The houses that went up around Harrison City in the nineties boom are thirty years in now, and the kitchens, baths and decks they came with are showing it. We frame, build and finish what comes next, out of our office in Trafford.
The Harrison City House
The kids who learned to ride bikes out front are grown, and the house is still wearing its first kitchen. Seven in ten homes in the 15636 went up between 1980 and 2009. These are the four places we open up first.
If the kitchen is original, the cabinets, counters and wiring are thirty-some years old. We take it to the studs, reframe what the new layout needs, and set the cabinets level.
The clay under these lots holds water, and the water table rises from late winter into spring. Before we frame a basement room, we find the seeps and handle the water first.
A deck built with the house has taken thirty Western Pennsylvania winters. We check the ledger where it bolts to the house, then decide with you whether it is repaired or rebuilt.
Windows from the nineties tend to fog between the panes and leak air at the sash. We pull them, repair any rot in the opening, flash it, and set the new unit square.
Figures: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024, ZIP code 15636. The drawing is an illustration, not a specific house. ZIP 15636 on Census Reporter (opens in a new tab)
What We Build Here
Every service we offer runs in Penn Township, and each one meets a house from the eighties, nineties or 2000s sitting on clay. Here is what each kind of job tends to look like in the 15636.
01Kitchen RemodelingIn a house from the nineties, the kitchen is often getting its first remodel: out go the cabinets and counters it was built with. We work out the layout, frame it, and set everything.View Service
02Bathroom RemodelingThirty years of showers wear through the grout and the board behind it. We gut the bath, check the subfloor for water damage, waterproof the walls, and set the tile by hand.View Service
03Attic FinishingMany roofs from the nineties are framed with trusses, which can rule out a room up there. We check the framing first, then quote the floor, insulation and a real stair.View Service
04Basement FinishingAn unfinished basement can become a family room, a gym or a bedroom with an egress window. On Harrison City clay we deal with the water first, then frame and finish it.View Service
05Additions & ADUsAn addition here starts with the township's setback rules and the slope of the lot. We set new footings, frame it, and tie the roof and siding into the house you have.View Service
06Windows & Exterior DoorsEntry and patio doors that drag, stick, or show daylight at the weatherstrip. We repair the rot in the sill and jambs, flash the opening, and hang the new door plumb.View Service
07Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsOn a sloped lot, water runs at the house from uphill for years. Where it has rotted the trim, a sill or the rim joist, we open it up and repair it to solid wood.View Service
08Decks & Covered PatiosA covered patio or three-season room gets more months out of the yard than an open deck. We set the footings below the frost line and frame the roof to carry snow.View ServiceAround the 15636
The township lists more than a dozen neighborhoods in its Harrison City ward alone, and they were not all built in the same decade. Five of them, and what a remodel there tends to involve.
Harrison City proper
A few blocks either side of Route 130, the village that named the ZIP. Some of the oldest houses in the 15636 stand here, and on those, old wiring and plaster walls tend to come with the job. We price them in before demo.
Ward 2 · Harrison Park Elementary
The township spent $2.8 million on flood-control projects here, paid off in 2019. Water on the lot is the first thing we ask about in this neighborhood, before a basement gets framed or a patio gets poured against the house.
Final approval 2022
One of the newest subdivisions in the 15636, given final approval in 2022. A house this new rarely needs its kitchen torn out. The work worth calling about comes after move-in: finishing the basement, a deck, a covered patio out back.
Ward 2 · a senior village
A senior village in the Harrison City ward, where a remodel is usually about staying put: a walk-in shower where the tub was, blocking in the walls for grab bars, a doorway wide enough for a walker. Small jobs, done carefully.
Toward Bushy Run Battlefield
Bushy Run Road heads out past the 1763 battlefield, now a state historic site. Sewer extensions are still being proposed along this road, so before an addition out here we confirm whether the lot is on public sewer or a septic system.
