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Whole-home renovation · Queens

Home renovation in Queens, sequenced room by room

We plan home renovation in Queens as one interior project across several rooms, for one- and two-family houses, many of them built in the 1940s and 1950s. Our project lead sets the order of work, identifies which parts need a DOB filing, and plans around a second unit or tenant from the first visit.

  • Several rooms opened, inspected and closed in one planned sequence
  • Two-family houses phased so the other unit keeps water and heat
  • Landmark and flood-map lookups on the address before scope is set
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Modern farmhouse kitchen with white shaker cabinets, a marble island with wood stools and tall black-framed windows

Scope

What a Queens whole-home project can include

The work stays inside the house and is written as a single scope, so pipes and wiring are run once instead of room by room over several years.

  • Interior renovation of two or more rooms in a one- or two-family house
  • Kitchen and bathroom updates scheduled inside the wider plan
  • Worn mid-century plaster and drywall, ceilings, trim and doors renewed
  • Continuous flooring across connected rooms, with interior painting last
  • Electrical and plumbing work sequenced while walls are open
  • Phasing that separates the owner's unit from a rented or family unit
  • Excluded: structural changes, additions, exterior work and new units

Process

How MMA Construction & Remodeling runs a whole-home renovation project

Written scope, written proposal, permits identified up front, and one project lead from start to finish.

  1. Conversation

    You describe the home and what you want to change. We ask about budget range and timing so expectations are clear early.

  2. Site visit and scope

    We look at the space, the structure of the house and any HOA, co-op or condo rules that apply, then write a scope of work.

  3. Design and selections

    Layout, materials and fixtures are agreed in writing before work is priced in full.

  4. Written proposal

    A written price and schedule for the agreed scope. Permits and any approvals are identified at this stage.

  5. Build

    One project lead coordinates the trades and keeps you updated. Some regulated work may require appropriately licensed specialty contractors.

  6. Walkthrough

    We review the finished work with you and resolve anything outstanding.

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Queens

What shapes a whole-home renovation in Queens

  1. Mid-century houses: plan the systems before the finishes

    Close to one Queens home in three went up in the 1940s or 1950s, a higher share than in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island or Suffolk. In a house of that vintage, the original wiring, supply piping and wall surfaces often reach the end of their useful life at roughly the same moment. That is the argument for one sequenced project: open the rooms that share runs, replace what is found, then close and finish everything in a single pass. Renovating one room a year tends to mean cutting into new work to reach old pipe. For the cost lines a whole-house project adds, see what drives a gut renovation's price.

  2. Two-family houses with someone in the other unit

    Roughly 46% of Queens homes sit in one- or two-family buildings; many owners renovate one floor while a tenant or relative lives on the other. The two units may share a water main, gas line, heating plant or drain stack, so we map those shared lines before anything is scheduled. Shutoffs are agreed in writing ahead of time, dusty work stays sealed inside the unit being renovated, and deliveries avoid the occupied unit's door wherever the layout allows.

  3. Paint and older materials, handled by the right professionals

    Roughly four in five Queens homes were built before 1980. In pre-1978 housing, paid work that disturbs paint follows EPA lead-safe rules, and if the other unit is rented in a building from before 1960, the owner must, under NYC Local Law 1 of 2004, presume lead-based paint is there. Separately, the city requires a DEP-certified investigator's asbestos survey to establish whether the planned work could disturb asbestos-containing material. We put both steps at the front of the schedule, so their findings shape the room order instead of interrupting it.

  4. House or apartment: say which one you have

    In Forest Hills, most lots with homes hold houses, yet about two-thirds of the area's homes sit on elevator-building lots. A whole-house renovation and a full apartment interior in a large co-op are different jobs: a co-op or condominium board's alteration rules take priority. Since we plan whole-home work for one- and two-family houses, tell us the building type at the first call. Apartment owners usually start with a single room, such as a kitchen.

Ready to put the rooms in order?

Send us the list of rooms, the approximate year the house was built and who will live there during the work. Our project lead uses it to plan the site visit and the written scope.

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Local evidence

Queens housing, permits, landmarks and flood maps

Queens housing units by type and age, for multi-room planning (ACS 2024 1-year estimates)
MeasureShare of housing units
Single-family detached18.3%
Single-family attached9.7%
Two-unit buildings18.4%
Built 1940–195932.9%
Built before 1980 (approx.)81.7%

Permits: Bayside, Whitestone or Howard Beach, the permit authority is the same: the NYC Department of Buildings. Its no-permit examples include painting, new cabinets and floor resurfacing. A whole-house scope usually goes beyond those, and in a one- or two-family building, anything outside DOB's exempt list has to be filed by a registered design professional. Home improvement contractors working in the city also need a DCWP license.

