More than half of Murrysville's homes went up between the fifties and the eighties, on big wooded lots that families tend to keep for decades. We open up the kitchens, redo the baths and finish the lower levels those houses came with.
Inside a Murrysville Home
Families here tend to stay put for thirty-five or forty years, so the house you are in may still have the layout it was sold with. The seventies built more of Murrysville than any other decade. Four rooms show it first.
In houses from this era we often find the kitchen walled off from the dining room. Before we open it up, we check what that wall carries and size a header for it.
On a sloped lot, the lower level often sits in the hill on one side and opens to the yard on the other. That door to the yard makes it a room people use.
A bath from the seventies that has never been redone is pushing fifty. We take it to the studs, check the subfloor under the tub, waterproof the walls and set new tile.
An old concrete slab out back can become a covered patio. We check whether it can carry posts and a roof, or dig new footings deeper than the ground freezes.
Census figures for the Municipality of Murrysville, American Community Survey 2020–2024. The plan shows the type of house, not a real one. Murrysville on Census Reporter (opens in a new tab)
What We Build Here
We bring the whole list to Murrysville, from a kitchen in a 1970s house to a covered patio on a hillside lot. Each job below starts from what we usually find in houses of that age.
01Kitchen RemodelingA kitchen that has served one family for decades usually needs more than new doors. We take out the wall if the layout calls for it, then set new cabinets, counters and flooring.View Service
02Bathroom RemodelingMany baths here date from the sixties and seventies. We gut them to the studs, rework the layout where the walls allow, waterproof behind the tile, and lay the tile ourselves.View Service
03Attic FinishingWhether an attic can become a room depends on how the roof was framed and how much headroom it has. We check both on the walkthrough, then price the floor, insulation and a proper stair.View Service
04Basement FinishingFinishing the lower level adds a room without an addition. We frame it, insulate the outside walls, hang and finish the drywall, set an egress window for a bedroom, and trim it out.View Service
05Additions & ADUsMurrysville's larger lots often leave room to build out, but the ground is often sloped. We plan the footings for the grade, frame the addition, and match the roofline and siding to the house.View Service
06Windows & Exterior DoorsA sliding door that sticks or a window that rattles in the wind is usually worn out at the frame, not just the glass. We replace the whole unit and rebuild the opening behind it.View Service
07Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsWooded lots keep the house shaded and the siding slow to dry. Where leaves and runoff have rotted the trim, sills or rim joist, we cut out the bad wood and rebuild it solid.View Service
08Decks & Covered PatiosA deck off the back of a hillside house can sit a full story up. We set the posts on footings sized for that height, brace them, and build the stairs down to the yard.View ServiceAround Murrysville
Murrysville covers almost 37 square miles, with village names older than the municipality and houses from every decade since the fifties. Five parts of it, and what we look at first in each.
Turtle Creek · the 1878 gas well
The Haymaker brothers grew up on a farm in Newlonsburg. In 1878 their gas well, under two miles west along Turtle Creek, blew in and burned for eighteen months. Near the creek, we check how water crosses a lot before we dig.
Sardis Road · the municipal building
Sardis had its own post office from 1856 to 1905. Today Sardis Road is where the municipal building sits, and where your permit gets filed. We bring the drawings there, then line up each inspection as the job reaches it.
Hillside lots · a 1780s cabin
The Staymates cabin went up along Round Top Road in the late 1780s. After heavy rain in 2011, slides opened on Round Top and Beighley roads. On a slope like this, we study the grade and drainage before we place a footing.
William Penn Highway · on the sewer line
Boy Scouts planted the spruces that spell out the town's name in the 1930s. Western Murrysville and Route 22 make up most of the sewer authority's service area, so a new bath here can usually tie into public sewer.
King Reserve · the rural side
Out toward Mamont, the King Reserve covers 122 acres between Hills Church and Mamont roads. The municipality's plan expects parts of rural Murrysville to go twenty years or more without public sewer, so we check the septic before adding a bedroom.
