Smithtown is a place of colonials, larger lots and tree-lined streets, with condo and townhouse communities tucked among them. A gut here usually means a multi-floor house with a kitchen at the back, a formal dining room nobody uses and bathrooms that were last updated before the current owners moved in. The scale is the main challenge: more rooms, more floors, more trades and more decisions. Instead of a general overview, this page walks through the project room by room, so you can see where the time and money go. It is written for owners in ZIP 11787.
Smithtown is toward the outer edge of our Long Island coverage, so larger gut projects here are taken by arrangement. That simply means we plan start dates, crew size and deliveries together with you, instead of promising a drop-in schedule.
A gut and a remodel solve different problems. A gut replaces what is inside the walls and floors; a remodel updates what is on top. On a colonial with solid framing and reasonably recent wiring, a remodel of kitchens and baths plus new floors and paint might meet 90 percent of your goals at a lower cost. On a house with original wiring, failing pipes and a layout that does not fit modern life, a gut may be cheaper than a series of patch jobs.
Our article Gut Renovation vs. Remodel: Which Do You Need? walks through the decision. In Smithtown, we often prepare options for both, so you can compare totals and see what each leaves behind.
The kitchen is where most Smithtown guts begin and where most of the money goes. Common changes include opening the kitchen to a family room, adding an island, upgrading to a larger range with proper venting and replacing cabinets and counters.
What affects cost and schedule:
A kitchen renovation in the New York metro typically runs about $25,000 to $85,000 or more as a 2026 planning range, depending on scope. Kitchens take about six to twelve weeks to complete. Backsplash tile is roughly $30 to $90 per square foot installed. Our Smithtown kitchen and bath remodels page explains the choices in more detail.
Older Smithtown colonials often have a single full bath upstairs and a half bath on the main floor. A gut is the time to correct that.
Considerations:
A full bathroom renovation typically runs $30,000 to $60,000 or more, and takes three to six weeks. Cutting tile creates silica dust, so wet cutting or vacuum control under the OSHA silica standard is standard practice.
Formal living and dining rooms are where plaster, trim and structure tend to meet. Older colonials may have plaster walls and ceilings, picture-frame moldings and original floors. The key question is whether to restore, skim or replace.
Our guide to Skim Coating vs. Painting Over Cracked Plaster lays out how to choose. Old paint may contain lead, so any sanding or demolition in a pre-1978 house should follow lead-safe practices; the EPA lead page explains the requirements. Opening the wall between living and dining rooms is a common goal, and it needs structural review first.
Upstairs in a colonial, the work is quieter but just as consequential. Bedrooms usually need new wiring, new insulation in exterior walls and better closets. Primary suites often borrow space from a neighboring bedroom, which means moving a wall and sometimes a plumbing stack. Stairs deserve a hard look: worn treads, low headroom and narrow landings are common, and rebuilding them can change the floor plan on two levels at once. Egress windows in bedrooms are a safety item to verify with the building department, not an afterthought.
Basements in older Suffolk houses can be damp. Before you finish one, address drainage, moisture and any past water entry, then insulate and detail the walls so they stay dry. Attics may offer room for a primary suite or a laundry, but they bring roof framing, insulation and egress questions. Garages converted to living space need their own heating, insulation, wiring and, in many cases, a permit and egress check. Each of these is a separate decision you can add to the scope now or leave for a later phase.
Many older houses still run on aging boilers, oil tanks or furnaces. A gut is the moment to ask whether your heating, cooling and water-heating setup suits the new layout. The ENERGY STAR site is a helpful reference for efficient equipment categories. Any change in fuel or distribution should be reviewed with the town and your utility, and removal of an old tank has its own rules.
A single-story renovation can sometimes survive loose coordination. A multi-floor colonial cannot. Plumbing runs through three levels. Electrical feeds are shared. Structure carries load from the roof to the foundation. A change on one floor affects the others, and a crew that does not coordinate trades will create conflicts you pay to fix.
N.Y. Renovation Services is a fully licensed and insured, in-house design-and-build company. We take projects from blueprints to the final coat of paint. That means the same team that draws your plan also builds it, sequences the trades floor by floor and handles the permit paperwork. Because Smithtown projects are taken by arrangement, we plan crew size and deliveries early, so the work moves with fewer stops.
