rebuilding our home (Manahawkin: houses, construction, contractor)

[egram21]

We have an original beach house that we are hoping to convert into a permanent living home. Anyone know who to contact in the Manahawkin area of NJ?

[NJbusinessgirl]

I know a very good construction company that did a fantacstic job in my hose, if you're interested I can give you their information

[RUNYYfan]

When you say "convert" a beach house into permanent living home, there are a lot of questions that are raised. Before you blindly contact a contractor, perhaps you should take into consideration the following.

1) What does Manahawkin require when major renovations are done to houses? I would not presume that a contractor will know this with certainty. Talk with the building code enforcement officer and obtain a copy of the regs. I know there are those who will tell you it is better to keep it quiet and not tell anyone, but doing that is only going to harm your options going forward should you need to sell in the future.

2) Are you expanding or significantly altering the current size of the house? If so, make sure you know ahead of time what limits and regulations govern this type of work. It may behoove you at that point to think about bringing in an architect instead of "just" a contractor.

3) If you are keeping the house to its current dimensions, what are you actually looking to do and what do you need to do to meet regs? For example, if you are replacing a bathroom, what are the minimum requirements for plumbing and heating? Again, a trip to the zoning office and building code enforcement would be helpful.

Once you have this information in mind, then I think you would have a much better basis in determining what you need in a contractor.