Home remodelingin Cicero, IN
Bathrooms, kitchens and basements in Cicero. We are a 30-minute drive away in Fishers, we pull the permit through the Town of Cicero, or the Hamilton County Plan Commission, and the crew that walks your house is the crew that builds the job.
We have been opening walls in Hamilton County since 2012
Cicero is a small town wrapped around the south end of Morse Reservoir. The lake frontage is seasonal cottages that were converted to year-round houses over decades, and the town itself is older, modest stock. The conversions are where the interesting work is.
- Former summer cottages winterised in stages, with insulation and heating that stop at whichever wall the last owner reached
- Lakeside houses built into a slope, giving genuine walkout lower levels with reservoir-facing glazing
- Older town houses with small original bathrooms and no second one, on lots with room to expand outward if the budget allows
What each of them means in Cicero
Bathroom remodeling in Cicero
Two kinds of bathroom come up in Cicero, and they fail differently. The first is in a cottage that was winterized a room at a time. That plumbing was originally built to be drained every fall, so supply lines still run through exterior walls or a vented crawl, with stop valves behind panels nobody can reach. When the wall is open we move those lines into interior partitions and put the shutoffs somewhere a person can turn them. It adds a line to the estimate and takes a burst pipe out of the house's future. The second is in a pre-1940 house in town: one bathroom, upstairs, carved out of a bedroom long after the house was built. Plaster and lath, a cast-iron stack boxed into a chase, and joists notched by whoever ran the drain. We open the ceiling below and look at that framing before we write the estimate, not after. Both raise the same two questions. If the house is on a well, iron and hardness mark new fixtures, glass and light grout, so where the softener and filter sit and how they discharge belongs in the plan. If it drains to septic, adding a bathroom is a Hamilton County Health Department review before it is a plumbing job. Lake houses also sit shut for weeks at a time. A humidistat does more here than a bigger fan does.
Kitchen remodeling in Cicero
A Cicero kitchen starts at the panel. The winterized lake houses and the older houses in town both came up on small services that were extended a circuit at a time, so we open the panel before anyone talks about door styles. Small-appliance circuits at the counters, GFCI protection on the countertop receptacles and a dedicated circuit for the range are not negotiable, and the dishwasher and disposal want their own. Sometimes the service carries it. Sometimes a service upgrade is the first line on the estimate. Fuel is the second question. Off the gas main, houses out here run on propane, and a range has to be converted with the LP orifice kit and a regulator set for that pressure. If the tank sits where nobody wants to look at it, induction is worth a conversation, though that is a 240-volt circuit and it sends you back to the panel. The third is the view. Owners want the sink turned toward the water, which moves the drain and the vent into the wall that faces the weather. Where the plan allows we keep waste lines inboard. Where it does not, the pipe stays on the warm side and the cavity insulation goes behind it, tight to the sheathing. A second home also sits unconditioned between visits, and Indiana summers are humid. We set reveals and expansion gaps for a house nobody holds at seventy year round.
Basement finishing in Cicero
Cicero has three kinds of lower level, and only one behaves like a Fishers basement. The walkouts cut into the reservoir slope are the straightforward ones: daylight, a door at grade, and ground that already falls away. That door covers the basement's escape opening, though a bedroom down there still needs its own. The uphill wall is different, fully below grade against clay, so that is the wall we read first — the cove joint, efflorescence, and what the downspout at that corner does in a hard rain. Under the older converted cottages there is often no basement at all, just a shallow crawl with a dirt floor and plumbing run through it. Sealing the ground, closing the vents and conditioning that space is worth doing even when nothing above is changing: it is where the moisture and the radon path both are. The pre-1940 houses in town have small stone or block cellars with beams low enough to answer the question themselves: mechanical room, not media room. Two things follow the utilities. On septic, a below-grade bathroom needs an ejector pit, and the health department has to agree the field can take the load. On a well, the pressure tank, softener and iron filter need somewhere to discharge and room to be serviced, so we plan a mechanical room around them instead of a hatch behind drywall. Hamilton County is EPA Radon Zone 1. Test before you frame.
Well water, clay, and a lot that falls to the reservoir
Two things change the work at a Cicero address. Utilities: plenty of houses out here draw from a private well and drain to a septic field, which turns an added bathroom into a health department question before it is a plumbing one. Ground: heavy clay on a slope that runs to the water, and a thirty to thirty-six inch frost line under anything new. And the address, not the town name, decides who issues the permit.
