Front of house remodel in Tampa Bay.
A front of house remodel is five small jobs done in the right order. Wood and water first. Then the door. Then paint. Then the walkway and the landing. Done out of order, you paint twice and the new door frames a rotten fascia. Done as one scope, the front gets finished once.
Priced by written scope, never by the hour.
A front of house remodel is an order of work, not a shopping list.
Curb appeal pages show before and after photos. None of them shows the order the work happened in. That order decides whether it looks like that in 3 years. Here is what to ask before you hire anyone, including us.
Water and wood come first
Rot in the fascia, the siding and the door frame gets fixed before anything else. Paint over rot peels. A new door in a wet frame leaks. This step is the boring one and it is the one that protects everything after it.
Then the things with permits
The door needs a product approval and a permit. If the walkway touches the public sidewalk, so does that. Permits take time. They get filed early so the crew is never waiting on paper.
Paint goes on after the door, not before
A new door and new trim change the lines a painter cuts to. Paint first and you paint again around the new door. Paint last, and the whole front gets one clean coat.
The ground last
Walkway, landing, mulch and lights go in after the ladders are gone. Ladders and scaffolding wreck new pavers and plants. It sounds obvious. It gets done backwards every week.
The number of trades decides the price. The rot decides the surprises.
Two fronts can look the same and price far apart. Here is what actually moves the number on a front of house remodel.
How many of the five jobs are in
Door, siding, soffit and fascia, paint, walkway. Each one you add is its own material and its own days. The scope prices them as separate lines under one number. You can see what each one costs and drop one if you want.
How much wood is bad
The probing on the walkthrough finds it. A front with one soft fascia board is a repair. A front with rot at every window is a project. This is the line that moves most, and it is only known after the walkthrough.
The door you choose
A single fiberglass door with a factory finish is the base case. Sidelights, a transom, impact glass and wood all add. The door is often the single biggest line on the front.
Paint on one wall or the whole house
Painting only the front can look like painting only the front. Some houses can take it, most cannot. The scope prices both so you decide with the numbers, not with a guess.
What gets settled before any trade starts.
One scope with five trades in it only works if the order and the boundaries are written first. These are the things that get settled before the first ladder.
The whole front probed and photographed
Fascia, siding bottoms, window trim, door frame and threshold. Soft spots get marked and photographed. You get the photos with the scope. Nothing on the front is a surprise later.
The order written into the scope
Rot, door, paint, ground. With dates. Each trade knows what has to be done before it arrives. That is what keeps the painter from painting a fascia that is about to come off.
Permits filed early
The door permit is filed the week the scope is signed. So is the right of way permit for the walkway, if it is needed. The door is ordered the same week. The crew starts on the rot while the paper moves.
Colors and the door picked once
The door, the trim color and the body color get chosen before anything is ordered. Changing the door after the trim is painted is a change order and a second coat.
Plants and the walkway protected
What stays gets covered. What goes gets removed first, not trampled. The new walkway is scheduled after the ladders, so it is never a work surface.
What is included, and where it ends.
A written scope is only worth something if it says where it stops. These are the lines we put in writing before anything is ordered.
How long the front is a job site.
Weeks, not days, and most of it is waiting. The door takes the maker's lead time. Paint waits for dry days. The trades run in order, so nobody is on top of anyone else. The house is always closed and dry at night. Your scope has the dates.
When we tell you not to do it
A front remodel is the job the whole street sees. That makes it easy to sell to someone who should fix something else first. Here is where we say no, and why.
The roof drips on the fascia
If the roof edge has no drip edge or the shingles are done, the front rots again under new paint. The roofer goes first. We say so, and we schedule after them.
The budget covers the door, not the wood
A beautiful door in a rotten front is a beautiful door in a rotten front. If the number only covers the door, do the rot now and the door next year. The order still holds.
You are selling in 60 days
A full front remodel does not return its cost in 60 days. A wash, a painted door, new numbers and a clean walkway often do. We would rather point you at the small list.
The plan is to paint first and see
Paint first means paint twice. If the door or the fascia is going to change, the paint waits. We will not put paint on a board that is coming off next month.
Lifetime warranty on our workmanship.
If the work we did fails, we come back and fix it. That holds for as long as you own the home. On a front remodel it covers what we built and set. The wood, the flashing, the door install, the prep under the paint, and the walkway base.
A warranty is only worth what its exclusions say. Ours are above, in the same size type as the promise. Ask whoever you are talking to how long theirs runs, and get the number in writing.
Questions we actually get asked
What is included in a front of house remodel?
The five jobs the front usually needs. Rot repair on fascia, siding and trim. A new front door with its permit. Soffit and fascia, paint, and the walkway and landing. Each is a line in one scope. You can drop one. The order stays.
Why does the order matter so much?
Because each job wrecks the one that came before it if it is done backwards. Paint before the door means painting twice. Walkway before the ladders means broken pavers. Door before the rot means a new door in a wet frame. Wood, door, paint, ground.
Can you do the whole house or just the front?
Either. The front is the most common ask because it is what the street sees. Painting only the front works on some houses and looks odd on others. The scope prices both so you decide with numbers.
Do I need permits for a front remodel?
For the door, yes, in most Tampa Bay cities, along with its Florida Product Approval number. For the walkway, only if it touches the public sidewalk. For paint and siding repair, usually not. The scope names each one and who applies.
How long does it take?
Weeks. The door lead time and the dry days for paint set the calendar more than the labor does. Trades run one after another, in order. The scope has the dates and the house is closed and dry every night.
Can I do it in stages?
Yes. Rot and door this year, paint next year, walkway after. Each stage is its own scope. The one rule that does not bend is paint last. Paint on a board that is coming off is money gone.
The other exterior services
Where we work
Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties. If your town is not on this list, call and ask: the answer is often yes.
A walkthrough, then a written scope with one closed price.
Never hourly, never a verbal figure, and our workmanship carries a lifetime warranty. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties.