Half of Irwin's homes were standing by 1954, and three in ten went up before 1940. Old floors, old porches, old pipes. We open them up, fix what we find and build the kitchen or bath you came for, from our shop in Trafford.
An Irwin House
Most Irwin houses are modest: two bedrooms is the most common size, and the typical home has five rooms. More than half are rented. Whether you live in yours or rent it out, these four spots are where the work starts.
Seventy winters soften a porch at the floorboards and the feet of the posts. We shore up the roof, replace the rotten wood and keep the lines the house was built with.
The kitchen in a house this age is usually small and at the back. We open the walls to see what wiring and pipes we are dealing with, then fit more counter and storage.
Irwin checks the pipe from your house to the sewer main by camera before a sale or refinance. If a kitchen or bath job opens the floor near it, fix it then.
A basement this old was never meant to be a room. Before we price finishing one, we check the walls for water and measure the height under the joists and pipes.
Census figures for the Borough of Irwin, American Community Survey 2020–2024. A drawing of the type of house, not of any one. Irwin on Census Reporter (opens in a new tab)
What We Build Here
Most of Irwin was built before 1960, so every job below starts with what seventy years do to framing, floors and the pipes inside the walls, and to the work earlier owners did.
01Kitchen RemodelingA small kitchen at the back of an old house can still work well. We level the floor, straighten the walls enough to hang cabinets true, and set the counters dead level.View Service
02Bathroom RemodelingA house with one bathroom feels it every morning. We rebuild the old bath from the joists up, add a powder room where the floor plan allows, and waterproof every wall we tile.View Service
03Attic FinishingA roof framed with rafters instead of trusses can leave room for a real space upstairs. We check the rafters and headroom, then quote the subfloor, insulation and stairs to reach it.View Service
04Basement FinishingOnce the walls are dry, an old basement can hold a family room, an office or a laundry worth using. We frame, insulate and drywall it, and box in the pipes and ducts overhead.View Service
05Additions & ADUsAn addition on an older house has to meet framing that is not quite square or level. We check the borough's setbacks, set new footings, and tie the new roof into the old one.View Service
06Windows & Exterior DoorsDrafty sashes and doors that bind in their frames are common in a house this age. We pull them, square up the openings, and set new windows and doors that close the way they should.View Service
07Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsSeventy years of weather finds every gap in the trim and siding. Where water has rotted a sill plate, a porch beam or the rim joist, we replace it with sound framing.View Service
08Decks & Covered PatiosA roof over the back porch keeps it usable through rain and snow. We set the footings, frame the deck and roof, and file the permit with the borough before we start.View ServiceAround the Borough
Irwin fits inside less than a square mile, and most of its history fits on a handful of streets. We picked five, with what each one means for a project nearby.
424 Main · the borough office
The marker for John Irwin's 1836 brick inn stands at Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. At 424 Main, the borough takes permit applications, and its code agency reviews the plans, which can take up to fifteen business days.
Old Route 30 · the Lincoln Highway
Pennsylvania Avenue carried the Lincoln Highway through town and was paved in 1924, and the streetcar barn built before 1908 still stands on it. We remodel the homes along the avenue and build out its commercial spaces.
Tinker's Run · the borough park
Tinker's Run flows through Irwin Park, where the bank had lost about four feet to erosion and a stabilization project was planned to cut flooding. Near the run, we see where water sits after a storm before planning below grade.
The fire hall · since 1873
Irwin's volunteer fire company on Western Avenue began in 1873 as the Capitol Fire Department. In the borough's prewar houses, we expect to find several owners' repairs inside the walls, and we plan time to sort them out first.
651 Brush Hill Road · National Register
Brush Hill, on Brush Hill Road, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975. On any older house in Irwin, we match trim profiles, window sizes and roof pitch instead of using whatever is on the shelf.
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Who Does the Work
An old house hides things: a header that was never there, a joist cut for a pipe, three layers of floor. The carpenters who find them on our jobs are the same ones who fix them, not a crew called in later.