Well and septic country
Outside the town limits many houses run on a private well and a septic field. Systems are sized by bedroom count, so a basement bedroom or a third bathroom becomes a Hamilton County Health Department question. We raise it before anything gets drawn.
Radon Zone 1
Hamilton County sits in EPA Radon Zone 1, where roughly one house in three tests at or above the action level of 4 pCi/L. It matters most when a lower level or a crawl becomes living space. Worth testing before you finish, not after.
Downspouts and the bank
Clay holds water against a foundation, and freeze-thaw moves it season to season. On a lot that falls toward the reservoir, roof water dumped at the corner also cuts a channel down the bank. Piped discharge that daylights below the house handles both.
Getting to the house
Some lake lanes are narrow, and on the steep lots the drive sits above the house. Cabinets, drywall and tile come down a stair by hand, and the dumpster has to go where it does not block a neighbor. We settle that at the walkthrough.
We pull the permit. You do not chase the Town of Cicero, or the Hamilton County Plan Commission.
Inside the town limits Cicero issues its own permits; on the Morse Reservoir shoreline outside them it is the Hamilton County Plan Commission's building inspection division in Noblesville, applying through the county's EZ-Trak system.
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.
Cicero and the surrounding area
- Morse Reservoir
- Downtown Cicero
- Red Bridge
- Bear Slide
- Christian Park
We are based in Fishers, about 30 minutes from Cicero. 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 Cicero homeowners ask us
My lake house was a cottage originally. Is that a problem?
Not a problem, but it is the reason we open a wall before quoting. Staged conversions leave uninsulated bays, undersized headers and mixed wiring vintages. Finding that on day one is much cheaper than finding it in week three.
Who permits a house on the reservoir?
The town if the address is inside Cicero's limits, and the Hamilton County Plan Commission if it is not. Much of the shoreline is outside. We confirm from the address rather than assuming.
Can a lakeside lower level be finished properly?
Often very well — these are true walkouts with real daylight rather than below-grade rooms. Water still gets checked first. Proximity to the reservoir makes that more important, not less.
Do I need Health Department approval to add a bathroom to our Cicero septic system?
If the house is on septic, plan on a review. Systems are sized by bedroom count and rated flow, so adding fixtures, or turning a basement room into a bedroom, can put you past what the field was permitted for. That sits with the Hamilton County Health Department, separate from the building permit. We raise it at the walkthrough, because it decides the plan rather than the finishes.
Our Cicero house is on a well. Will the water wreck a new bathroom?
Wreck it, no. Mark it, yes. Iron and hardness leave orange staining and scale on new fixtures, glass and light grout, and no sealer holds that off for long. The fix is upstream: softening and iron filtration ahead of the fixtures, with somewhere to discharge the backwash. We settle where that equipment lives while the walls are still open.
Can you remodel a Morse Reservoir lake house we only use in the summer?
Yes, and the off-season is usually the easier run. Two things get settled first: the house stays heated with the water on while we are working in it, and someone can reach us for decisions without driving up. We sweep the site at the end of every day, which matters more in a house nobody is checking on.
How do you get materials to a Cicero lake house where the driveway sits above the house?
By hand, mostly, and it gets planned before it becomes a surprise. We walk the approach during the estimate: where the truck sits, where the dumpster goes without blocking a lane, what comes down the stair in pieces, and what gets protected on the way through. On a tight lot that changes the sequence more than it changes the work.
Is the crawlspace under our converted Cicero cottage worth doing anything about?
Usually. A dirt-floor crawl feeds moisture into the floor above it, and in Radon Zone 1 it is also an open path into the house. A sealed liner over the ground, closed vents and conditioned air change how that floor feels in January. It also gets plumbing out of an unheated void, which is where the winter failures start.
Do we need a permit for a deck at our Cicero lake house?
For a deck attached to the house, yes, and on a bank it is not a small one. Footings bear below frost, roughly thirty to thirty-six inches here, and a slope usually means stepped footings, taller posts and different bracing. Work at the water itself, a dock or a seawall, goes through the reservoir's owner rather than the town. We confirm both before drawing.
Four steps, from the first call to the last walkthrough in Cicero
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 Cicero 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.