SERVING WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
Home additions, ADUs, kitchens, baths, and triple decker renovation. Century-old housing stock is what we work on, and Worcester has more of it than anywhere else in the county.
Worcester is the second largest city in New England, with a population north of 200,000, and its housing stock is unlike anything else in Worcester County. Where the towns around it grew in waves of postwar subdivision, Worcester grew in the industrial era and never stopped adapting what it already had.
We are based in Princeton, a short drive northwest, and Worcester is the market we work in most often for a straightforward reason: it has the most houses, and the most of them need work.
Andrew Mercurio is a fourth-generation builder who came up 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 are active and verifiable through the Commonwealth.
Kitchen and bathroom remodels are the largest share of our Worcester work, and in this city they are usually gut renovations rather than updates, because the rooms were laid out for a different century. Garage, basement, and attic conversions are a bigger part of the mix here than anywhere else we work, because Worcester lots leave less room to build outward. ADUs and in-law suites are increasingly common in the single-family neighborhoods. We also take triple decker and multifamily work, which is covered in the next section.
We also build home additions, sunrooms and four season rooms, home remodels, custom masonry and stonework, decks and patios, siding, and flooring. One company, one point of contact, from the first walkthrough to the final inspection.
Understanding which one your property sits in explains most of what a project here will involve.
The single-family neighborhoods. Worcester has substantial areas of detached single-family housing, and in those neighborhoods the work looks much like it does in the surrounding towns. Additions, ADUs, kitchens, baths, and exteriors, on houses that happen to be older and on lots that are tighter than in Holden or Shrewsbury.
The triple decker city. Triple deckers account for roughly half of Worcester's available housing, and the great majority of them are more than a hundred years old. They were built from the 1850s onward as an alternative to the row housing of Boston and New York, and they became the backbone of the city's housing for generations, frequently staying in the same families. The city has whole National Register historic districts built around them, along Elm Street facing Elm Park, along Providence Street in Vernon Hill, and elsewhere.
We work on them, and we take multifamily projects. That is worth saying plainly because a lot of remodeling companies will not. A triple decker is not a bigger single-family house. Renovation carries requirements that single-family work does not: fire separation between units, means of egress from upper floors, code requirements that apply to rental dwelling units specifically, and a different permitting picture. Doing that work correctly requires a Construction Supervisor License and someone who understands what changes when a building has three units in it rather than one.
Whether you own one and live in it, own one and rent it, or own several, the conversation starts the same way. Call and tell us what the building needs.
This is the biggest practical difference between building in the city and building in the towns around it.
In Princeton and Sterling, lots are large and there is no municipal sewer, so what decides a project is whether your septic system can carry another bedroom under Title 5. In Worcester, the city is almost entirely sewered, so that question largely disappears. What replaces it is space.
Worcester lots are tighter than anywhere else we work. Setbacks, side yard requirements, and lot coverage limits are usually what constrain a project, and a detached ADU cottage frequently will not fit where a homeowner pictures it. That is why garage, basement, and attic conversions are a larger share of our city work than ground-up additions. Converting space you already own inside the existing footprint sidesteps the setback problem entirely.
There is a second Worcester advantage worth knowing about. Under the state ADU law, a town cannot require any additional parking if a property sits within a half mile of a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal, or bus station. In a city with real transit, that exemption applies to considerably more properties than it does in the surrounding towns.
Whatever the building type, Worcester housing is old, and opening a wall here surfaces things that do not come up in newer construction.
Knob and tube wiring. Electrical service sized for a household that did not own a dishwasher. Cast iron waste lines at the end of their service life. Galvanized supply pipes narrowed by a century of corrosion. Plaster over lath rather than drywall. Framing on irregular spacing that does not line up with modern cabinet or tile dimensions. Sills with rot where water has been getting in behind the siding for decades.
Lead is a legal issue here, not just a health one. Given the age of the stock, the great majority of Worcester housing predates 1978, which means federal lead-safe work practices apply to renovation disturbing more than six square feet of painted surface indoors or twenty square feet outdoors. Massachusetts law separately requires that a pre-1978 home occupied by a child under six be deleaded or brought under interim control, and a new owner has 90 days from taking title to comply. If you are buying a Worcester house with young children, that clock starts at closing.
Old flooring deserves the same caution. Nine-inch vinyl tile and the black mastic under it, standard from roughly 1948 through the 1970s, frequently contains asbestos, and Massachusetts regulation requires anyone removing floor tile and mastic to presume it does unless testing says otherwise. Our flooring page covers what that means before a demolition day.
None of this is a reason not to renovate a Worcester house. It is a reason to open one with somebody who has seen it before.
Any project that changes the footprint or the structure of a house in Worcester requires a building permit from the city, along with electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits depending on scope.
Worcester has a significant number of National Register historic districts and individually listed properties, many of them centered specifically on its three-decker architecture. National Register listing alone generally does not restrict what a private owner can do to their own building. Local historic district designation does, and it can govern exterior materials, windows, and colors. Which one applies to your property is worth confirming early rather than at permitting, because the two are easy to confuse and only one of them affects your timeline.
We handle the permitting, the inspections, and any additional review the project requires.
Holden borders Worcester to the north and is where a lot of our work sits between the city and our home base. Shrewsbury is directly east across Lake Quinsigamond. We are based in Princeton, and we also work in Sterling, West Boylston, Boylston, Leominster, Westborough, Northborough, Southborough, and Grafton.
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 Worcester homeowners ask us most. If your question is not here, call us at (774) 249-0221.
It depends on your zoning district. 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. Worcester has substantial single-family neighborhoods where that applies directly. The city is also almost entirely on municipal sewer, which removes the Title 5 septic capacity question that constrains ADU projects in the towns north and west. On tighter city lots, a garage, basement, or attic conversion is often more practical than a detached cottage, and properties within a half mile of a transit station cannot be required to add any parking at all.
Yes, and on multifamily properties generally. Triple deckers make up roughly half of Worcester's housing stock and the large majority are over a hundred years old, so deferred maintenance is the norm rather than the exception. We handle unit renovations, kitchens and baths, structural and foundation work, exteriors, and code compliance issues. A triple decker is not simply a larger single-family house. Fire separation between units, means of egress from upper floors, and the code requirements that apply to rental dwelling units all change the work, and doing it properly requires a Construction Supervisor License. Andrew holds Massachusetts CSL #CS-093044.
Space. Worcester lots are tighter than anywhere else in our service area, so setbacks, lot coverage, and side yard requirements are usually what limit a project rather than septic or budget. That is the opposite of towns like Princeton and Sterling, where lots are large and septic capacity is the deciding factor. In Worcester, converting existing space in a garage, basement, or attic is frequently the only practical way to add square footage, which is why those projects are a larger share of our city work than ground-up additions.
Yes for most projects. Any addition, structural change, or conversion of unfinished space into living space requires a building permit from the City of Worcester, along with electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits depending on scope. Worcester has a number of National Register historic districts, many of them centered on its three-decker architecture, and exterior work in a locally designated district may involve additional review. Given the age of the housing stock, federal lead-safe work practices also apply to most renovation here. ARM Construction handles the permitting and 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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