The usual way
The AllTrades way
A Year in Irwin
Winter brings well over a hundred freezing nights, spring brings the snowmelt, and summer brings storms that send it all down the drains to the creeks. An older house feels each one.
Freezing nights
114Nights a year at or below 32°F
Water that soaks into porch steps, old trim and window sills freezes and swells again and again from November to March. We seal and flash those spots when we rebuild them, so they shed water instead of holding it.
Snowmelt
44.1 inSnow a winter, Pittsburgh airport
All that snow can melt in one warm March week. In an old basement, that is when seepage shows up, and it is the best time for us to see where water gets in before any finish goes on.
Summer storms
1.532-inch rain days a year, PA, 2010–14
Irwin's storm drains empty straight into Brush Creek and Tinker's Run, and Irwin Park has flooded along the run. Before we build anything low near either creek, we look at where the water goes in a heavy storm.
Freezing nights and snow: Pittsburgh International Airport normals, 1991–2020 (NOAA). Two-inch rain days: NOAA's climate summary for Pennsylvania. NOAA climate summary for Pennsylvania (opens in a new tab)
Building in Irwin
Each of these can add days or dollars to a project in Irwin, so we bring them up before the estimate, not after the walls are open.
Up to 15Business days of plan review
Irwin takes building permit applications at the borough office on Main Street, and a third-party firm, Code Enforcement Agency, reviews the plans against the 2021 state building code and inspects the work. Review can take up to fifteen business days, so we file early and set the start date around it.
Irwin Borough permit forms (opens in a new tab)$245Lateral inspection and dye test
Before you sell or refinance, the borough has to issue a certificate of compliance, and it checks the line from your house to the main by camera and a dye test. Apply at least fifteen days before closing. If the line fails, you get thirty days to fix it.
Irwin Borough forms, incl. the sale packet (opens in a new tab)Irwin BasinPittsburgh coal seam
Irwin sits on the Irwin coal basin, and state mapping shows confirmed mining under much of the borough. Tinker's Run still carries mine drainage into Brush Creek. Homeowner's policies leave subsidence out, so check your address on the map before building an addition.
Check your address on the state's mine subsidence map (opens in a new tab)Where Else We Build
North Huntingdon is right next door, and from there our list runs west to Plum and Monroeville and east to Greensburg. Same crew, same shop in Trafford.
Ask Us About Irwin
Some come from owners selling or refinancing, some from people settling in for good. Five we hear in the borough.
Ask a QuestionYes. Borough code requires a certificate of compliance before you sell or refinance, and the borough inspects the lateral, including a camera run through the line, plus a dye test your plumber turns in. The inspection and dye test cost $245, and the application is due at least fifteen days before closing.
Irwin Borough forms, incl. the sale packet (opens in a new tab)You apply at the borough office, 424 Main Street, and Code Enforcement Agency, the borough's third-party code firm, reviews the plans under the 2021 Uniform Construction Code the borough adopted and inspects the work. Plan review can take up to fifteen business days. We prepare the drawings and the application, and we meet the inspector at each stage.
Irwin Borough permit forms (opens in a new tab)It turns up often. Pennsylvania's registry has more than 10,000 tests from the 15642, a ZIP that Irwin shares with North Huntingdon, and about a third read 4 picocuries per liter or higher. Test before we finish a basement, and if the result is 4 or more, get a mitigation system installed first.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (opens in a new tab)Yes. More than half of Irwin's homes are rented, and we work for owners who live elsewhere: a kitchen or bath redone between tenants, a porch rebuilt, a unit brought back after years of wear. We set the schedule with you, work around the people living there, and keep to the hours you agree on.
It may be. Irwin sits in the Irwin coal basin, mined since the 1850s, and much of the borough shows up as confirmed mining on the state's map. Standard homeowner's insurance does not cover subsidence; a separate state program does. Look up your address on the map before you plan to build on.
PA DEP Mine Subsidence Insurance (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.
Get in Touch
Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
Call or Text
412-730-8805
hello@alltradeshq.com
Hours
Mon–Fri · 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Closed Sat & Sun
Shop
529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
