Home remodelingin Lawrence, Indianapolis
Bathrooms, kitchens and basements in Lawrence. We are a 15-minute drive away in Fishers, we pull the permit through the City of Lawrence, or Marion County DBNS, and the crew that walks your house is the crew that builds the job.
We have been opening walls in Marion County since 2012
Lawrence covers a wider range than most of the townships around it. Fort Benjamin Harrison anchors it, with restored officers' housing and the newer building that followed the base's conversion, and the rest is post-war subdivision stock through the 1960s and 70s.
- Former Fort Harrison housing built to military specification — solid, plain, and originally planned around rooms rather than open living
- Post-war subdivisions where the original single bathroom is the main constraint on a three-bedroom house
- A mix of slab and crawl construction within the same street, so the drainage answer changes house to house
What each of them means in Lawrence
Bathroom remodeling in Lawrence
Two very different bathrooms sit within the same few square miles here. In the former Fort Harrison quarters the bathroom is a small room stacked directly over the one below it, and the wet wall often backs onto masonry with plaster hung against it. There is no stud cavity out there to run a new supply line or a vent through, so a fixture that moves easily on paper usually has to stay put or move inboard toward the stack. The cast-iron tub is commonly set on a mortar bed over a cast-iron drain; both come out heavy, and what sits under them tells us whether the branch lines are galvanized or copper. A radiator in the room is the other constraint, because the pipe comes up through the floor and there is no duct to reroute instead. In the post-war subdivisions the constraint is simpler: one bathroom serving three bedrooms. We sequence a single-bath house differently, so demolition, rough-in, inspection and tile run in one continuous stretch and the room is out of service once rather than twice. Where the house sits on a slab, the closet flange is set in concrete, and moving it means cutting, trenching to fall and repouring. That is its own line on the estimate, named before you agree to it.
Kitchen remodeling in Lawrence
The Fort Harrison kitchens were planned as a working room at the back of the house and they still read that way: a basement stair door, a rear entry, and a window over the sink. Two things decide what that room can become. The first is the exterior wall, which on the masonry houses gives us nowhere to bury a hood duct or a new circuit, so the venting route is settled at the walkthrough rather than found later. The second is the radiator, which usually sits where a run of base cabinets wants to go. The post-war kitchens outnumber them here, and on those the wall between the kitchen and the living room is the whole conversation. Before anyone talks about how wide the opening gets, we open the ceiling and look at what is inside that wall and above it: the sink vent, the supply run feeding the single bathroom, and in many of these houses a trunk duct from a furnace sitting in the middle of the plan. Relocating those is the part no drawing shows. Underneath, the original hardwood usually runs to the cabinet line and stops, which decides whether the floor is refinished or replaced once the layout changes.
Basement finishing in Lawrence
In Lawrence the first question is which kind of street you are on. Much of the post-war building here went up on a slab or over a crawlspace, and on those streets there is no basement to finish. We would rather say that on the phone than at a walkthrough. Where there is a basement it is often partial, and the number that decides everything is the clear height at the lowest duct, beam or drain line rather than the height in the middle of the room. We measure that low point first, because it sets whether the plan is a finished room, a finished room with a routed soffit, or nothing worth spending on. The Fort Harrison quarters generally do have full basements, masonry-walled, with the mechanicals clustered near the center and the stair landing in the middle of the floor. Two things get settled outside before anything is framed inside. Marion County sits in EPA Radon Zone 1, so we want a test result in hand before a basement becomes a room somebody sits in every evening. And this clay holds roof water against the wall rather than letting it drain, so downspouts and grade are dealt with first.
What we check in Lawrence before quoting
Lawrence sits on the same heavy clay as the rest of Marion County, and clay does two things to a house: it holds water against a foundation instead of letting it drain, and it moves with the season. Frost depth in Central Indiana runs roughly thirty to thirty-six inches, which is what a new footing for a window well or a stoop has to reach. The housing adds its own variables: two building eras on adjoining streets, two wiring vintages, and a basement that may not exist at all.
