SERVING SHREWSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS
Home additions, ADUs, kitchens, baths, and custom stonework for Shrewsbury homeowners, including the lakeside cottages that were never built for the way they are lived in now.
Shrewsbury is the largest town we serve, around 38,000 people, sitting directly east of Worcester across Lake Quinsigamond. It grew the way a lot of good New England suburbs did, in waves. Streetcar routes in the nineteenth century pushed single-family housing outward from the city, a summer resort population built cottages along the lake, and the town's population doubled between 1915 and 1940 as commuters kept arriving. Postwar and modern development filled in the rest.
That layered history is why Shrewsbury housing stock is so varied, and why the work here ranges from a straightforward kitchen remodel in a 1990s colonial to sorting out a hundred-year-old lake cottage that has been added onto four times.
Andrew Mercurio is a fourth-generation builder who started in masonry and grew ARM Construction into a full general contracting company. He holds Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License #CS-093044, issued in 2011, and the company holds Home Improvement Contractor Registration #153199, both active and verifiable through the Commonwealth.
Home additions and ADUs are a significant part of our Shrewsbury work, for reasons covered in the next section. Kitchen and bathroom remodels are steady across every era of housing here, and in the older parts of town they tend to be full gut jobs rather than updates. Lakeside properties bring their own mix: sunrooms and four season rooms that take advantage of the view, decks, and stonework on sloped waterfront lots.
We also handle garage and basement conversions, home remodeling, siding, and flooring. One company, one point of contact, from the first walkthrough to the final inspection.
That is not marketing, it is infrastructure. Approximately 90 percent of Shrewsbury is served by municipal sewer, through more than 165 miles of sewer main and around 40 pump stations, with wastewater treated at the regional Westborough facility. Water is municipal too, drawn from town-owned gravel packed wells serving over 11,000 connections.
Here is why that matters. Since February 2, 2025, Massachusetts allows one accessory dwelling unit by right on lots in single-family zoning districts statewide, up to 900 square feet or half the gross floor area of the main house, whichever is smaller. In Princeton, Sterling, and much of Holden, the constraint that decides most ADU projects is not zoning, it is septic. Massachusetts sizes septic systems by bedroom count under Title 5, and an ADU that adds bedrooms frequently exceeds what an existing system can carry. On a sewered Shrewsbury property, that entire question disappears.
It is worth noting that when the Commonwealth announced the new ADU law taking effect, the project it featured was a detached accessory dwelling unit in Shrewsbury. The town is genuinely ahead of the curve on this, and for homeowners thinking about an in-law suite, a rental, or a place for an adult child, the path here is shorter than in most of the county.
Lake Quinsigamond runs four miles between Shrewsbury and Worcester, is up to ninety feet deep, and has eight islands in it. It also has a shoreline lined with houses that started life as something other than houses.
A significant number of homes along the lake began as seasonal summer cottages, built when Shrewsbury had a resort population that came out from the city for the warm months. Those buildings were framed, founded, and insulated for July, not January. Over the following decades most of them were winterized, added onto, and converted to year-round use, often in stages, often by different people, and often without anybody stepping back to reconsider what was underneath.
What that means in practice is a house where the foundation may be shallow, pier-set, or partially on ledge rather than below frost depth. Where original framing is undersized by modern standards. Where insulation was added in the cavity of a wall that was never designed to hold any. Where three additions meet at rooflines that do not agree with each other, and where the water finds its way in at every one of those junctions.
None of that makes these houses bad projects. They are frequently excellent ones, on land nobody is making more of. It does mean the assessment matters more than the floor plan. We look at the foundation, the framing, and the roof connections before anyone draws a room, because on a converted cottage the honest answer to what a renovation costs is determined by what is holding the building up. Our masonry background matters here, since the foundation is usually the question.
Any project that changes the footprint or the structure of a house in Shrewsbury needs a building permit, plus electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits depending on scope. Work near the lake, its tributaries, or other wetlands goes to the Conservation Commission, which is a regular step on waterfront properties rather than an occasional one.
One Shrewsbury detail worth knowing. The town runs its own utility, Shrewsbury Electric and Cable Operations, which provides electricity, cable, and internet rather than one of the large investor-owned companies. If your project needs a service upgrade, which older homes here often do once you add a modern kitchen or a second dwelling unit, that goes through SELCO. If you are building a home office or finishing space that needs data, that is the same conversation.
We handle the permitting, the inspections, and the utility coordination, so you are not the one making the calls.
Worcester sits directly west across Lake Quinsigamond and is the largest market in the region. Grafton borders Shrewsbury to the south. We are based in Princeton, and we also work in Holden, Sterling, West Boylston, Boylston, Leominster, Westborough, Northborough, and Southborough.
What Our Customers Say
I can't say enough good things! I needed a small finish job done at the last minute, and Andrew made it happen quickly and without any stress. The craftsmanship was perfect and everything looks amazing. I'm extremely happy and would recommend him to anyone!
Andrew and his team are detail-oriented. They are skilled and helped me understand the process of renovating my kitchen. Fantastic communication & high quality service! I am so lucky to have them and recommend them to anyone! When they built my deck, it was so fast & efficient! Call Andrew, you won't regret it
Andrew replaced a garden window in my kitchen, and a sliding door. He did a meticulous job, and went above and beyond to accommodate some special requests that I had. His attention to detail and willingness to do whatever it took to make me happy didn't go unnoticed. Will definitely use him each and every time!
Here is what Shrewsbury homeowners ask us most. If your question is not here, call us at (774) 249-0221.
Yes, and Shrewsbury is one of the more straightforward towns in the county for it. Since February 2, 2025, Massachusetts allows one accessory dwelling unit by right on lots in single-family zoning districts statewide, up to 900 square feet or half the gross floor area of the main house, whichever is smaller, with no special permit and no zoning hearing. Roughly 90 percent of Shrewsbury is served by municipal sewer, which removes the Title 5 septic capacity question that constrains ADU projects in Princeton, Sterling, and much of Holden. When the state announced the new law taking effect, the example it featured was a detached ADU in Shrewsbury.
Yes, and it is some of the most interesting work in town. Many houses along Lake Quinsigamond began as seasonal summer cottages and were winterized over the decades that followed. Those buildings were not framed, insulated, or founded for year-round occupancy. Shallow or pier foundations, undersized framing, minimal insulation, and additions layered on by different hands at different times are all common. None of it prevents a good renovation. It does mean the house has to be assessed properly before a design is drawn, because what is under and inside the walls is rarely what a floor plan suggests.
Mostly. The town reports that approximately 90 percent of Shrewsbury is served by municipal sewer, through a system of more than 165 miles of main and around 40 pump stations, with wastewater treated at the regional Westborough plant. Water is municipal as well, supplied by town-owned gravel packed wells serving over 11,000 connections. For a homeowner planning an addition or an ADU, that is a meaningful advantage over the septic-dependent towns north and west of here.
Yes for most projects. Any addition, structural change, or conversion of unfinished space into living space requires a building permit from the Town of Shrewsbury, along with electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits depending on scope. Work near Lake Quinsigamond, its tributaries, or other wetlands requires Conservation Commission review, which comes up regularly on lakeside properties. ARM Construction handles the permitting and the inspection schedule as part of the project.
ARM Construction & Management Inc
131 Houghton Road
Princeton, MA 01541
(774) 249-0221
Licensed and insured in Massachusetts. MA CSL #CS-093044 | MA HIC Reg. #153199
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