Landmarks: LPC's historic-district dataset for Queens includes Jackson Heights, Sunnyside Gardens, Addisleigh Park, Central Ridgewood, Ridgewood North and South, Douglaston and the Douglaston Hill amendment record, among others. Interior rooms rarely change how a house looks from the street, but a new vent, window or door can, so we list those items on a separate line. For the answer on a specific house, LPC asks owners to begin with its Discover NYC Landmarks map.

Flood maps: in the Howard Beach-Lindenwood statistical area, FEMA's 2015 preliminary map flags 83.5% of lots with homes, while the 2007 map flags 18.2%. Those flags mark lots that touch the 1% annual chance floodplain somewhere, not houses. If any part of the renovation is at basement or ground level, check the exact address in FEMA's Flood Map Service Center first, then see how the city applies those maps on NYC Flood Maps.

Basement use: the legal use of a basement depends on DOB approval and the building's Certificate of Occupancy. A whole-home plan can refresh a basement within its existing legal use; we do not create new units.

Planning a whole-home renovation in Queens? Call or email us to talk it through and arrange a consultation.

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Questions

Whole-home renovation in Queens: questions

Which Queens historic districts matter for an interior renovation?
Only the ones your address is actually inside. LPC's Queens list includes Jackson Heights, Sunnyside Gardens, Addisleigh Park, the Ridgewood districts and Douglaston, but each district covers specific blocks rather than a whole neighborhood. Enter the address in LPC's Discover NYC Landmarks map, and keep anything that shows outside, such as a new vent, as its own line in the scope. The Douglaston page covers that neighborhood's two districts.
Can you renovate the upstairs unit of our Queens two-family while a tenant stays downstairs?
Yes, that arrangement is planned unit by unit. We identify the water, gas, heat and drain lines the two units share, give written notice of any shutoff, and keep dust contained inside the unit under renovation. In a pre-1960 building, the city's Local Law 1 of 2004 has the owner presume the rented unit's paint is lead-based. The two-family project brief shows how to describe each unit.
Our house is in Howard Beach. Does the flood map change a whole-home plan?
It can change the order of work and the materials on the lowest floor. Most lots with homes in the Howard Beach-Lindenwood area are flagged on FEMA's 2015 preliminary map, far more than on the 2007 map. Check the exact address on both, then decide with a design professional whether basement or ground-floor rooms belong in the same phase as the upper floors or should wait.
Do we need an architect for a multi-room renovation in Queens?
Often, though not for every room. DOB treats painting, new cabinets and floor resurfacing as work without a permit. Once a one- or two-family house scope goes past DOB's exempt list, as a relocated bathroom or reworked kitchen often does, a registered design professional files the plans. Our written scope marks which rooms fall on which side of that line, so the filing is known before the schedule is set.

Keep exploring

Read before you plan

Sources

  1. B25024 Units in Structure, Queens County, ACS 2024 1-year estimates, U.S. Census Bureau via Census Reporter (2025 (ACS 2024 1-year release)). Accessed 2026-11-02.
  2. B25034 Year Structure Built, Queens County, ACS 2024 1-year estimates, U.S. Census Bureau via Census Reporter (2025 (ACS 2024 1-year release)). Accessed 2026-11-02.
  3. Renovating Kitchens & Bathrooms, NYC Department of Buildings. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  4. Do I Need a Permit?, NYC Department of Buildings. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  5. License Checklist: Home Improvement Contractor, NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  6. FEMA Flood Map Service Center, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  7. NYC Flood Maps, City of New York. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  8. Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program Rules, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  9. Lead-Based Paint, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  10. Basements and Cellars, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  11. Landmark Status Letter, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Accessed 2026-11-08.
  12. Historic Districts (dataset skyk-mpzq), NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission via NYC Open Data (rows updated 2026-06-18). Accessed 2026-11-08.
  13. Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output (PLUTO), version 26v2 (dataset 64uk-42ks), NYC Department of City Planning via NYC Open Data (26v2 (rows updated 2026-08-24)). Accessed 2026-11-08.
  14. 2020 Census Tracts to 2020 NTAs and CDTAs Equivalency (dataset hm78-6dwm), NYC Department of City Planning via NYC Open Data (2021-09-20). Accessed 2026-11-08.
  15. PLUTO Data Dictionary (23v1.1), NYC Department of City Planning (2023-05). Accessed 2026-11-08.
  16. The Newest New Yorkers 2026, Chapter 1, NYC Department of City Planning (2026). Accessed 2026-11-08.
  17. Asbestos Abatement, NYC Department of Environmental Protection. Accessed 2026-11-02.
  18. Project Requirements: Alteration in 1-2 Family Buildings (owner), NYC Department of Buildings. Accessed 2026-11-02.

Talk to us about your renovation project in Queens

Call or email us to talk it through and arrange a consultation.

Call MMA Construction (516) 212-9311Email us