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R&D Building SolutionsPeople first. Real results.

Services

Whole-Home Renovations - South Shore & Middlesex County

Renovating a whole house is a different discipline from renovating a room. Systems, structure, sequencing, and a family's daily life all collide, and the projects that go badly are almost never short on ambition, just short on management. R&D Building Solutions runs whole-home renovations as one continuous, planned project: one team, one schedule, decisions organized ahead of need, and communication that keeps you oriented from demolition day to the final walkthrough.

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Sound familiar?

The situations this service solves

The project touches everything at once

Kitchens, baths, floors, walls, systems, in a whole-home project every scope overlaps another. Sequencing them so trades help rather than trip each other is the core skill, and it's exactly what a room-at-a-time contractor rarely has to develop.

You're not sure whether to renovate in phases or all at once

Living through phased work costs less cash per year but more disruption per improvement. Doing it all at once costs more up front and less in redone work. We'll price and sequence both honestly so you can decide with real numbers.

Old-house surprises

Open a wall in an older Massachusetts home and you may meet knob-and-tube remnants, undersized framing, or the last owner's creativity. We scope with contingencies, tell you what we find in plain language, and price options rather than issuing mystery change orders.

Where do you live during construction?

Sometimes in place, sometimes not, it depends on scope, systems downtime, and dust tolerance. We plan the answer with you up front, including which phases make the house genuinely hard to occupy.

Project types

The kinds of projects we take on

Full-gut renovations

Taking a dated or neglected house down to structure and rebuilding the interior, layout, systems coordination, insulation, and finishes as one integrated project.

Multi-room transformations

Kitchen, baths, and living spaces reworked together under one schedule, the common middle ground between a single-room remodel and a full gut.

Layout reconfiguration

Moving walls, opening floor plans, relocating stairs or baths, structural changes with the engineering and permitting handled properly.

Renovation plus exterior

Interior transformation coordinated with roofing, siding, windows, or a deck, so the scaffolding, sequencing, and budget work once instead of twice.

Think it through

Planning considerations

Whole-house scope, room-level decisions

A whole-home project is really thirty small projects sharing walls. We break the scope down room by room so decisions are concrete and nothing hides inside a vague line item.

Systems reality check

Heating, electrical service, plumbing stacks, and insulation set the boundaries of what a renovation can do. Assessing them first prevents designing a house the systems can't support.

What's worth keeping

Original details, trim, doors, floors, can anchor the character of a renovated home and stretch the budget where it shows. We'll tell you what's worth saving and what's costing more to keep than to replace.

Contingency as a plan, not a hope

Older homes earn a real contingency line. Ours is stated in the proposal, and if we don't need it, you keep it, that's the point of writing it down.

How we work

Our process for this work

  1. Conversation

    What the house is, what it needs to become, and the budget range you're working within. A real person listens first and talks feasibility honestly.

  2. Walkthrough and assessment

    We go through the whole house, structure, systems, layout, and identify both the opportunities and the problems that will shape scope.

  3. Scope and sequencing plan

    Room-by-room scope, phasing options if you want them, and a decision calendar for selections with real order-by dates.

  4. Proposal

    A written scope with allowances and exclusions you can actually read, plus the contingency stated openly.

  5. Permitting and preconstruction

    Building permits, engineering where structure moves, material ordering, and trade scheduling before demolition begins.

  6. Construction

    Demolition through finishes on a maintained schedule, with protection for anything staying, dust control that gets planned rather than promised, and weekly communication.

  7. Walkthrough and completion

    A finished punch list, not an abandoned one, and a house that works as one home again.

Honest expectations

What shapes schedule and cost

No invented numbers, these are the real levers, so you can reason about your own project before we ever talk.