Roof water, not a failing wall
Water at a foundation here is usually roof water rather than a failing wall. Before we price anything below grade we look at where the downspouts discharge, how the first ten feet of grade falls away, and whether the sump line ends far enough from the house to matter.
Radon Zone 1
Marion County is EPA Radon Zone 1, the highest, where roughly one home in three tests at or above the 4 pCi/L action level. Test before a basement becomes a bedroom. A mitigation pipe has an easy route while the walls are open and an awkward one afterward.
Two wiring vintages
Lawrence has plenty of houses from the late sixties and early seventies, and homes wired between roughly 1965 and 1973 sometimes carry aluminum branch circuits, which need connectors rated for aluminum. At Fort Harrison the wiring may date from the conversion of the post instead. We open the panel first.
We drive in from Fishers
We work out of Fishers and drive in. There is no office in Lawrence and no showroom to visit anywhere, so the walkthrough happens in your house, samples come to your kitchen table, and the site is swept before the crew leaves at the end of each day.
We pull the permit. You do not chase the City of Lawrence, or Marion County DBNS.
Lawrence is an excluded city — it kept its own municipal government under Unigov — so an address inside the city limits may be permitted by Lawrence rather than by Marion County's Department of Business and Neighborhood Services. The two are separate offices with separate queues, and we confirm which applies to your address before quoting rather than assuming.
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.
Lawrence and around it
- Fort Benjamin Harrison
- Lawrence
- Oaklandon
- Geist Reservoir shoreline
- Fall Creek Township
We are based in Fishers, about 15 minutes from Lawrence. 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 Lawrence homeowners ask us
Who issues my permit in Lawrence?
It depends whether the address is inside the City of Lawrence limits or in unincorporated Marion County. Lawrence is an excluded city with its own government, so it is a real distinction rather than a technicality. We establish it from the address first.
Can old Fort Harrison housing be opened up?
Often. It was built plainly and solidly, and the room-by-room plan is the main thing owners want changed. Bearing walls are common, so a beam is usually part of the answer.
How close is Lawrence to your shop?
About fifteen minutes from Fishers. It is one of the areas we work in most, and there is no travel charge.
Is Fort Harrison a historic district? Do we need approval to remodel?
Not in a way that adds a step to your permit. The Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission oversees thirteen historic districts and five conservation areas, and Lawrence is not among them. IHPC review is also an exterior matter, so interior work generally sits outside it. If your street carries covenants from the redevelopment of the post, that is a private agreement between owners rather than a permit, and it is worth reading before we quote.
Our house is on a slab. Can we still add a second bathroom?
Usually. The new drain has to run in the slab to the existing stack, which means cutting concrete, trenching to fall, tying in and repouring. That is a real amount of work, and it goes on its own line of the estimate rather than disappearing into a plumbing subtotal. Where the stack already sits decides where the new room can go, so we locate it before anything is drawn.
There's no basement under our house — what are our options?
On the slab and crawlspace streets there is nothing to finish below grade, and we will say so rather than talk you into a project. What is usually available is the floor you already have: the wall between the kitchen and the living room, a formal dining room that stopped being used years ago, or an attached garage. We measure it at the walkthrough and it goes on the estimate line by line.
How long does a permit take here, and who has to file it?
It depends which office your address falls under. On the Marion County side, the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services at 200 East Washington Street runs residential review in roughly ten to fifteen business days, and it takes the application only from a contractor licensed in Marion County or from you as the owner. City of Lawrence addresses go through the city's own office and its own queue. We settle which applies, and who files, before a schedule is set.
Our house still has radiators and no ductwork. Does that limit what we can do?
It changes the sequence more than the outcome. With no duct chases in the house, a bath fan or a range hood needs a route found through the joist bays or out through an exterior wall, and on masonry that gets planned rather than discovered. Radiators can be moved, but the pipe comes up through the floor, so the cabinet and vanity layout is drawn around it rather than after it.
Four steps, from the first call to the last walkthrough in Lawrence
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 Lawrence 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.