Plum more than doubled in the sixties, as Holiday Park and the streets around it filled with three-bedroom houses on hilly lots. Sixty years on, we remodel their original kitchens, baths and decks, and we build with the slope in mind.
On a Plum Hillside
One in four Plum homes went up in the 1960s, more than in any other decade, and three- and four-bedroom houses make up three quarters of the borough. The borough's own plan points to steep terrain and old mines. Four spots we look at first.
A kitchen from the sixties was built for one cook and a wall phone. We rework the layout and take down the dining-room wall if the structure lets us, then set new cabinets level.
On a hillside lot, a back deck can sit a story or more above the ground. Plum requires a permit for every deck, and we set footings into the slope and brace the posts.
A bath this age often has tile set in mortar over old pipes. We open a wall to see the supply and drain lines before the final price, then rebuild it waterproofed and tiled.
The basement wall facing uphill takes the most water. Before we finish the lower level, we check that wall, the grading above it and the downspouts, and fix what sends water toward the house.
Census figures for Plum Borough, American Community Survey 2020–2024. The drawing is a typical sloping-lot layout, not one address. Plum on Census Reporter (opens in a new tab)
What We Build Here
Plum built fast after 1950 and kept building through the nineties. Here is how the work usually goes on a borough house, and where the hillside changes it.
01Kitchen RemodelingA sixties kitchen often has soffits over the cabinets and one window over the sink. We take the soffits down where nothing runs through them, rework the layout and build it ourselves.View Service
02Bathroom RemodelingOriginal sixties bathrooms tend to have tile wainscot, a steel tub and little storage. We gut the room, rework the storage and rebuild it with waterproofing behind every tiled wall.View Service
03Attic FinishingA low roof pitch can leave an attic good for storage and little else. We check the framing and headroom on the walkthrough, and if a room will not fit, we say so.View Service
04Basement FinishingA walkout lower level on a hillside lot can make a family room with daylight on one side. We frame and insulate it, hang the drywall and add egress where a bedroom needs it.View Service
05Additions & ADUsSteep lots limit where an addition can go, and Plum's zoning flags slopes over 25 percent as critical areas. We work out the footprint, set footings for the grade and frame it to match.View Service
06Windows & Exterior DoorsSixty-year-old windows and patio doors let drafts in around the sash and sill. We replace them with units sized to the opening, fix any rot underneath and trim them inside and out.View Service
07Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsWater running off a hillside finds the low side of the house. Where it has rotted the siding, sheathing or rim framing, the damaged wood gets replaced and the drainage behind it fixed.View Service
08Decks & Covered PatiosBorough rules list decks, porches and porch roofs as needing a building permit. We build open decks and covered porches on footings set for Plum's slopes, framed for winter snow load.View ServiceCorners of Plum
Plum stretches across almost 29 square miles, from hilltops above the Allegheny to the creek valleys inland. Here are five of its corners and what a remodel in each tends to involve.
A 1920s company town
About 200 homes on a hilltop over the Allegheny, laid out in the early 1920s as a company town for the Logans Ferry Mine and sold to private owners in 1949. In homes that old, the framing gets checked first.
Built from 1959
Holiday Park started going up in 1959, as Plum's population more than doubled in a decade. Its houses are now past sixty, the age when original windows, baths and kitchens tend to come up for replacement together.
Coal patch · mines until 1987
Renton grew up around the Union Collieries mines opened between 1916 and 1920, and the last of them was abandoned in 1987. With mining under so much of Plum, we suggest a look at the state's subsidence map before an addition.
Anderson Avenue · July 2019
Plum Creek runs under Anderson Avenue, one of the spots flooded in July 2019, when storms left more than 50 stormwater problems around the borough. On lots along the creek, we keep finished space above the water's likely reach.
Three slides · 2023
PennDOT closed Milltown Road in 2023 to fix three separate slides, one of four Plum roads shut for slide repair that summer. On hillsides like these, we look at the slope and its drainage before setting a single footing.
