How Littleton Houses Age, and What That Costs

Littleton holds three kinds of house and each one fails differently. Near the town common and along the older roads there are Federal and Greek Revival farmhouses with plaster on lath, wide pine floors, deep baseboards and sash that has been painted shut and pried open more times than the wood can stand. Around Spectacle Pond and Long Lake a good share of the housing began as small summer camps and was later insulated, dormered and added onto, which leaves three or four substrates on a single wall and an open caulk joint wherever the additions met. Then come the subdivision colonials of the eighties onward: drywall inside, engineered trim, two story entries that want staging rather than a stepladder. What all three share is the entry. Granite and concrete steps here lift with frost and begin pitching toward the door, a walk settles back against the foundation, and plow blades and winter salt grind the surface off anything soft. We read that during the walkthrough, because a step shedding water the wrong way is a masonry problem and a rot problem at once, and only one of the two shows from the street.

Commercial Littleton splits between a village crossroads and a highway corridor. At Littleton Common, where King Street meets Great Road, the buildings are small and mixed: a hardware store, a sandwich counter, a veterinary practice, a pharmacy, a restaurant and a converted mill carrying several tenants under one roof. Those owners want the space back before the first customer of the day, and one company covering the paint, the floor and the entry brick beats fitting three of them into the same parking lot. North of the Common, across the highway, the retail and restaurants near Constitution Avenue stay open late every day of the week, so the work lands overnight and everything is back in place before the doors open again. The office and server buildings along King Street are a different world again. Access is by badge, the contact is a facilities manager rather than an owner, and nothing begins until a purchase order exists. An empty suite has to have its walls made good, coated and cleaned down to the glass before a broker will walk anyone through it, and the lease date is already on somebody's calendar. We run licensed and insured and send the paperwork with the scope.

What we take on in Littleton

• House cleaning, deep cleans and recurring visits
• Move in and move out cleaning for owners and landlords
• Post construction and renovation handover cleaning
• Pre sale cleaning before the photos and the first showing
• Interior and exterior painting, and cabinet refinishing
• Repointing, chimneys, steps, walkways and patios
• Pressure washing for siding, driveways, decks and storefronts
• Offices, retail, practices and restaurants around your hours
• Common areas and unit turnovers for property managers

Getting a price

Every quote for Littleton starts with somebody standing in the actual place. Square footage over the phone is a guess, and on a wall it is worse than a guess, because the failure depth only shows when you put a hand on the joint. You get the scope written out area by area and one number for the job, usually the same business day.