Stairs & Trim in Harbor Hills, OH

Harbor Hills is two neighborhoods rather than one: Harbor Hills proper in the western part of the CDP and Edgewater Beach in the southeast corner, both with shorefront on Buckeye Lake. The 2020 census counted 1,565 residents. A post office operated here from 1927 to 1943, which dates the original development to the inter-war lakeside boom.

That era of construction has a signature. Houses were put up as recreational property — light framing, shallow crawl spaces or piers, floors built for summer occupancy. Almost a century on, many have been extended, rebuilt or winterised, which means a single house can contain three different floor assemblies at three different heights, joined by steps somebody added along the way.

That is the practical challenge here and it is not one you can price from the doorway. Different subfloor construction in adjoining rooms means different preparation, and level changes between them mean transitions have to be designed rather than picked off a shelf. We measure and look under what is down now before quoting, because Harbor Hills houses are genuinely individual in a way that suburban ones are not.

Moisture is the other constant. Being this close to the lake, crawl spaces run damp and slabs read higher than they would half a mile inland. We test before specifying. Where the reading is high, luxury vinyl plank with an appropriate underlayment does the job that solid hardwood would slowly fail at, and that is a decision worth making with a meter rather than after a floor has started to cup.

Lake traffic matters too. Wet feet, sand and dogs come through the door here more than anywhere else we work, and it makes a waterproof surface at the entry and along the main route the sensible starting point even when the bedrooms get carpet.

We are a few minutes around the lake, which makes both the appointment and any follow-up straightforward.