An Irwin kitchen is usually small, often decades old, and in more than half the borough's homes it belongs to a rental. Whether you cook in yours or lease it out, our carpenters rebuild it to fit the house it sits in.
Irwin Kitchens
Irwin is small, old and mostly rented: the borough covers 0.84 square miles, its median home dates to 1954, and 57 percent of its homes are leased. That changes what owners and landlords ask of a kitchen here. Six of those asks, and the way we build them.
Nearly half of Irwin's homes have four rooms or fewer, and two-bedroom homes outnumber every other size. In a house like that every foot of kitchen counts, and the ask is more counter and more storage without moving a single wall.
Cabinets run all the way to the ceiling instead of stopping short, blind corners get pull-outs, and appliances are sized to the room: a slimmer dishwasher or range wherever a full-size one would eat the counter.
Small and galley kitchensFifty-seven percent of the borough's homes are rentals, and more than four in ten renters moved in since 2020. Turnover is constant, and with the median rent near $1,000 a month, a unit sitting empty while its kitchen is redone costs real money.
We time the job to land between tenants: cabinets and counters ordered before demo, floors and finishes picked to survive move-outs, and the unit left ready for the borough's rental inspection when our crew packs up.
Kitchen refresh and remodel costsMore than one Irwin home in seven sits in a two-unit building, and close to half are in buildings with two units or more. Owners of those often want both kitchens redone at once, without leaving either tenant unable to cook for long.
We order cabinets and counters for both units together, line up the plumbing and electrical work where the kitchens stack, and stagger the two jobs so one tenant always has a working kitchen while the other is torn out.
Full kitchen remodelsThree in ten Irwin houses predate 1940. A kitchen in one of them may be running a microwave, a dishwasher and a toaster on wiring older than all three, and what people want is a breaker that stops tripping.
New kitchen circuits are permitted work, and the borough's code firm reviews them under the state's 2021 code, which Irwin adopted. We plan every circuit before demo day and run the new lines while the walls are still open.
What we find in old wallsIrwin's older houses were built room by room, and the kitchen tends to sit closed off at the back. The ask is to open it toward the dining room, so the first floor reads as one space instead of three small ones.
Taking out a load-bearing wall needs a permit, and the borough's code firm may need as long as fifteen business days with the plans. We check what the wall is holding up, file early, and schedule demo after the review clears.
Layout changesThe median Irwin home dates to 1954, and state mapping shows old coal mines beneath most of the borough. Seventy years of settling can leave a kitchen floor out of level, and the ask is cabinets and counters that sit straight anyway.
We find the low spots before anything is ordered, sister or shim the joists where the floor has dropped, and lay a flat subfloor, so the cabinets go in level without a stack of shims behind every box.
What we find under the floorFigures: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024, Borough of Irwin. Mining: PA DEP mine subsidence map.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main kitchen remodeling page.
A Kitchen in the Borough
In a borough this small, the rules land close to home: who inspects a rental, how long plan review takes, and whether the building has gas at all. Each one shapes when a kitchen job can start and how it ends.
Every tenantRental unit inspection
Irwin landlords register each tenant with the borough, and the registration ends when that tenant moves out or after five years. Renewing means a new inspection against the fire, property maintenance, plumbing and electrical codes, so a kitchen redone between tenants gets looked at almost right away.
Irwin Code, Chapter 195 (opens in a new tab)15 daysPlan review, up to (business days)
Shifting a wall, moving the sink, rerouting gas or adding circuits is more than an ordinary repair under the state code. In Irwin, that permit goes in at the borough office, and the code firm's review may run as long as fifteen business days. We file before the old kitchen comes out.
34 Pa. Code §403.62 (opens in a new tab)27%Irwin homes heated by electricity
Two-thirds of Irwin homes are heated by utility gas, but more than a quarter are heated by electricity. Where there is no gas line near the kitchen, an induction or electric range on its own circuit is the practical choice. Where there is one, moving the range is permitted gas work.
Heating fuel, Borough of Irwin (Census) (opens in a new tab)Kitchen Questions
Five things owners and landlords in the borough ask first. For how our kitchen jobs run in general, see the kitchen remodeling page.
Ask a QuestionThat turns on how much changes. A small kitchen left in its current layout sits toward the low end of what we price; moving a wall, the plumbing or the range pushes it up. We put a number in writing after seeing the room, and our usual ranges are posted with the kitchen remodeling service.
Kitchen cost rangesLong enough for the work and the inspections, and no longer. Cabinets and counters are ordered before demo so the kitchen never waits on parts, and when the job needs a permit we file it before the tenant leaves, so plan review runs while the unit is still occupied.
A kitchen job, step by stepYes. The 15642 ZIP covers far more of North Huntingdon than it does of the borough, and we work in both. What changes is the paperwork: borough addresses file at 424 Main Street, township addresses file with North Huntingdon. We check which side of the line you are on first.
Kitchen remodeling in North HuntingdonWhen the next tenant moves in, yes. An Irwin registration lapses when a tenant leaves or after five years, whichever comes first, and renewing it means a fresh inspection and the borough's fee. A kitchen we finish between tenants is ready for that visit, so the new lease can be registered as soon as our crew leaves.
Irwin Code §195-5 (opens in a new tab)A sewer certificate. Irwin wants one before a refinance as well as a sale: the borough films the lateral and your plumber turns in a dye test, $245 for both, with the application due fifteen or more days ahead of closing. A certificate from the past 36 months covers a refinance.
Irwin sale and refinance packet (opens in a new tab)Other Services
The crew that rebuilds Irwin kitchens also redoes baths, rebuilds porches and repairs old framing across the borough. Every card links to that service's page.
Bathroom RemodelingFull gut renovations with proper waterproofing, new framing, and tile set by hand.View Service
Attic FinishingUnused attics framed into bedrooms and offices: subfloor, insulation, drywall, and a proper stair.View Service
Basement FinishingUnfinished basements turned into real rooms: framed, insulated, drywalled, and finished by our crew.View Service
Additions & ADUsAdditions and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), framed from the ground up and tied in clean.View Service
Windows & Exterior DoorsWindows and exterior doors set, flashed, and trimmed so water stays out of the wall.View Service
Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsRotted trim and siding, sagging joists, failed sills: opened up and repaired to solid wood.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified 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.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