What can affect the schedule

  • Overall scope, a full gut and a three-room project live on different calendars
  • Structural changes and their engineering and inspection steps
  • What opens up inside the walls of an older home
  • Cabinetry, window, and specialty-material lead times
  • Whether the home stays occupied during construction
  • Permit and inspection timing in your town

What can affect cost

  • Square footage actually being renovated, and how much of it is kitchen and bath
  • Structural work: beams, wall removals, stair relocations
  • Systems scope: electrical service, heating, plumbing reroutes handled with licensed trade partners
  • Insulation and air-sealing improvements while walls are open
  • Finish level, the same floor plan can be built at very different price points
  • Concealed-condition contingency appropriate to the home's age

Permits & inspections

Whole-home renovations almost always require building permits, and structural changes add engineering and inspection steps; electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work is permitted and inspected under the appropriate licensed trades we coordinate. Requirements and review times vary by town across the South Shore and Middlesex County, we handle the process and build the inspection sequence into the schedule. Every project still needs its own review; nothing here is legal or code advice for a specific property.

Why R&D

How we do this differently

One team across every room

The kitchen doesn't get one standard and the hallway another. A single accountable team carries the same workmanship expectations through the entire house.

Sequencing is the product

Anyone can demo a house. Rebuilding it without idle weeks, redone work, or trade collisions is what you're actually hiring, and it's the part we plan hardest.

Straight talk about surprises

When an old house surprises us, you get photos, plain-language explanation, and priced options, the same week we find it.

Phasing without the runaround

If phased work suits your budget better, we'll sequence phases so early work never has to be torn out for later work, and tell you honestly where phasing costs more than it saves.

Questions homeowners ask

Can we live in the house during a whole-home renovation?

Sometimes, it depends on scope. Projects that keep a working bath and kitchen zone can be livable in stages; full guts with systems down usually aren't worth the misery. We'll tell you honestly which project you have and plan the answer before demolition, not after.

Is it cheaper to renovate everything at once or in phases?

All-at-once usually costs less in total, mobilization, protection, and trades priced once, while phases spread the spending. The trap in phasing is redoing work; we sequence phases specifically so that doesn't happen, and we'll show you both paths priced honestly.

Do you handle the electrical, plumbing, and heating work?

Those trades are performed by the appropriately licensed professionals, coordinated, scheduled, and quality-checked by us as part of one project. You get one point of accountability without anyone working outside their license.

What if you find problems inside the walls?

In older homes, we usually do, which is why the proposal carries a stated contingency. When something turns up, you get a plain explanation, photos, and priced options. Unused contingency stays yours.

How do you keep a project this big organized?

A room-by-room scope, a decision calendar with order-by dates, a maintained schedule, and a standing communication rhythm. Whole-home projects fail by losing track of small things; our system exists so nothing rides on memory.

Can the renovation include the roof, siding, or a deck?

Yes, and coordinating exterior work inside the same project often saves real money on staging and sequencing. We build exteriors year-round, so the whole envelope can be handled under one schedule.

We take on whole-home renovations across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, based in Braintree. Contact us to discuss your town and project scope.

Ready to rethink the whole house?

Walk us through what you're imagining. A real person will help you shape scope, phasing, and budget, and give you straight answers about what it takes.

Request a Project ConsultationCall and speak with a real person

Tell us what you’re considering. A real person will review your request, and we will not sell or distribute your project information.

Keep exploring

Services

Kitchen Remodeling

R&D Building Solutions remodels kitchens across the South Shore and Middlesex County, from in-place refreshes to full layout changes, with one accountable team.

Services

Home Additions

Home additions across the South Shore and Middlesex County, rooms, second stories, and bump-outs planned, permitted, and built to feel original to the house.

Services

Interior Finishes

Finish carpentry, flooring, built-ins, trim, and interior renovations across the South Shore and Middlesex County, visible craftsmanship by people who care about reveals.

Service Areas

Braintree, MA

R&D Building Solutions is based in Braintree, ADUs, kitchen and bathroom remodeling, basement finishing, roofing, and siding for Braintree homes, from a builder headquartered in town.

Resources

Renovation Planning Checklist

A practical pre-project checklist: clarify goals, get honest about budget process, prepare your household, and know which questions separate good contractors from smooth talkers.

Resources

Consultation Preparation Guide

What actually happens in a project consultation, what's genuinely worth preparing, and how to have the budget conversation without feeling exposed, a plain-English guide.

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