Huntington has one of the more varied housing stocks on the North Shore. Village-center streets hold Victorian and Queen Anne houses with wraparound porches; hillside blocks have shingle-style and colonial revival homes; and the harbor-front and creek-side properties include everything from old cottages to substantial waterfront houses. A great many of them are a century old or older.
That age is an asset and a project. This page lays out a restoration as a sequence of phases, so you can see the order of operations, the decisions at each stage and where Huntington's town rules enter the calendar.
Think of the project as ten phases. Each phase has an exit test, a condition that must be true before the next one starts. Skipping a test is how plaster gets cracked by a late framing change or how new floors get gouged by a plumber.
| Phase | What happens | Exit test |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Survey and testing | Moisture, structure, asbestos and lead assessment | Written findings and scope |
| 2. Design and filings | Drawings, permit applications, historic review if applicable | Permits in hand |
| 3. Protection and selective demolition | Containment, removals, haul-away | Walls and floors opened as planned |
| 4. Structure | Repairs to joists, beams, sills, foundations | Engineer or inspector sign-off |
| 5. Rough-in | Electrical, plumbing, HVAC and gas lines | Rough inspections passed |
| 6. Insulation and air sealing | Cavities, attic and rim joists | Inspection where required |
| 7. Plaster and drywall | Repair, patch, skim | Flat, dry, cured surfaces |
| 8. Tile and floors | Waterproofing, tile, sanding, first coats | Cured assemblies |
| 9. Paint, trim and finish | Primer, finish coats, hardware | Clean, protected surfaces |
| 10. Punch list and closeout | Final inspections and certificates | Signed completion paperwork |
For a deeper checklist written for New York City apartments, see our gut renovation checklist from permit to punch list; the order is the same even though the jurisdiction differs.
We serve Huntington in ZIP 11743 and the neighboring North Shore communities.
The Town of Huntington includes several villages and hamlets, so the same street name can fall under different permitting offices. The hillside lots around the village center are often steep and heavily wooded, with narrow driveways and limited staging space. Harbor and creek-side lots bring flood and wetland considerations in places, and older houses may sit on stone or block foundations that have seen decades of moisture. We check each of these constraints on the first visit and price staging, protection and access realistically. The county's own site, Suffolk County's website, is the right place for consumer-affairs and contractor-licensing questions.
If you are comparing other North Shore and Nassau markets, our pages for Garden City and Hempstead show how scope changes with housing type, and Long Beach shows what coastal elevation rules do to a plan.
Most failed restorations fail before demolition starts, because nobody looked hard enough.
A good survey covers structure (sagging floors, notched joists, out-of-plumb walls), moisture (stains, efflorescence, damp basements) and mechanical systems (panel capacity, pipe materials, boiler age). It ends with a written list of items, ranked by urgency, which becomes the foundation of the scope.
Asbestos and lead tests are part of the survey, not an afterthought. Floor tile, mastic, pipe insulation, roofing and old plaster additives can contain asbestos; paint before 1978 can contain lead. The EPA's asbestos page explains why disturbing suspect material without testing is a mistake. If asbestos is present and will be disturbed, certified abatement is required before general demolition.
Permits come from the Town of Huntington or, within an incorporated village, from that village. Some properties are designated historic or sit in a historic district, which can add review for exterior changes such as windows, siding, porches and rooflines. We recommend confirming status with the town at the very start, because a review requirement can shape the design itself. We can prepare and file the paperwork for you.
Historic Huntington houses often have their character in the exterior: tall double-hung windows, wood porches, shingle or clapboard siding, and deep eaves. Owners ask whether to replace or repair, and the better answer depends on condition. Most sashes can be repaired, reglazed and weatherstripped, and a good storm window closes much of the energy gap with a new unit. Porch decks and columns rot from the bottom up, and a failed column base is usually replaced in kind. Because exterior changes are the first thing a historic review looks at, decide the envelope strategy before you finalize interior plans. Doing so also avoids opening a freshly plastered wall to fix a leak that started at a window head.
Selective demolition in a historic house is a precision job. The goal is to remove what must go while keeping what you want to preserve: baseboards, door casings, newel posts, mantels, original floors.
Typical practice includes:
Selective demolition and haul-away typically run $8 to $30 per square foot as a 2026 planning range, depending on access, floors, hazmat and carting. Hillside lots with long carries to the dumpster fall toward the upper end.
Structure follows demolition because the house is finally open. This is when sagging beams are jacked and sistered, rotted sills are replaced and old notches are repaired. An engineer's drawing may be needed for significant changes, and the work should be inspected before it is closed in.
