Home remodelingin Broad Ripple, Indianapolis
Bathrooms, kitchens and basements in Broad Ripple. We are a 20-minute drive away in Fishers, we pull the permit through the Marion County Department of Business and Neighborhood Services, and the crew that walks your house is the crew that builds the job.
We have been opening walls in Marion County since 2012
Broad Ripple sits about six miles north of downtown between the Monon Trail and the Central Canal, and its houses are mostly 1910s to 1930s bungalows and foursquares on narrow lots. They were built well and they were built small, which sets the whole remodeling agenda: the work is almost always about making the existing footprint usable rather than adding to it.
- Bungalow floor plans with one bathroom serving three bedrooms, where the practical answer is a second bath carved from a closet and a hall
- Original hardwood under two or three later floor coverings, usually worth uncovering rather than replacing
- Narrow lots and alley access, so material staging and daily clean-up have to be planned rather than assumed
What each of them means in Broad Ripple
Bathroom remodeling in Broad Ripple
The original bathroom in a Broad Ripple bungalow is usually about five feet by seven, on the main floor, backing onto the kitchen so both share one wet wall. When we open that wall we expect galvanized supply lines narrowed by a century of scale, a cast-iron waste stack, and often a drum trap or an S-trap under the tub. Neither trap is permitted now, so a P-trap and a proper vent go in while the wall is open. The cast-iron tub leaves in pieces; it will not turn through a thirty-inch door. Moving the toilet is the decision that costs money, because a three-inch closet bend cannot be notched into a nineteen-twenties joist; the framing gets headed or sistered first, and that is carpentry, not plumbing. In a dormered half-story, where the second bath usually goes, the roof slope sets the plan: a shower needs six feet eight inches of clear height over a thirty-by-thirty-inch area at the showerhead, and that decides where it can sit before anything else does. In a room this size the fixture clearances decide the rest: fifteen inches from the toilet centerline to anything on either side, twenty-one inches clear in front. Because Broad Ripple is not under historic review, venting a new fan or cutting a new window through the exterior wall is a decision you make, not one you apply for.
Kitchen remodeling in Broad Ripple
Kitchens in these houses were built as work rooms at the back: ten by ten or smaller, with a door to the rear porch, the basement stair landing eating a corner, and a chimney chase standing where a run of cabinets wants to go. The chimney is the first thing we settle. If the furnace or water heater still vents into it, it stays and the plan works around it — and if a high-efficiency furnace has already left the water heater orphaned in an oversized flue, that flue needs a properly sized liner whatever the cabinets do. If nothing uses it, taking it down below the roof line is real work with a roof patch attached, and it belongs on the estimate rather than in a conversation halfway through the job. The wall between kitchen and dining room is next. Whether it carries load is answered in the basement, by which way the joists run over the girder, not by how the rooms look from above; we go down and look before anyone is told a wall can come out. Then the panel. A kitchen wants two twenty-amp small-appliance circuits, dedicated circuits for the dishwasher and disposal, GFCI protection at the counter, and receptacles placed so no point along the counter is more than two feet from one. Where the enclosed back porch is sound, it is usually where the extra counter run comes from.
Basement finishing in Broad Ripple
Basements here are shallow. Under a nineteen-twenties bungalow we usually measure between six and a half and seven feet from slab to joist, and seven feet is the minimum for habitable space, with beams and ducts allowed down to six feet four. That one measurement decides the project, so we take it at the walkthrough and say plainly when it comes up short. Lowering a floor means underpinning the foundation, and we do not take that on. What we will do is lay out laundry, storage and mechanical space that works in the height the house actually has; those uses are held to six feet eight rather than seven. Where the height is there, water is the next question. Many of these houses were built with no perimeter drain and still discharge their downspouts at the wall, and the ground toward the canal and the river sits low, so grading, roof drainage and the slab get looked at before a stud goes up. Radon testing comes first as well — Marion County is zone one. Egress is the last thing to settle and often the hardest: any basement with habitable space needs an emergency escape opening, not only a bedroom, and a code-sized window well projects thirty-six inches out from the foundation. On a lot with a few feet of side yard, where that well can physically go has to be answered before it can be priced.
Conditions we plan around in Broad Ripple
Our shop is in Fishers and we drive down, about twenty minutes each way. That is why Broad Ripple work is booked in full days rather than half days, and why we settle measurements and material decisions in one walkthrough instead of three visits. Four conditions shape most jobs here: how low the ground sits, what the soil does, what is under the slab, and what the back porch is standing on.
Low ground near the water
Warfleigh, Canal Court and the streets closest to the White River and the canal sit low. Before we plan a finished lower level we look the address up on the FEMA flood map, because a mapped flood zone changes what belongs down there and what a buyer's lender asks later.
Radon before drywall
Marion County is EPA radon zone one, where roughly one home in three tests at or above the four picocuries per liter action level. A short-term test takes a few days and answers the question before framing starts; the mitigation pipe is easier to run while the walls are open.
