Remodeled kitchen with gray custom cabinetry, a large white island, and warm pendant lighting
West Chester · Chester County

Home Remodeling Contractor in West Chester, PA

Pinnacle Housing Solutions remodels kitchens, bathrooms, and basements across the West Chester, PA area, from the ring townships to the borough. Licensed and insured, HIC #PA174073, rated 5.0 on Google.

West Chester · 19380 and 19382

What a West Chester address actually covers

Ask ten people in 19380 or 19382 where they live and all ten will say West Chester. Only a fraction of them mean the borough. The two ZIP codes take in eleven separate municipalities, and the borough is the smallest, the oldest, and the least typical of the group.

Two things follow from that. Your permit comes from your own township. And your house is probably decades newer than anything downtown, which changes what a remodel costs before anyone opens a wall.

The 11 municipalities in the West Chester area

West Chester Borough
Roughly 3,000 of the borough’s 7,200 homes went up before 1940, and you feel it the moment a wall comes open. Plaster, knob-and-tube, galvanized supply lines narrowed down to a straw. There is no side yard either, so every cabinet comes in the front door and every bag of debris leaves the same way. Borough jobs run longer and cost more than anything else around here, and this is the only part of West Chester where the historic board gets a say.
West Goshen Township
Over 20,000 people, which makes it bigger than the borough, and it is where we spend the most time. West Goshen went up fast in the sixties and seventies. If you own one of those houses you already know the list: the kitchen is a room of its own, three bedrooms share one hall bath, and the panel filled up years ago.
East Goshen Township
Runs a few years later than West Goshen, with bigger lots toward Paoli Pike. Same list otherwise, plus a basement somebody finished around 1985 that nobody has touched since.
Westtown Township
Eighties and nineties colonials on generous lots. The floor plans are already open, so the work is finishes rather than framing.
East Bradford Township
Cross the Brandywine and the ground starts to roll. Newer houses sit among stone farmhouses that predate all of them. Once you are off the borough edge you are usually on a private well and a septic field, and that decides whether you can add a bathroom.
West Bradford Township
Subdivisions from the nineties onward with working farmland still in between. A lot of full-height basements out here that nobody ever got around to finishing.
West Whiteland Township
The Exton end, and the most built up of the group. Townhouses and carriage homes next to nineties colonials. Kitchens and primary baths, rarely anything structural.
Thornbury Township
There are two Thornbury Townships, one in Chester County and one in Delaware County, and paperwork lands at the wrong one more often than it should. Big houses on big lots. Most of what we get asked for here is an addition or a full primary suite.
Birmingham Township
Battlefield land, preserved open space, stone houses, wells and septic. Worth saying plainly: this is not Chadds Ford Township across the county line, even though that one answered to the name Birmingham until 1996.
Pocopson Township
Old houses on acreage along the Brandywine. Nothing is plumb, so cabinets get scribed and trim gets matched. The labor line runs ahead of the material line.
Willistown Township
Horse farms at the north end, ordinary suburban streets down by Route 3. Tell us which one you are on and we know most of what we need to.
Permits

Permits in the West Chester area

Where your permit comes from
Whichever of the eleven municipalities you live in. Each runs its own office, its own fees, and its own review times. We work that out at the estimate.
Historic review is a borough matter
The borough has three National Register districts, and the downtown one is a local historic district as well. Exterior work inside it needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historical and Architectural Review Board before any building permit issues. The board sits once a month with a cutoff about ten days out, so it moves the calendar. Township properties are outside its reach, and so is interior work anywhere.
What actually triggers a permit
Structural changes, moving plumbing or gas, and new or altered electrical circuits. Taking out the wall between a kitchen and a family room counts, because in a sixties ranch that wall is usually holding something up. Swapping cabinets and counters in place with no service changes usually does not.

Rules and review times change. Confirm the current requirements with West Chester Borough HARB, or ask us at the estimate and we will check it for your address.

Reviews from Chester County homeowners

West Chester remodeling FAQs

I have a West Chester address but I am not in the borough. Does that change anything?

Yes. Most 19380 and 19382 addresses sit in West Goshen, East Goshen, Westtown, East Bradford, West Bradford, West Whiteland, Thornbury, Birmingham, Pocopson, or Willistown Township. Your permit comes from that township and the borough historic district rules have nothing to do with you. The house is also usually decades newer, which makes the work simpler and cheaper.

Do I need HARB approval to remodel my West Chester home?

Only if you are inside the borough, in the local historic district, and changing something visible from the street. Interior kitchen and bathroom work never goes to HARB, and township properties sit outside its authority altogether.

Can you open up the kitchen in a West Goshen split-level or rancher?

Almost always, and it is our most common job in the area. The wall between the kitchen and family room in a sixties or seventies house is usually load bearing, so the work involves a beam and a permit rather than plain demolition. We check the framing at the estimate and price that part before you sign anything.

How much does a kitchen remodel cost in West Chester, PA?

A full kitchen remodel runs $55,000 to $95,000 across the West Chester area. Township ranchers and colonials sit in the middle of that. Borough homes trend higher because the job normally takes in new electrical service and replacing galvanized supply lines. A cosmetic refresh starts near $30,000.

Do older West Chester homes need the wiring replaced during a remodel?

In the borough, usually. Houses built before about 1940 often still have knob-and-tube, and code will not let us extend those circuits. Out in the sixties and seventies township housing the wiring is generally fine, but the panel is often too small for a modern kitchen and has to be upgraded.

Other towns we serve

Pinnacle Housing Solutions works across Chester County and the Main Line from our base in West Grove, PA.

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