Remodeling Older Homes Spokane

Spokane's older homes—the Craftsman bungalows, the American Foursquares, the postwar ramblers built long before today's energy codes—have a lot going for them: solid old-growth framing lumber, real plaster walls, mature landscaping, and a location on a street that was platted before subdivisions had names like "The Reserve." What they don't have is modern wiring, insulation that meets today's climate demands, or floor plans built for how people actually live now. Remodeling one well means understanding both what makes it worth saving and what will fight you every step of the way.

This page is a practical guide to remodeling an older Spokane home—what the work actually involves, how permitting works when a structure predates current code, what our climate does to a renovation plan, and what it really costs. We price every project with itemized, line-item estimates instead of vague lump sums, because "trust us" isn't a number you can hold a budget to. If you want the short version: we remodel kitchens, bathrooms, basements, and whole houses in Spokane's older neighborhoods, we build additions and ADUs on lots that were never designed for them, and we tell you the price before we start, not after.

What a Remodel of an Older Spokane Home Covers

"Remodeling an older home" isn't one service—it's a category that touches nearly every room and, often, the structure itself. Here's what that actually looks like project by project.

Kitchen Remodeling

Kitchens in older Spokane homes were usually built for a different era of cooking and a much smaller appliance footprint. A kitchen remodel in one of these homes typically means reworking the layout to open sightlines to a dining or living space (often by evaluating whether a wall is load-bearing, which is far more common in older framing), replacing plaster or old cabinetry, upgrading electrical service to handle modern appliance loads, and addressing any galvanized supply lines before new fixtures go in. We also see a lot of original hardwood subfloor under old vinyl or linoleum, which is frequently salvageable and a nice selling point to preserve rather than cover again.

Bathroom Remodeling

Older bathrooms tend to be small, single-fixture rooms with cast iron tubs, and floors framed for a much lighter fixture than a modern soaking tub or curbless shower. A bathroom remodel here usually involves verifying floor joist capacity, replacing old drain and supply lines while the floor is already open, and dealing with moisture-damaged subfloor that's common in homes with decades of humidity exposure and no bath fan ever installed. Waterproofing and ventilation get more attention in an older Spokane bathroom than in new construction, precisely because the original build often had neither.

Basement Remodeling

Basements in Spokane's older housing stock are usually unfinished or partially finished, with low ceiling heights, fieldstone or block foundations, and no vapor barrier. Finishing one into usable living space means addressing moisture management first—Spokane's freeze-thaw cycles and spring snowmelt put real pressure on older foundation walls—then working around ductwork, sump locations, and ceiling height before framing anything. We cover the full process, including how we evaluate a foundation before framing begins, on our basement remodeling page for Spokane homes.

Home Additions

Adding square footage to an older home means tying new foundation and framing into a structure that was never designed with an addition in mind. That includes matching rooflines, transitioning old wiring and plumbing systems into new code-compliant ones at the connection point, and—critically—getting the structural tie-in engineered correctly so the seam between old and new doesn't become a long-term problem with settling or drafts.

Custom Home Building

Sometimes the right answer for a lot with an older, structurally compromised home is a new custom build rather than a renovation. We also take on ground-up custom home projects in Spokane, applying the same itemized pricing approach and local permitting knowledge to new construction on infill lots or larger parcels around the region.

Decks

Older homes frequently have decks that were added decades after the original build, often undersized, under-flashed, or attached with hardware that no longer meets current structural or ledger-attachment code. A deck project ranges from a straightforward rebuild to a full redesign that accounts for Spokane's snow load requirements and the freeze-thaw stress on footings.

ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units)

Spokane has increasingly favorable zoning for accessory dwelling units, and older lots—especially those with detached garages or larger backyards common in pre-war neighborhoods—are often good ADU candidates. Building one on a property with an older primary residence means coordinating a separate utility tie-in, verifying setback and lot coverage rules against the existing structure's footprint, and going through a distinct permitting track from a standard remodel.

Garage Construction

Many older Spokane homes have small, single-car, or detached garages that no longer fit modern vehicles or storage needs. Garage construction and replacement projects involve their own foundation, framing, and often electrical scope, and can also be a stepping stone toward a future ADU conversion if that's part of a longer-term plan for the property.