Clay soil and frost depth
The soil under these lots is heavy expansive clay and frost depth runs roughly thirty to thirty-six inches. Anything new bearing on the ground — a deck footing, a rebuilt porch pier, a new stoop — goes below that line. Clay holds water against a foundation, which is why grading comes first.
The enclosed back porch
Many of these houses gained a room when the back porch was enclosed, often decades ago and sometimes without a permit. Before that room is finished we look at what it sits on: porch piers and a thin slab were not built to carry insulated walls and a heated floor.
We pull the permit. You do not chase the Marion County Department of Business and Neighborhood Services.
Permits inside Marion County go through the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services at 200 E Washington Street, and residential review typically runs ten to fifteen business days — longer than any of the Hamilton County offices. DBNS also requires the applicant to be either a licensed Marion County contractor or the property owner.
All of it is built to the 2020 Indiana Residential Code — the 2018 International Residential Code plus the 2020 Indiana amendments, and we meet the inspector on site rather than leaving you to.
Broad Ripple and around it
- Broad Ripple Village
- SoBro
- Warfleigh
- Canal Court
- Rocky Ripple
We are based in Fishers, about 20 minutes from Broad Ripple. That is a drive we make constantly and there is no travel charge — what distance changes is scheduling, not price. We block work in one area into continuous runs rather than splitting a crew across the metro in a day.
What Broad Ripple homeowners ask us
Can you add a second bathroom to a Broad Ripple bungalow?
It is the most common request we get here. The usual candidates are a rear bedroom closet or the space at the top of the stairs, and keeping the new bath stacked near the existing wet wall is what keeps it affordable.
Is the original hardwood worth saving?
Almost always in houses of this age. Under carpet or vinyl there is usually quarter-sawn oak with plenty of thickness left to sand. We check before quoting a new floor, because refinishing is normally the cheaper and better result.
How do you work on a lot with no driveway?
By planning it. Alley access, a dumpster placement agreed with the neighbours, and the site swept at the end of every day. On lots this tight that is not courtesy, it is the only way the job runs on schedule.
Are you based in Broad Ripple?
No. Our shop is in Fishers and we drive down, about twenty minutes. We say so plainly because it is easy to check. What it changes is scheduling: Broad Ripple work goes in the calendar as full days, so the crew is on the same job from morning to clean-up rather than splitting a day across two sides of the county. The person who quotes your job is the one running it.
Is Broad Ripple a historic district?
Not a locally designated one. The Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission oversees thirteen historic districts and five conservation areas; Broad Ripple is not among them, though Herron-Morton Place and the Old Northside to the south are. No Certificate of Appropriateness stands between you and a new window or a range hood vented through the back wall. Zoning still governs setbacks, and permits run through DBNS countywide, Washington Township included.
My house has a 100-amp panel. Do I need to upgrade it for a new kitchen?
Sometimes, and it is as much a question of spare breaker spaces as of amps. A kitchen needs two twenty-amp small-appliance circuits plus dedicated circuits for the dishwasher and disposal, and in houses this age the panel is often already full. We count the spaces at the walkthrough and run the load calculation. Whether the answer is a subpanel, a service upgrade or neither, it appears on the estimate as its own line.
My basement ceiling is under seven feet. Can it still be finished?
Not as habitable living space. Seven feet from floor to ceiling is the minimum there, and beams, girders and ducts may drop to six feet four inches. Plenty of nineteen-twenties basements here measure short of that, so we take the tape to it at the walkthrough before you are invested in the idea. Storage, laundry and mechanical space are held to a lower minimum — six feet eight inches — which is often the honest use for the space.
We are a few streets from the canal. Does that change a basement project?
It can. Ground near the canal and the White River sits low, the water table is closer to the slab, and these houses were built before perimeter drains were standard. We look at grading, downspout discharge and the slab itself, and we check the address on the FEMA flood map. Where water is getting in, that work is its own line on the estimate and it happens before anything is framed over it.
Four steps, from the first call to the last walkthrough in Broad Ripple
Call or send the form
Tell us the room and roughly what you want done. We answer our own phone.
Walkthrough & estimate
We measure on site and send a detailed, transparent estimate — materials and labor itemized.
Build
Our own crew, code-compliant work, the site swept at the end of every day.
Final walkthrough
We go through the finished room with you and clear the punch list before we invoice.
What Broad Ripple homeowners are actually choosing between
The person who quotes it runs it
The same crew that walked your house builds the job. You are not handed to a project manager who was not there.
Seven trades in-house
Tile, carpentry, flooring, trim, fireplaces, decks and finish work. One point of contact instead of a general contractor and five subs.
An itemized written estimate
Materials and labor, line by line, before anyone picks up a tool. You know the price at step two of four.
We answer our own phone
Call 317-427-8162 and you get the company, not a call centre. Working across Central Indiana since 2012.