Remodeling a historic Yalecrest home: what to know

Yalecrest is a residential neighborhood on the East Bench of Salt Lake City. Neighbors also call it Harvard-Yale, after streets such as Harvard Avenue and Yale Avenue. It is not its own city. A kitchen remodel at Yalecrest, a bathroom remodel at Yalecrest, or basement finishing at Yalecrest is a Salt Lake City house. The East Bench page covers other foothill streets. This one is the historic neighborhood.

The National Park Service listed the Yalecrest Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places on November 8, 2007. The nomination's other name for it is Harvard-Yale, and it describes the district as roughly bounded by Sunnyside Avenue (840 South) and 1300 South, and by 1300 East and 1800 East. The houses are mostly period-revival cottages and bungalows from the early twentieth century. A National Register listing records that history. It is not, by itself, a building permit, and it does not mean this company has remodeled a house there. We have not published a Yalecrest address.

Salt Lake City has also designated smaller local historic districts inside the neighborhood. The city's historic preservation pages name several of them, including Normandie Circle, Harvard Park, Upper Harvard Yale Park, Princeton Park, and Douglas Park. A local district is a city rule. It is not the same document as the National Register nomination. If a house is in one of those local districts, exterior work can need the city's historic review before it starts. Interior work is a separate question, and it depends on the address. Ask Salt Lake City Historic Preservation about the specific house. Do not treat a blog post as that answer. The city's pages are the National Register note and the local districts note.

The building permit, when the work needs one, comes from Salt Lake City. Lehi's basement checklist does not cover this neighborhood, and Salt Lake County is not the city building department here. A kitchen remodel in Salt Lake City follows the same department. Fees and submittal rules change. This page does not reprint a fee table.

What the age of the houses does change is the room. Kitchens in these cottages are often small. Baths are often few, and the walls may be plaster and out of square. Basements are often already partly finished, with a low ceiling. Houses from before 1978 can contain lead paint. Test before you sand or demolish. We do not know which systems were updated until we open the walls, so we do not promise a wiring type or a pipe material from the sidewalk.

Planning rates are the quote tool's rates, the same ones used in Lehi. They are not a Yalecrest average and not a bid. A kitchen is $190, $309, and $475 per square foot for Good, Better, and Best. A bathroom is $171, $266, and $399. A basement finish is $52, $90, and $143. The 180 square foot kitchen example at the Good rate is $34,200, and many of these kitchens are smaller than that example. The written number comes after a free weekday visit from the shop at 3896 W 1850 N in Lehi. Call (385) 421-9864.