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Who Does the Work
Building on a slope takes more planning than a flat lot: footings, drainage, getting materials to the back of the house. The carpenters who plan your job also build it, every day, until the final walkthrough.
The usual way
The AllTrades way
Plum Through the Year
Plum's slopes move water fast. Snowmelt loosens hillsides in spring, summer storms swell the creeks, and a long string of freezing nights works on anything built too shallow.
Freeze
~114Freezing nights a year, Pittsburgh airport
Frost lifts shallow footings and cracks steps that were never set deep enough. Deck and porch footings we set go deeper than frost reaches, and new stairs get a footing of their own instead of resting on the yard.
Slide season
May 2018Boda Road slide
Spring rain on thawed ground is when Plum's hillsides tend to move: a 2018 slide under Boda Road closed it for months. Before we dig on a slope, we study where the water runs and how the ground has behaved.
Summer storms
$10Flood mitigation fee, house bills
Plum Creek, Little Plum Creek and Pucketa Creek all drain the borough, and Plum adds a $10 flood mitigation fee to each house's bills to deal with the runoff. Downspouts we touch get routed well clear of the foundation.
Freezing nights: Pittsburgh International Airport normals (NOAA, 1991–2020). Slides and the flood fee: WPXI and Tribune-Review reporting, 2018–2024. Tribune-Review: Plum roads closed for slide repair (opens in a new tab)
Building in Plum
A Plum project answers to the borough, to Allegheny County and to the ground itself. We plan for all three before the first estimate goes out.
Every deckNeeds a building permit
Plum's Community Development office handles permits itself, from the borough building on Mike Thomas Way. New homes, additions, decks, porches and porch roofs, structural changes and accessory buildings of 200 square feet or more all need a building permit. So do fences over six feet and retaining walls over four.
New ownerOccupancy permit needed
Plum requires an occupancy permit for a house whenever the owners or residents change, no more than once every two years. If you are selling or renting out after a remodel, we finish in time and leave the house ready for the borough's inspector, with permits closed out.
Allegheny Co.Issues plumbing permits
In Allegheny County, the Health Department issues plumbing permits, and any plumbing installed or changed needs one, with plans approved before work starts. On a kitchen or bath here, we line that up early so the borough and county inspections fit the schedule.
Allegheny County plumbing permits (opens in a new tab)Where Else We Build
Plum is one of three Allegheny County towns on our list, with Monroeville and White Oak. Murrysville is next door to the southeast, and the drive south from our Trafford shop is short.
Asked in Plum
Hillsides, county permits and the occupancy rule come up most here. Five answers, written for Plum.
Ask a QuestionYes. In Allegheny County, the Health Department's plumbing program requires a permit for plumbing that is installed or altered, with the plans approved before work starts. That sits alongside any borough building permit. On a kitchen or bath, we line up both before demo day.
Allegheny County plumbing permits (opens in a new tab)Plum requires a residential occupancy permit whenever the owners or residents change, no more than once every two years, and the borough inspects before issuing it. If you are remodeling first, we plan the work so it is finished and closed out before that inspection.
Slides in Plum have mostly hit roads: Boda Road in 2018, four state roads at once in 2023 and Logans Ferry Road in 2026. Zoning flags slopes over 25 percent. On a steep lot, we look at drainage and the ground before adding on or building a deck.
Tribune-Review: Plum roads closed for slide repair (opens in a new tab)A great deal. The state has confirmed coal mining under most of the borough, especially the northern half, and the Renton mines ran until 1987. Subsidence is excluded from standard homeowner's policies, so look yours up on that map before adding on.
Check your address on the state's mine subsidence map (opens in a new tab)About a third come back high. Of nearly 5,000 tests in Pennsylvania's registry from the 15239 ZIP, which lies wholly inside Plum, 32% read 4 picocuries per liter or more, so a basement test comes first; a high number means mitigation goes in before framing.
PA DEP: Radon in the Home (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
