and you get a written estimate with the work broken out by piece, which you sign online. Nothing starts before that, and if something changes you get a change order with a price before it happens.
Hourly handyman work is on the rate sheet; this isn't that.
What's included
- A walk-through to figure out what the wall is doing before anybody touches it, then a written estimate you sign online
- Framing, headers and beams where a wall carries load, drywall, trim, doors and paint, so it looks like it was always that way
- Rerouting the wires, switches and outlets that were in the wall, with a licensed electrician where it needs one
- Matching the floor and the ceiling where the old wall was
What's not
- Taking out a load-bearing wall on a hunch. If it's carrying something, it gets a proper beam and the engineering to back it up, and that's in the price
What to have ready
- What you're trying to get: an open kitchen, a home office, a bigger closet, a bedroom split in two
- A rough sketch, even on a napkin. It helps more than you'd think
Where I do this work
Lititz, PA and anywhere within about an hour of it — Lancaster County and the towns around it.
Lititz, Manheim, Ephrata, Lancaster, Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Denver, Akron.
Questions people ask
- How do I know if a wall is load-bearing?
- You usually can't tell from the room. It depends on what's above it and how the floor joists run. I check from the basement and the attic, and when it's carrying weight it gets a beam sized for it.
- Can you open up my kitchen to the living room?
- That's the most common one I get asked about, and yes. The question is what's in the wall and what it's holding, and the walk-through answers both.
- Will there be a seam where the wall was?
- Not when it's done right. The floor gets patched or feathered, the ceiling gets taped and finished across, and the paint goes corner to corner.
- Do I need a permit to add a wall?
- For a non-bearing partition, often not. For anything structural, yes. We find out from your township before we start.
How the job goes
A lot of older houses have a wall in the wrong place: the kitchen boxed off from the room where everybody actually sits, a huge bedroom and no office, a hallway nobody needs. Moving a wall is a lot cheaper than moving, and it’s work I do a lot.
The first job is finding out what the wall is doing. Some walls just divide rooms. Some are holding up the floor above, and some are full of pipes, ducts and wires. I check from the basement and the attic, not from the room, and the estimate is written for what’s there.
New walls get framed, drywalled, trimmed and painted so they match the rest of the house. Walls coming out get a properly sized beam when they’re carrying load, with the engineering to back it up, and the floor and ceiling get patched across so there’s no ghost of where it stood. Wiring gets rerouted, with a licensed electrician for the parts that need one. You sign a written estimate first, you hear about anything unexpected the day I find it, and you end up with the house laid out the way you wanted it.