The mechanical phase decides whether the restored house is comfortable and safe to live in for the next fifty years.
New York City's code environment is changing, with a new Existing Building Code scheduled to take effect July 17, 2027, but Huntington work follows state and local codes. The NYC Department of Buildings is the right resource for city projects, while Town of Huntington and New York State rules apply on the Island. Verify with the town for your own address.
Plaster is where historic houses show their quality. When it is repaired by someone who knows the material, the result is a flat, dense, quiet wall that holds trim profiles crisply.
Plaster repair sequence: secure loose sections, bridge cracks, patch holes, skim coat and prime with a primer suited to porous plaster. If a wall must be rebuilt, we choose between three-coat plaster and drywall with a skim finish based on budget and trim detail.
Floors: Original boards are refinished in place when sound. Refinishing typically runs $4 to $10 per square foot as a 2026 planning range, versus $12 to $28 for new solid or engineered hardwood installed. Where subfloors dip, leveling adds roughly $2 to $8 per square foot. Our Huntington flooring installation page covers the options in more detail.
Paint and finish: Old woodwork often carries many layers of lead-bearing paint. Under the EPA's RRP rule, paid work that disturbs paint in a pre-1978 home requires certified firms and lead-safe practices; the EPA RRP program page explains the requirements. Our interior painting in Huntington crews are set up to prep, prime and finish plaster and trim on that basis.
Mistakes in historic work are more expensive than in new construction because the original material cannot be replaced. These are the ones we would most like Huntington owners to avoid; more appear in our article on the 12 mistakes NYC owners make in gut renovations.
Budgeting begins with scope categories. Typical 2026 planning ranges as of October 2026 are below; building rules, access, hazmat, finishes and scope move prices.
| Scope | Planning range |
|---|---|
| Bathroom, full | $30,000-$60,000+ |
| Kitchen, full | $25,000-$85,000+ |
| Interior paint, 3-bedroom equivalent | $6,000-$12,000 |
| Skim coating | +$2-$5/sq ft |
| Soft costs (design, engineering, filings) | +15%-25% |
Add a contingency for hidden conditions, commonly set aside in the budget as a separate line. For the broader cost picture, our NYC renovation cost guide for 2026 shows how the pieces combine, and the renovation timeline planner helps you place phases on a calendar.
Historic work rewards continuity. When the person who surveyed the house also designs the plan, files the paperwork, supervises the trades and signs off the punch list, nothing falls through the cracks between hand-offs. That is how N.Y. Renovation Services works: in-house design and build, from blueprints to the final coat of paint.
We are fully licensed and insured, and we handle testing coordination, permit filings and inspections as part of the contract. Pricing is transparent: a detailed, itemized contract shows what survey, abatement, demolition, structure, plaster, flooring and paint cost, with no hidden fees. If a wall opens to reveal rot, you see the problem and the proposed fix with a price before we proceed.
Compare that with the alternative. A general handyman may be fine for a hinge, but not for a lead-painted staircase, a load-bearing wall or a filing with the town. A mistake in a historic house is not simply an expense; it can destroy original material that no one can buy again.
Practically, that means one project lead who answers your calls, a written sequence of trades, and a weekly look-ahead so you always know which rooms will be closed and why. When the town requests a revised drawing or an inspector wants a detail clarified, we handle the response instead of sending you back to an architect you hired separately. And when finishes come last, our own painters and floor crews follow the plaster and tile teams on a schedule we control, which protects the work already done.
We also pledge 5% of total project cost to a nonprofit of your choice.
Huntington is in our extended Long Island service area, so we schedule projects here after a site visit and a written estimate, with a clear start date rather than a promise of immediate availability.
A restoration usually pulls in other services. Many Huntington owners pair it with kitchen and bath remodels, because those two rooms carry the biggest share of mechanical work, and with luxury apartment renovations or co-op and condo gut renovations when the property is a unit in a managed building. Our regional Long Island renovation services page lists what we cover across Nassau and western Suffolk, and our complete guide to gut renovation explains the process in depth.
Not sure what category your property falls into or which rules apply? Ask us when you request your estimate, and we will sort it out before we price anything.
The fastest way forward is a site visit. Send your address, year built, rooms involved and photos through the quote form, and we will review them before we arrive. You will receive a written, itemized estimate that separates testing, demolition, structure, rough-in, plaster, flooring, paint and soft costs. Questions are welcome by phone at (347) 455-1741, Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We would rather spend an hour on scope now than find a surprise behind a wall later.