Remodeling Contractor in Louisville, KY
Most of the houses we work in on this side of the county were framed before World War II. Germantown and Schnitzelburg are still block after block of shotguns and camelbacks. The Highlands and Clifton run to Craftsman bungalows and foursquares. Old Louisville is Victorian brick with 12-foot ceilings. Get out past the Watterson and it flips to post-war ranches and split-levels. Each of those eras fails in its own way, and pricing a remodel here starts with knowing which one you’re standing in.
Nest Construction is a licensed and insured general contractor based in Louisville. Gil has been running crews here for eleven years and we’ve closed out more than 255 jobs across Jefferson County.
What Louisville houses actually throw at you
Shotguns and camelbacks. No hallway. Rooms run front to back in a line, and the bathroom is usually a tacked-on room off the kitchen at the very back. When people ask us for a second bathroom, the answer is almost never “put it upstairs.” It’s usually stealing depth from a back bedroom or reworking the rear addition so the plumbing stays stacked over the existing drain. Ceilings are high, joists are long, and the walls are plaster on lath over balloon framing — meaning a wall cavity can run uninterrupted from the sill to the attic. That’s a fire code issue when we open it, and it’s also why running a new duct or vent is easier than people expect.
Plaster. We don’t automatically tear it out. Sound plaster on wood lath is denser and quieter than drywall. But it hides every wire and pipe, it cracks along the lath lines, and it does not tolerate a sloppy patch. On a Highlands bath we’ll usually skim-coat and blend rather than gut, unless the keys behind it have already let go.
The guts. Cast iron drain stacks from the 1920s scale up on the inside and rot at the base where they hit the basement floor. Galvanized supply lines choke down to pencil width. Knob-and-tube shows up in attics and in the odd untouched wall in houses that were only partly rewired in the 60s. We open a wall, we look. If your kitchen is on a 15-amp circuit shared with the dining room, that gets fixed as part of the job, not billed as a surprise.
Foundations and water. Brick and limestone rubble foundations, and basements that take water in a hard Ohio Valley rain. Before we build cabinets or lay tile in a lower level, we want the outside handled — grading, gutters, downspout extensions.
Post-war ranches. Out toward Fern Creek, Okolona, Buechel and Highview, the problem is different: closed-off galley kitchens, 1970s soffits full of nothing, aluminum wiring in a slice of mid-60s houses, and load-bearing center walls that people want removed. Those walls usually can come out. It takes a beam and a real point-load path down to the footing.
What we do here
- Kitchen remodels — opening up galley layouts, relocating plumbing, cabinet and countertop installs
- Bathroom remodels — adding a second bath, tub-to-shower conversions, tile
- Whole-home renovations and additions
- New construction
- Siding, soffit, fascia and exterior work
- Fencing and decks
- Tile and flooring, drywall and trim, custom carpentry, painting
Permits and preservation districts
Building permits in Louisville Metro go through the Office of Construction Review, filed on the Accela portal. Remodels that change the footprint, move load-bearing framing, or alter mechanical, electrical or plumbing systems need one. We pull permits in our name and meet the inspector.
The extra step here is local preservation districts. Louisville Metro has eight — Butchertown, Cherokee Triangle, Chickasaw, Clifton, Limerick, Old Louisville, Parkland and West Main Street — plus individually designated landmarks. Inside those boundaries, exterior alterations, demolition and new construction need a Certificate of Appropriateness reviewed against the district’s design guidelines. That covers windows, siding, porch work, roofing changes and additions visible from the street. It does not cover your interior. If you’re in Cherokee Triangle and you want new windows, budget the review time into the schedule. We’ve been through it.
Neighborhoods we work in
Germantown, Schnitzelburg, the Highlands, Original Highlands, Clifton, Crescent Hill, Butchertown, Old Louisville, Shelby Park, Portland, Camp Taylor, Beechmont, Audubon Park, Bonnycastle, Cherokee Triangle, Fern Creek, Okolona, Highview, Buechel, Middletown, Lyndon, Valley Station and Pleasure Ridge Park.
Licensed, insured, and here for eleven years
Eleven years in business. 255+ completed jobs. 4.9 stars from 143 reviews on Thumbtack and 5.0 on Google. Licensed and insured, with certificates we’ll send you before we start. Built Right. Built To Last.
Get a real number on your project
Call Gil at (502) 821-9118 or email Office@nestconstructionky.com. We’ll walk the house, tell you what we find, and put it in writing. Contact us here.
Questions we get from Louisville homeowners
Can you add a second bathroom to a shotgun house?
Usually yes. The cheapest version stacks the new bath near the existing drain line so we’re not trenching the whole slab or crawlspace. We’ll look at the back bedroom, the rear addition, and where the stack runs before we quote it.
My walls are plaster. Do you have to gut them?
No. If the plaster is still keyed to the lath, we patch and skim. We gut when the keys are broken, when the wiring behind it has to come out anyway, or when we’re moving the wall.
Do I need a permit to remodel a kitchen in Louisville?
If you’re moving plumbing, adding circuits, or taking out a wall, yes — through Louisville Metro Construction Review. Cabinet and countertop swaps with no mechanical changes generally don’t. We’ll tell you which one your job is.
I’m in Old Louisville. Does the preservation district slow things down?
For interior work, no. For anything on the exterior, the project goes through a Certificate of Appropriateness review first. Plan for it rather than fight it.