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Who Does the Work
When you have lived in a house for thirty years, you notice who walks through the door. On our jobs it is the same carpenters every day, the ones who measured the house before the estimate.
The usual way
The AllTrades way
Through the Year
A normal year at Pittsburgh's airport brings a little over 44 inches of snow and close to 40 inches of rain and melted snow. On a sloped Murrysville lot, all of it runs downhill toward somebody's foundation.
Snow on the roof
44.1 inSnow, Pittsburgh airport normal
More than a hundred nights a year drop to freezing at the airport, and snow can sit on a roof or against a deck for weeks. Every roof and covered patio we frame is built to carry it.
Spring runoff
39.6 inRain and melted snow a year
When the snow melts on a hillside, the water moves downhill through the soil and finds the uphill basement wall. Before we finish a room below grade, we fix the grading and gutters that send it there.
Summer cloudbursts
1.5 a year2-inch rain days in PA, 2010–14
Two-inch rains came more often in Pennsylvania in 2010–14 than the long-term average, and NOAA expects heavy downpours to keep increasing. We flash every deck ledger, window and door head we install before the siding goes back.
Pittsburgh International Airport normals, 1991–2020 (NOAA). Two-inch rain days: NOAA's Pennsylvania State Climate Summary. NOAA Pennsylvania climate summary (opens in a new tab)
Building in Murrysville
Three things the municipality, the state or the ground itself has a say in. We check each one on the walkthrough, so the plan you approve already accounts for it.
Over 3 ftDeck height, building permit
The municipality runs its own permit desk at 4100 Sardis Road. Structural remodeling, additions and any deck more than three feet off the ground need a building permit; a lower deck still needs a zoning permit. We prepare the application and meet the code official for each inspection.
What needs a permit in Murrysville (opens in a new tab)44%15668 tests at 4 pCi/L or more
Pennsylvania's radon registry holds more than 6,000 test results from the 15668, and 44% of them came in at or above 4 picocuries per liter. The state advises a fix at that level. Test the basement before we finish it, and put a mitigation system in first if it tests high.
PA DEP radon test results (opens in a new tab)On the mapConfirmed-mining areas in town
Look up your lot on the state's subsidence map before you add on: parts of Murrysville sit inside its confirmed-mining areas. Regular homeowner's insurance leaves subsidence out, and the state sells that coverage on its own. We can help you read the map.
Check your address on the state's mine subsidence map (opens in a new tab)Where Else We Build
Greensburg and Jeannette lie east of here, Plum, Monroeville and White Oak to the west, and our crew works every one of them from the same shop in Trafford.
Before You Call
Most questions here are about the permit, the lower level and the ground under the house. Five we hear often, answered plainly.
Ask a QuestionThe municipality does, through its Department of Community Development at 4100 Sardis Road, where a building code official reviews plans and inspects the work. Structural remodeling and additions need a building permit, and so does a deck more than three feet high. We put the application together and are on site for each inspection.
Murrysville Community Development (opens in a new tab)It can be. Of the more than 6,000 tests from the 15668 in Pennsylvania's registry, 44% read 4 picocuries per liter or higher, and basement tests ran a little higher still. A hardware-store kit costs about $20 to $30. Run one before we finish the space, and if it comes back high, have a system installed first.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (opens in a new tab)It may well be. About 40 percent of Murrysville's land carries the Export ZIP code, 15632, and a little more the Delmont ZIP, 15626. If your property is in the municipality, permits still go through the office on Sardis Road. Either way, we work all of it, the same as the 15668.
Usually. The higher a deck sits, the more its footings, posts and bracing matter, and once it is more than three feet up, Murrysville wants a building permit for it. On a hillside we check the ground where each footing goes, size the posts and bracing for the height, and build the stairs down to the yard.
What needs a permit in Murrysville (opens in a new tab)Possibly. Murrysville is where the Haymaker well blew in in 1878, and the state's records list more than 400 oil and gas wells inside the municipality, from active ones to plugged ones to some that cannot be located. Before an addition or new footings, the state's well map shows what is near your lot.
PA oil and gas well map (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.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
