Home remodelingin Geist, IN
Bathrooms, kitchens and basements in Geist. We are a 10-minute drive away in Fishers, we pull the permit through the City of Fishers, McCordsville, or Marion County, and the crew that walks your house is the crew that builds the job.
We have been opening walls in Hamilton and Marion Counties since 2012
Geist is custom and semi-custom housing from the late eighties through the 2000s, built on grade that falls to the water. The walkout basement is the defining feature and the defining opportunity — it is the one part of these houses that was most often left unfinished.
- Walkout and daylight basements with real windows, which finish out better than any below-grade space in the county
- Two-storey great rooms where sound carries, so basement and bonus-room finishes need real insulation rather than a nominal batt
- Original nineties primary bathrooms built around a corner garden tub that nobody in the house has used in a decade
What each of them means in Geist
Bathroom remodeling in Geist
The nineties Geist primary bath is a big room with one dead corner, and what decides the job is inside the tub platform: the deck-mounted valve and its supply lines, an overflow and trap sitting on bare subfloor, and a drain run at whatever angle reached the nearest joist bay. None of it is visible until the deck comes off, so we plan for the drain not being where the drawing says. Where the primary bath is on the main floor, common in the ranch and story-and-a-half plans along the water, it sits over an unfinished lower level. A drain can be moved or a linear drain set from the open ceiling below instead of by cutting into a finished room. In the two-story plans the same move means opening a first-floor ceiling, and we say so at the walkthrough. The secondary baths are usually compartmented, a vanity alcove with a door through to the toilet and tub. That dividing wall is normally a partition, but we check what is bearing above before promising a layout. Two recurring items. Vanities are thirty to thirty-one inches tall, and raising one moves the mirror, the lighting and the backsplash with it. And a jetted corner tub that stays needs its motor accessible and GFCI-protected when the room goes back together, which decides where the access panel lands in the new tile skirt.
Kitchen remodeling in Geist
Geist kitchens came out of the same fifteen years and share a plan. A large island with a raised bar along one side, a built-in desk near where the phone jack was, and cherry or oak doors on face-frame boxes that are usually better built than the doors suggest. At the late-eighties end of the stock the wall cabinets stop at a dropped soffit; at the 2000s end they run forty-two inches to crown. Which one you have decides whether opening up that wall is a cabinet job or a ceiling job. Appliances complicate these kitchens for reasons that have nothing to do with the appliance. A twenty-seven-inch wall oven opening will not take a thirty-inch oven, so the cabinet gets rebuilt around it. And a lot of Geist islands were built with a downdraft cooktop. Replacing one with an overhead hood means finding a duct route up through a second floor or a vaulted ceiling, and there is not always one. The walkout is the consolation: the downdraft duct is usually visible in the unfinished ceiling below, so we can see the route that exists before anyone commits to a layout. If the cabinets are staying, oak grain telegraphs through paint. A flat finish on oak takes grain filler and more coats than maple does. We look at what the boxes and the doors actually are before saying repaint.
Basement finishing in Geist
The lower level is what most Geist calls are about, and it is not a basement in the ordinary sense. One wall is framed above grade with windows and a door. The other three are poured concrete with soil against them. That is two different assemblies in one room, and they do not get the same treatment. The framed wall is insulated and air-sealed like any other exterior wall. The concrete walls take foam against the concrete rather than a batt in a stud cavity, so humid Indiana summer air never reaches a cold surface to condense on. Getting that wrong stays invisible for a year or two. The water that reaches those walls comes off the high side of the lot, not out of the reservoir. Before anything is framed we walk the uphill grade, the downspout discharges and where the sump line lets go, because that is what explains a wet lower level here. Then two points specific to this shoreline. Both counties sit in Radon Zone 1, and the walkout door does not change the entry path, so test before you finish. And while that door serves as the escape opening for the lower level itself, every sleeping room in the plan still needs an opening of its own, either a window sized for escape or a door of its own to the outside.
Ground that falls to the water
Not every Geist house is on the water, but the ground still falls that way, and so does the runoff off the lot above yours. The soil is heavy clay. Three permit offices ring one shoreline, the school district tells you nothing about which one you are in, and every subdivision was platted with its own covenants. Here the address decides more than the room does.
