Open Concept Kitchen Remodel in Pawtucket RI

The homes built in Pawtucket's mill era were designed around a different way of living. Rooms were compartmentalized: the kitchen in the back, the dining room closed off from it, the parlor separate from both. It made sense for families who heated one room at a time and lived with a formality that has largely disappeared from American domestic life.

It does not make sense for how most people live today. The kitchen is where people gather — while one person cooks, others talk, children do homework, guests have a drink. A wall between the kitchen and the living space turns that gathering into shouting through a doorway.

Removing that wall — opening the kitchen to the dining room, to the living room, or to both — is one of the highest-impact renovations possible in a Pawtucket home. When it's done correctly.

The structural question

In an older Pawtucket home, the wall between the kitchen and the adjacent space is often load-bearing. It carries the weight of the floor above it, and sometimes the roof structure beyond that. Removing a load-bearing wall without the correct structural work — a properly sized beam, appropriate post supports, columns or walls at the ends of the beam that transfer the load to the foundation — is the kind of renovation that looks fine for a few years and then shows up in the floor that sags and the ceiling that cracks.

We assess the structural condition of the wall before we demo. We work with licensed structural engineers when the situation warrants it. We install the beam correctly, support it correctly, and ensure the load path is sound. The wall comes out cleanly, and the structure above it behaves exactly as it should.

What an open concept remodel includes:

• Structural assessment — determining whether the wall is load-bearing and what the removal requires
• Demo of the wall and existing finishes
• Beam installation — sized correctly for the span and load
• Post and column installation where required
• Repair and finishing of ceiling, floor, and adjacent walls
• Electrical relocation — outlets, switches, and fixtures that were in the wall
• Plumbing relocation if required
• Kitchen renovation work that integrates the newly opened space

The design opportunity

Removing the wall is the beginning. The kitchen and the space it opens into now need to work as one room — the flooring, the lighting, the island or peninsula that defines the kitchen area without closing it off again. We think about the whole space, not just the wall that comes out.

Open concept conversion in East Providence, Cumberland, and the surrounding towns

An open concept conversion is the most-requested project we get from homeowners outside Pawtucket proper — East Providence, Cumberland, Lincoln, Central Falls, Seekonk and Attleboro — and the reason is consistent across all of them. The housing in these towns, whether it is a Riverside bungalow, a Valley Falls mill house or a 1968 raised ranch in Lonsdale, was built with the kitchen closed off from wherever the family actually sits.

What varies is the structure. In a mill house or a bungalow, the wall between the kitchen and the next room is often non-bearing and the conversion is straightforward. In a raised ranch or a garrison Colonial, that wall is usually carrying the floor above and the conversion needs a properly sized beam, real posts, and a load path that reaches the foundation. The two projects look identical when they are finished and are not remotely the same job.

We determine which one you have before anything is demolished, and we price it that way.