Commercial Remodeling

We also take on commercial remodeling work, including older commercial buildings in the Spokane area that carry many of the same structural and systems-age considerations as older residential properties—outdated electrical service, aging plumbing, and code compliance gaps that need to be addressed as part of the scope.

Climate Considerations for Remodeling in Spokane

Spokane's climate is a genuine design constraint, not a footnote. Cold, snowy winters followed by hot, dry summers put real stress on a house, and an older home that was built with minimal insulation and single-pane glazing feels every bit of that swing. A few climate-driven factors that shape how we plan a remodel here:

• Freeze-thaw cycling. Repeated freezing and thawing through the winter puts pressure on older foundations, exterior masonry, and any exterior concrete work—decks, walkways, garage slabs—so footings and drainage need to be planned for frost depth, not just for the summer build season.
• Snow load on rooflines and additions. Any addition, deck cover, or new roof structure has to be engineered for regional snow load, which matters more when you're tying a new roof section into an older, sometimes under-built original structure.
• Ice damming. Older homes with minimal attic insulation and ventilation are prone to ice dams that back water up under roofing and into wall cavities. Insulation and ventilation upgrades during a remodel are often the fix, and we flag this during kitchen, bathroom, and addition projects where the roofline is affected.
• Summer heat and dry conditions. Spokane summers run hot and dry, and older homes without adequate insulation or updated HVAC struggle to keep upper floors comfortable. A remodel is often the right time to address insulation, window upgrades, or ductwork before finishing walls back up.
• Moisture management in basements. Spring snowmelt and seasonal groundwater movement affect older foundations differently than newer poured walls, which is a major factor in how we approach basement waterproofing before any framing goes in.

Building climate performance into the plan during the remodel—rather than treating insulation and moisture control as optional upgrades—is usually far cheaper than fixing ice dam damage or a wet basement after the fact.

What Affects the Cost of Remodeling an Older Home

We price by itemized scope rather than a flat cost-per-square-foot number, because square footage alone doesn't capture what actually drives cost in an older home. That said, cost per square foot is a useful starting reference point once you understand what moves it up or down. The biggest cost drivers we see on older Spokane remodels:

• Condition of what's behind the walls. Outdated wiring, galvanized plumbing, and undersized electrical service are common in older homes and often need to be addressed as part of the project, not as an optional add-on.
• Structural scope. Removing a load-bearing wall, adding an egress window to a basement, or tying a new addition into an old foundation all require engineering and add cost beyond finish-level work.
• Permitting and code-compliance requirements. Bringing older, previously unpermitted, or outdated systems up to current code as part of the remodel is a real cost factor that a newer home simply doesn't have.
• Unpermitted prior work. If a previous owner's DIY work needs to be corrected once a wall or ceiling opens, that's additional scope discovered mid-project rather than something visible during the initial estimate.
• Material and fixture selections. Cabinetry, countertops, flooring, and fixture tiers move the budget significantly and are usually the area where homeowners have the most flexibility to adjust cost.
• Access and site conditions. Older homes with narrow lots, mature landscaping, or limited driveway access can add cost for material staging and equipment access compared to a newer subdivision lot.

Because so much of an older-home budget depends on what's found once the project starts, we build contingency planning into the itemized proposal up front and explain clearly what would trigger a change order, rather than surprising you with one.

Licensing and Insurance

Any contractor working on your home's structure, electrical, or plumbing systems should be able to show you current Washington State contractor licensing and active general liability insurance before work begins—and you should ask, every time. This matters even more on an older home, where structural surprises and code-compliance work are common and where uninsured labor puts you personally at risk if something goes wrong mid-project. We detail our credentials and what to verify on our licensing and insurance page, and we're glad to provide documentation before any contract is signed.

Service Areas

We remodel older homes throughout the Spokane area, including:

• Spokane, including established neighborhoods with older housing stock throughout the city
• South Hill, home to some of the region's oldest and most architecturally distinct housing
• Spokane Valley
• Deer Park
• Mead
• Nine Mile Falls

If your property is in or near one of these areas and you're weighing a remodel of an older home, we can walk the property and give you a realistic sense of scope before you commit to a design direction.