Columbia · Howard County
Kitchens, bathrooms, basements, and whole-home renovations across all nine Columbia villages. Howard County DILP permits pulled, Columbia Association review navigated, fixed price in 48 hours.
MHIC #149066 Fully insured Google Guaranteed 48-hour fixed-price quotes
Why Columbia homeowners hire us
01
Wilde Lake ranchers, Long Reach split-levels, Owen Brown townhomes, River Hill colonials — each Columbia village was built in a different era and with different housing stock. The scope and surprises on a 1968 Harper's Choice rancher differ from a 1990 River Hill colonial. We know both.
02
Columbia permits run through Howard County's Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits — not Baltimore City or Baltimore County. We file through the county portal, submit structural plans when required, and meet every inspector on site. One less thing on your plate.
03
Exterior work in Columbia — decks, additions, siding, windows — requires your village's Residential Architectural Committee to approve the plans before you can pull a county permit. We flag this early and help you prep the submittal, so you don't lose 30 days in the schedule to a process you didn't know existed.
04
Written quote within 48 hours of the walkthrough. The number on paper is the number you pay unless you change the scope. Self-performing crews — not rotating subs — so when we say it takes four weeks, it takes four weeks.
Most-requested in Columbia
$19K – $75K+
Columbia-era ranchers and split-levels often have a closed kitchen tucked off a narrow hall. We open the wall, install the beam, and handle the DILP permit. Mid-level runs $19K–$35K; high-end custom cabinetry and stone goes well above that.
$15K – $40K+
Full bath gut-to-studs from $15K to $19K. Primary suite baths — heated floors, frameless glass, double vanity, full tile — run $22K–$40K+. Many 1970s Columbia baths have fiberglass insert tubs that eat the whole alcove; we rebuild the framing and do it right.
$15K – $65K
Columbia homes mostly have full-height basements — no underpinning needed. A finished family room or home office runs $15K–$25K; a full build-out with an egress bedroom and bath runs $45K–$65K. We check headroom and look for moisture on the first visit.
By quote
Columbia's earliest villages — Wilde Lake, Oakland Mills, Long Reach — are 50+ years old now. Kitchens, baths, mechanicals, and flooring all at once. We quote these after a walkthrough because the mechanical condition (knob-and-tube, galvanized supply) drives the number more than the finish selections.
Recent Columbia area work
Wilde Lake Village
Kitchen open-up + structural beam + full kitchen remodel
Long Reach Village
Primary suite bath gut — heated floor, frameless glass, double vanity
King's Contrivance
Basement finish — home office, half bath, egress window
Columbia FAQ
Yes. Columbia is one of our regular Howard County markets. We work across all nine villages — Wilde Lake, Harper's Choice, Oakland Mills, Long Reach, Owen Brown, Hickory Ridge, King's Contrivance, Dorsey's Search, and River Hill — plus Ellicott City, Fulton, and Clarksville. Our Halethorpe shop is about 15 minutes from the Columbia core.
A mid-level kitchen in a Columbia home runs $19K–$35K — cabinets, granite or quartz counters, LVP flooring, plumbing hookup, labor. Opening a wall to the living space (very common in Wilde Lake and Oakland Mills ranchers) adds $3K–$6K for the structural beam and Howard County DILP permit. High-end kitchens run $35K–$75K+. Written fixed-price quote within 48 hours of the walkthrough.
Howard County's Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits (DILP) handles all residential permits. Columbia is unincorporated Howard County — there's no separate Columbia permitting office. Any project that moves plumbing, electrical, or walls needs a DILP building permit and inspections. We pull the permit under MHIC license #149066 and meet every inspector on site, so you never chase the county yourself.
For interior work — kitchens, baths, basements — you typically don't need Columbia Association or village approval. That's county permits only. Exterior changes are different. Decks, additions, fencing, siding, windows, and paint color all require your village's Residential Architectural Committee (RAC) to sign off BEFORE you pull the DILP permit. RAC review takes up to 30 days and runs on its own schedule. We always flag this to clients with exterior scope — start the CA review early or it becomes the critical-path delay.