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Who Does the Work
Plenty of remodels in Penn Township are sold from a showroom and built by whoever bid lowest that month. Ours are built by the carpenters who walked your house, from the township permit to the last piece of trim.
The usual way
The AllTrades way
The Year Here
The Pittsburgh area averages about 44 inches of snow a winter. It melts into clay in the spring, and summer storms drop more water at once than they used to. A house here takes all three, so we plan for all three.
Winter snow
44 inSnow a year, Pittsburgh area
Snow loads the roof and sits against deck posts, sills and the bottom of the siding for weeks. We frame covered patios and new roofs to carry it, and keep new wood up off the ground where drifts melt.
The spring thaw
Jan–AprWater table at its highest
As the snow melts, water sits high in the clay under these lots, and that is when basement walls seep. A basement we finish gets its drainage and moisture barrier planned for the wettest month, not the driest one.
Summer downpours
+70%Very heavy PA rain, 1958–2012
Very heavy rain has grown more common in Pennsylvania, and the township's flooding calls rose with it. Before we build against the house or finish anything below grade, we walk where the roof water and the yard water go.
Building in Harrison City
None of these come up on a kitchen or a bath. They come up on additions, decks and basements, and it is better to hear them on the first walkthrough than in week three.
In-houseTownship permits & inspections
Harrison City is a village inside Penn Township, so the township's own Community Development office issues permits for additions, decks and new structures, and its inspectors come out to the site. We draw the plans, file the application, and book each inspection around the work.
Penn Township Community Development (opens in a new tab)ConfirmedMining under the village
Coal was mined under parts of Penn Township, and the state's subsidence map puts the village inside an area of confirmed mining. A standard homeowner's policy excludes subsidence. Before an addition, look your address up on the state's Mine Subsidence Insurance map. We can walk you through it.
Check your address on the state's mine subsidence map (opens in a new tab)40%Of PA homes tested, over 4 pCi/L
Pennsylvania's environmental agency estimates four in ten homes tested statewide are over 4 picocuries per liter, the level where fixing it is advised. Basements read highest. Test before we finish one into a bedroom or family room; if it reads high, a mitigation contractor puts a system in first.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (opens in a new tab)Where Else We Build
Harrison City is one of twelve places we work, from Plum and Monroeville out to Greensburg and Jeannette. The same carpenters build in all of them, out of our office in Trafford.
Harrison City Questions
Five questions that come with building in Penn Township in particular. Something else on your mind? Ask on the first call.
Ask a QuestionPenn Township does. Harrison City is a village inside the township, so permits for additions, decks and new structures come from the township's Community Development office at 2001 Municipal Court, and its inspectors make the site visits. We put the application together, submit it, and schedule each inspection around the work.
Penn Township Community Development (opens in a new tab)It might be. Parts of Penn Township, including the area around the village, sit over confirmed coal mining on the state's mine subsidence map, and a standard homeowner's policy does not cover subsidence damage. Look your address up on Pennsylvania's Mine Subsidence Insurance map before an addition. The state program sells that coverage separately.
PA DEP Mine Subsidence Insurance (opens in a new tab)Yes. Pennsylvania's environmental agency estimates that 40% of homes tested in the state are over 4 picocuries per liter, and basements usually read higher than the floors above. Test before we frame. If the number is high, a radon mitigation contractor installs a system first, and we finish the room around it.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (opens in a new tab)Usually, once the water is handled. Much of the soil around Harrison City is clay, the water table rises from January into April, and hillside seeps are common. We find where the water gets in, fix the grading, gutters or drainage behind it, and only then frame, insulate and drywall.
Yes. The township issues permits for decks, and its zoning ordinance sets how close a structure can sit to your property lines. Pool decks have a stricter rule: at least 20 feet from any line. We check your lot's setbacks before we draw the deck, then pull the permit and build it.
Penn Township permit applications (opens in a new tab)Verified Google Reviews
5.0 out of 5 · 17 reviews
Written by the homeowners we've worked for across Westmoreland County. Every one verified on Google, every one pulled from the real feed.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