Radon, walkout or not
Hamilton and Marion Counties are both EPA Radon Zone 1, the highest of three zones, where roughly one home in three tests at or above the four picocurie action level. A lower level with a door to the yard still sits on soil. Test before you finish it.
Downspouts before drywall
Clay holds water against a foundation and freeze-thaw moves it every winter. On a lot that falls toward the reservoir, the grade uphill of you and where your downspouts and sump line let go explain most wet lower levels. All three are corrected from outside.
Footings below frost
Central Indiana frost depth runs roughly thirty to thirty-six inches, so a deck, pergola or addition bears below it. On ground that drops toward the water, the piers on the low side get long, and the footing layout is set off the finished grade, not the one you have.
Access from the street
The water side is not a working side. Material comes in from the street, through the garage or the lower-level door, and on the tighter lots there is nowhere to put a dumpster except the driveway you park in. We plan the staging before demolition, not after.
We pull the permit. You do not chase the City of Fishers, McCordsville, or Marion County.
Geist is a reservoir community, not a municipality, and the shoreline crosses three jurisdictions. Depending on which side of the water a house sits on, the permit comes from the City of Fishers, the Town of McCordsville, or Marion County's Department of Business and Neighborhood Services. We confirm which one applies to your address before quoting, because it changes the timeline.
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.
Geist and the surrounding area
- Sunblest Farms
- Admirals Landing
- Springs of Cambridge
- Bay Creek
- Masthead
We are based in Fishers, about 10 minutes from Geist. 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 Geist homeowners ask us
Who issues the permit for a Geist house?
It depends on the address. Geist spans Fishers, McCordsville and Marion County, and each issues its own. We confirm the jurisdiction before the estimate goes out rather than after, because Marion County's review runs longer than Fishers'.
Can the corner garden tub come out?
Yes, and it is the single most common bathroom change we make in Geist. Removing it usually buys enough room for a larger tiled shower without moving a single wall, which keeps the plumbing where it is and the cost down.
Is a walkout basement cheaper to finish?
Generally yes. Egress is already solved by the walkout door and the windows are already there, so two of the four things that drive a basement number are off the table before we start.
Does a walkout basement in Geist still need a radon test before we finish it?
Yes. Radon enters through the slab and the buried walls, not through the doorway, so a door to the yard changes nothing. Hamilton and Marion Counties are both Radon Zone 1. Test before you finish, because once the lower level is conditioned it shares air with the rest of the house. If the number is high, sub-slab depressurization is the usual fix, and the pipe run is simpler before the ceiling closes in.
My Geist mail says Indianapolis 46256 — who issues my building permit?
The mailing address and the permit office are two different things around this reservoir. A 46256 address sits in Marion County and goes to the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services; 46037 mail is usually Fishers, 46055 usually McCordsville. Usually is the operative word, because the line follows parcel boundaries rather than zip codes, and the school district does not decide it either. We check the parcel.
Do I need HOA approval to remodel a house in Geist, or just a permit?
Both, and they are separate approvals. Interior work rarely concerns the association; anything that changes what the outside looks like usually does. In Geist the architectural review can take longer than the building permit, and on a waterfront lot the elevation facing the water is read the same way a street elevation is. Pull your covenants and find out when the committee meets before you set a start date.
Can we stay in the house while you finish the lower level of our Geist home?
Usually, and the walkout is why. On most Geist lots material and debris move through the lower-level door instead of the main floor, which keeps the traffic and the dust out of the rest of the house. We seal the stairwell, run containment at the work area, and the site gets swept at the end of every day. Water and power go off only for the hours the work needs them.
Can the raised bar top come off my nineties Geist kitchen island?
Usually. The raised section is a framed knee wall sitting on the island, so taking it down is straightforward. What it starts is longer. The countertop becomes one larger slab, a seating overhang past about a foot needs support under it, and any outlet or switch mounted on that face has to move somewhere the code still allows. We measure the island before we answer.
Do I need a permit for a new deck on the lake side of a Geist house?
Yes, from whichever of the three offices covers your parcel. Footings bear below the Central Indiana frost line, roughly thirty to thirty-six inches, and on a lot that drops to the water the piers on the low side run long enough to change how the frame is braced. If the work reaches the shoreline itself, a seawall, steps or a dock, Citizens Energy Group owns the reservoir and reviews that separately.
Four steps, from the first call to the last walkthrough in Geist
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 Geist 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.