What a single accountable team provides:
With homes this size, the risks of a loosely managed project are expensive: a missed inspection can force walls open, an unpermitted change can surface when you sell, and an uninsured worker injury can become your problem. Licensed and insured work puts a professional between you and those outcomes.
We also donate 5 percent of total project cost to a nonprofit of your choice.
Building permits on Long Island come from the town, village or city building department, and Suffolk County requires home improvement contractor licensing through county consumer affairs. For Smithtown, that means the Town of Smithtown building department. Verify details with the town and the Suffolk County website.
Work that commonly needs a permit includes structural changes, plumbing and gas work, electrical upgrades, mechanical changes, new openings in exterior walls and finishing or converting spaces. Our guide Do You Need a Permit to Demo an Apartment in NYC? explains the logic for city buildings; Smithtown rules differ, so treat the town as the authority.
Before demolition, test for asbestos and lead. Homes built before the late 1980s can contain asbestos in flooring, adhesives, insulation and pipe wrap, and certified abatement is required if it is present. Selective demolition and haul-away runs about $8 to $30 per square foot as a 2026 planning range. Larger lots usually allow a dumpster on site, which helps, but check with the town about container placement and driveway protection.
These are typical 2026 planning ranges for the New York metro. They are not quotes. Building rules, access, hazmat, finishes and scope move prices, and a written, itemized quote governs.
| Scope | Typical 2026 planning range |
|---|---|
| Cosmetic refresh | $100 to $250 per sq ft |
| Mid-level renovation with kitchen and bath | $200 to $400 per sq ft |
| Full gut, all-in | $250 to $500+ per sq ft |
| High-end or structural | $500 to $1,000 per sq ft |
| Design, engineering, permits | add about 15 to 25 percent |
| Selective demolition and haul-away | $8 to $30 per sq ft |
| Hardwood installed | $12 to $28 per sq ft |
| Hardwood refinishing | $4 to $10 per sq ft |
Colonials with several floors multiply stair, finish and trim work, so the larger the house, the more the details dominate. For the wider cost context, read What Does a Renovation Cost in NYC in 2026?. Our Smithtown pages for premium flooring and interior painting provide finish-specific detail.
N.Y. Renovation Services is based at 1 Teleport Dr on Staten Island and takes Smithtown calls Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
We serve Smithtown, in Suffolk County, under ZIP code 11787. The Town of Smithtown is characterized by colonials and larger lots, with condo and townhouse communities in the mix. Because Smithtown lies toward the outer edge of our coverage, larger projects here are taken by arrangement and scheduled together with you.
For a sense of how conditions differ elsewhere on the island, Long Beach is a barrier island with flood-zone rules, Garden City has strict village permits and Hempstead mixes capes, colonials and multifamily buildings. For the full picture, see Long Island Renovation Services.
Large houses are built in layers, and the schedule follows.
Total time is roughly four to nine months, with larger houses toward the upper end. A Smithtown house may also have a basement, an attic and a garage, each of which can become part of the scope. Test your own timing with the Renovation Timeline Planner, and see the overall process in Gut Renovation in NYC: The Complete 2026 Guide.
The way to move from ranges to a real plan is to let us see the house. N.Y. Renovation Services offers a free estimate. We will walk each floor, measure, check panels and plumbing, look for moisture and discuss approvals with you.
Please gather:
You then receive a written, itemized quote that separates each phase and, if you like, each floor, so you can choose what to do now and what to defer. Because we design, permit and build under one roof, the quote you receive is the plan we would actually follow, not a placeholder that changes hands. You will know who files the permit, who orders the cabinets, who schedules the inspections and who answers the phone when a question comes up on a Tuesday afternoon. For a house this size, that clarity is worth more than a few dollars shaved off a bid, and it is the reason many owners choose to bring one team in from the first drawing.
We will say plainly if part of the work can wait, and we will explain exactly how your timeline fits our scheduling for projects by arrangement.
When you are ready, N.Y. Renovation Services can also take your questions by phone at (347) 455-1741, by text or through the quote form, and we will tell you plainly what a Smithtown project would involve.