What We Build in Andover
Andover’s antique colonials often have kitchens that were never meant for modern life — low ceilings, small windows, and walled-off rooms. Our kitchen remodeling reworks these spaces for how people actually cook and gather, while keeping the proportions and detailing that make an early-American home feel authentic.
Bathrooms in older Andover homes can be tucked into former closets or stair landings. Our bathroom remodeling updates the plumbing, tile, and fixtures, and where it makes sense we reclaim space to give you a proper bath without fighting the home’s bones.
Many Andover families want more room but don’t want to leave a home they love. Our home additions, including primary suites, family rooms, second-story builds, and in-law suites, are designed to read as part of the original house, with matching rooflines, siding, and trim. On a Colonial Revival in Shawsheen Village or an antique on a back road, that match is everything. On the larger lots at the town’s edges, we also work as a custom home builder, building from the ground up on open land or in place of a house that has run its course.
Andover’s period homes ask a lot of their exteriors. Our exterior remodeling covers siding, windows, doors, and the fine trim carpentry that historic and historic-style homes require — work that has to be exact in a town this attentive to detail.
For Andover’s downtown businesses and commercial properties, our commercial construction team handles renovations and tenant build-outs.
Remodeling in Andover: What to Know
Andover’s housing is unusually layered for a single town. There are genuine antique colonials and capes dating to the Federal and Greek Revival periods, gathered in districts like the West Parish Center and the Andover Village Industrial District. There’s Shawsheen Village — a planned corporate community built around 1919–1922 in Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles, with over 350 buildings, originally housing American Woolen Company managers. And there’s everything from mid-century homes to newer, larger builds on the town’s edges.
Remodeling an antique colonial is a different job than remodeling a 2000s build. These homes carry plaster walls, hand-hewn framing, knob-and-tube wiring, and original wavy-glass windows — and the right approach respects what’s worth keeping while modernizing what isn’t. We’ve worked on enough of them to plan for the surprises instead of being caught by them.
Permitting in Andover runs through the town’s building department, and we pull every permit. Two extra layers come up often here. First, historic-district commissions, including the Ballardvale Historic District Commission, review exterior changes within their districts to keep them in keeping with the neighborhood, so siding, windows, and additions may need approval before work starts. Second, the Andover Conservation Commission permits any work within 100 feet of a wetland or 200 feet of a river under the state Wetlands Protection Act and Andover’s own wetlands bylaw. With the Shawsheen River winding through town, that touches a lot of properties. We handle these reviews as part of our process so they don’t stall your project.
Our Process Travels to Andover
Our White Glove Five-Step Process — Survey, Strategize, Solidify, Secure, and Showcase — is built for exactly this kind of work. The “Secure” step is where we manage permits, historic-district approvals, and conservation reviews, so the careful, well-documented planning Andover homes deserve is baked in from the start, not improvised later.
Serving Andover and Nearby
Andover borders our home town of North Reading, so a project here is a short drive, not a job site we visit once a week. Ask about 0% financing for up to 21 months through Hearth. Contact CJM Builders to start.
Looking at other towns nearby? See all the communities we serve on our service areas page.
