General Contractor in Andover, MAfor Colonials, Village Homes and Stone Work

Andover is a town of distinct parts. The center along Main Street, near Phillips Academy, has older houses and the civic core of town. Ballardvale, in the south, was the first of Andover's planned mill communities and still has its 19th century mill buildings and worker houses. Shawsheen Village, in the north, was built between about 1918 and 1924 by William Wood of the American Woolen Company as a planned corporate community.

Shawsheen is easy to recognize. Brick houses were built for management, while the "White Shawsheen" houses for other employees were wood-clad, painted white with green shutters. Those houses have a consistent look that owners usually want to keep.

Most of the rest of town filled in later. West Andover, South Andover and the area around Haggetts Pond and Pomps Pond have many colonials, garrisons, capes and contemporaries on large, wooded lots, a lot of them from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Many Andover colonials from the 1970s and 1980s are now on their second or third owner, and the original builder finishes are worn out. The typical list: a new kitchen with a better island and storage, bathrooms that still have their original tile and vanities, hardwood or tile floors to replace old carpet, and a deck that has been patched one too many times.

Additions and bump-outs come up often too. A mudroom off the garage, a family room expansion or a primary suite over the garage are good ways to get space without leaving a house you like. We plan the framing, roof tie-in and siding so the addition looks like it was always there.

Exterior updates round it out: replacing tired siding and trim, a new roof, and better drainage and flashing around decks and doors where water has been getting in.

Andover lots are often larger and more wooded than in towns closer to Boston, and many already have old fieldstone walls along the edges. Stone wall work is one of the services NC Construction does: rebuilding sections that have slumped, building new walls and adding stone veneer to foundations and entries.

Decks get heavy use in summer and heavy snow in winter. On a rebuild, we look at footings, ledger attachment and flashing, not just the boards on top. Decks normally need a building permit, and we help handle that process.

Andover has local historic districts. Ballardvale became one in 1995, and exterior changes to buildings in the district are reviewed by the Ballardvale Historic District Commission. Town Meeting approved a second local district, the Central Street Historic District, in 2025. If your home is in either one, exterior work like siding, windows, porches or additions generally needs commission review before the building permit moves forward.

Shawsheen Village is listed on the National Register, which is different from a local district, but owners there often still want work that respects the original design. Separately, the Andover Preservation Commission reviews demolition permits for buildings on the town building survey or state and national inventories, and it can impose a delay of up to twelve months on a building it decides should be preserved.

Andover voted to adopt the Massachusetts Specialized Opt-in Energy Code, with an effective date of July 1, 2026. It mainly affects new homes and major projects, so if you are planning a large addition or a full gut renovation, ask early how it applies, because it can change the insulation and mechanical plan.

Roofs, siding, decks and stone walls are best done from late spring through fall, when materials seal and mortar can cure above freezing. Kitchens, baths and floors work in any season, and winter is a good window for interior work.

We are based in Woburn and get to Andover on I-93. Nathan, the owner, does the walkthrough, writes the estimate and is on site while the work is done, so you deal with one person who knows the job. The written estimate lists scope and materials clearly, and the estimate itself is free.

We protect finished floors, keep dust contained and clean up at the end of each day. If we find rot, old wiring or framing problems once something is opened, we show you and write up any change before going further.