Most Howard County projects start 3 to 5 weeks after contract signing. If your project touches the exterior — a deck, an addition, siding — build in the Columbia Association RAC review (up to 30 days) before county permits even open. Contact us in February if you want a summer start.
About Columbia
Columbia is the second-largest community in Maryland, with roughly 105,000 residents spread across nine villages in Howard County. Developer James Rouse bought 14,000 acres of farmland between Baltimore and Washington in the early 1960s with the goal of building an intentionally designed city. The first homes went up in Wilde Lake in 1967. By the time the last village, River Hill, completed around 1990, Columbia had fundamentally changed what Howard County looked like.
What that history means for homeowners today: Columbia's housing stock spans 23 years of construction, and the homes look and behave very differently depending on which village they're in. Wilde Lake, Harper's Choice (1968), and Oakland Mills (1969) are the oldest — ranchers and split-levels, about 1,100 to 1,600 square feet, built when open-plan living wasn't yet the assumption. These homes are now 55 to 60 years old, and a lot of them still have the original kitchen layout: galley or L-shape, closed off from the living room. The most common project we do in those villages is opening the kitchen to the family room and installing a structural beam — it transforms the space without touching the footprint.
The middle-era villages — Long Reach (1971), Owen Brown (1972), Hickory Ridge (1974), King's Contrivance (1977) — added townhome clusters and semi-detached homes alongside single-family. These run 1,200 to 2,200 square feet and are now 45 to 55 years old, deep into the window where mechanicals start showing their age and owners decide whether to refresh or sell. Dorsey's Search (1980) and River Hill (1990) are the newest, with larger colonials and neo-traditionals in the 2,000 to 3,500 square foot range — these are more often primary-suite bath upgrades and high-end kitchen renovations than open-wall structural work. See the Howard County hub page for the full county context, or the kitchen remodel page and bathroom remodel page for detailed pricing.
Columbia is unincorporated Howard County — there's no city hall, no Columbia building department. All permits flow through Howard County's Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits (DILP) in Ellicott City. Kitchen or bath remodels that move plumbing, electrical, or walls need a DILP building permit and the associated rough-in and final inspections. We file through the county portal, submit structural plans when the county requires them, and schedule every inspection ourselves. You never have to track down whether a rough-in passed.
This is the part that surprises most homeowners doing exterior work for the first time. Columbia has a master community association — the Columbia Association (CA) — that holds architectural covenants over the entire community. Each village also has its own Village Community Association with a Residential Architectural Committee (RAC). Any exterior change — a deck, an addition, new siding, replacement windows, a fence, even a paint color change — needs RAC approval before you can pull the Howard County permit. Interior renovations typically don't trigger CA review, but anything that changes how the house looks from the street does.
RAC review takes up to 30 days and runs on the village's own meeting schedule; some villages offer a "fast track" for minor changes. The practical implication: if your project includes a deck or an addition, start the CA submittal weeks before you expect to break ground. We include this in our project timeline upfront so it doesn't become an unexpected delay mid-project.
Columbia home values average around $475K–$495K today, and the market is tight — homes move in under three weeks. That equity supports real investment in renovation. A mid-level kitchen in a Wilde Lake or Long Reach home runs $19K–$35K; opening the wall to the dining room adds $3K–$6K. High-end kitchens with custom cabinetry and stone in River Hill colonials can run $35K–$75K+. Bathrooms run $15K–$19K for a full gut and $22K–$40K+ for a primary suite. Most Columbia basements have full headroom, so a finished basement with a bath lands $45K–$65K without any underpinning cost. See the pricing page for line-item breakdowns, and our basement finishing page for the underpinning question in more detail.
Free walk-through, written fixed-price quote in 48 hours.
Kitchen and bath remodels, basement build-outs, and full rehabs across the Baltimore metro.
