HMH Construction — Masters of Renovation

Project story · Peterborough

Century Home Gut Renovation in Peterborough

A century house taken back to its original timber frame and rebuilt from the floor structure up — new stud walls inside the old shell, new services, new everything.

The Peterborough century home from the street before renovation, with its original covered front porch
The Peterborough century home from the street before renovation, with its original covered front porch

There is a point in an old-house renovation where the building is just a shell and a frame, and everything that made it a home is in a bin on the driveway. This one went all the way there — including the floors.

What the project had to achieve

A century house has good bones and almost nothing else that still meets a modern standard. Rather than patch around the old layout, wiring and insulation, this one was stripped back to the original timber frame so the new house could be built inside the old envelope properly, in one pass.

Project goals here are read from the signed scope of work. We don't publish our clients' names, addresses, or anything they told us in confidence.

Scope of work

How it was built

  1. Summer 2023

    What we started with

    A two-storey century home on a corner lot, with a screened front porch and original clapboard siding. From the outside it was sound. Inside, it still had the layout, the finishes and the wiring it had been living with for a very long time.

    Rear elevation of the century home before work startedThe original screened front porch before renovationOriginal interior with the old panel door before demolitionOriginal painted board walls inside the house before the strip-out

  2. October 2023

    Back to the frame — including the floors

    Most gut renovations stop at the studs. This one went further: the floor structure came up too, leaving the joists open across the whole footprint. It is the only honest way to run new services through an old house without carving up structure you cannot see.

    Floor boards removed to expose the original joists across the full footprintWide view of the opened floor structure during demolitionThe stair opening reframed during demolitionThe original timber frame and board sheathing exposed after the interior stripBoth floors stripped back to the original structure

  3. November 2023

    Drawn before it was built

    The kitchen was modelled and dimensioned in 3D first — cabinet by cabinet, with appliance clearances checked against the real wall. Getting this wrong is expensive twice: once in cabinetry and again in the plumbing and electrical roughed in behind it.

    Dimensioned kitchen elevation drawing showing cabinet layout and appliance placement3D model of the kitchen used to confirm the layout before ordering

  4. November 2023

    A new house inside the old one

    New stud partitions went up inside the original shell, setting out rooms that had never existed in this house before. Upstairs the framing follows the roof line, keeping the ceiling height the old structure offers instead of dropping a flat ceiling under it.

    New stud partitions framed inside the original timber structureNew partition walls dividing the upper floor into roomsUpper floor framing following the original roof line

  5. November 2023 – January 2024

    Services, insulation and vapour barrier

    A century house has effectively no insulation, so this is where the comfort actually comes from. Rockwool batt went into every exterior wall, vapour barrier was run and taped over it, and a new panel and gas service replaced what was there.

    Rockwool R14 batt insulation stacked on site ready to installNew electrical panel and rewire mounted on the backing boardInsulation and taped vapour barrier through the upper floorVapour barrier sealed across the ceiling before boardingBathroom framed and roughed in, with the tub set in place

  6. January 2024

    Boarded and taped

    With inspections behind it, the house was boarded and taped. This is the stage where an old building stops looking like a construction site and the new rooms finally read at full size.

    Rooms boarded out with drywall, doorways formedTaped and sanded drywall through the main floorThe new stairwell drywalled and ready for finishing

  7. Spring 2024

    Finished

    Grey shaker cabinets, quartz counters and a white subway backsplash, with the range as the one piece of colour in the room. The new staircase runs on square newels and black metal balusters, and vinyl plank carries through every finished space.

    Finished kitchen seen from the open living space, with quartz counters and subway tileCompleted kitchen with grey shaker cabinets and stainless appliancesKitchen range wall with quartz counter, subway backsplash and range hoodOpen living space looking through to the finished kitchenNew staircase with black metal balusters and a stained handrailDetail of the new stair rail, square newel post and balustersFinished bathroom with a corner shower enclosure under the sloped ceilingSecond bathroom with tub, tiled surround and new fixturesFinished bedroom with plank flooring and new trim

  8. Summer 2024

    Outside, back in order

    The exterior was made good and a new rear entry deck and stairs went on, so the house arrives at the street looking like the century home it always was.

    New rear entry deck and stairs on the finished houseThe completed century home from the side, siding and windows finished

The result

A century house with its original proportions intact and everything behind the walls brand new — rebuilt frame, services, insulation and finishes, inside the same envelope it started with.

Services used on this project

Home Renovations →Kitchen Renovations →Bathroom Renovations →Flooring Installation →

Questions about projects like this

Is it worth gutting a century home instead of just renovating room by room?

It depends on what is behind the walls. If the wiring, insulation and plumbing all need replacing anyway, doing it room by room means opening the same walls several times and paying for the same access twice. Stripping it in one pass costs more up front and less overall, and you end up with a consistent standard through the whole house rather than a patchwork.

Do you have to take the floors up too?

Not always — but if the services all need to be re-run and the joists have never been inspected, opening the floor is what lets you route drains and wiring properly instead of notching structure you cannot see. On this project the floor structure came up across the whole footprint.

Can you insulate an old house properly without changing how it looks?

Yes, from the inside. On this build the exterior walls were insulated with Rockwool batt and sealed with taped vapour barrier before boarding, so the original clapboard and window proportions outside are untouched while the interior performs to a modern standard.

Why model the kitchen in 3D first?

Because the rough-in has to be right before the walls close. Modelling the cabinet run to actual dimensions confirms appliance clearances, where the sink and range land, and where the plumbing and electrical need to be — while those things are still cheap to move.

Planning something similar?

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