Finish carpentry for West Palm Beach homes, old and new

How the city sorts work on a historic house

West Palm Beach has 18 locally designated historic districts and 46 individually designated sites. Exterior changes to a historic structure must comply with the Historic Preservation Ordinance and the city’s design guidelines. Requests fall into three levels:

1. Staff Level 1. Reviewed by staff at the same time as the building permit.
2. Staff Level 2. Needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, Minor, which staff can approve administratively. It can be filed at any time.
3. Board Level. Needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, Major, heard by the Historic Preservation Board. Projects that need a variance or certain special exceptions also go to the board.

The city’s COA approval matrix decides the level. For carpentry, check the exterior items first: entry doors, porch and loggia ceilings, exterior railings and shutters.

Reading a boom-era house before replacing its trim

El Cid shows what the older districts hold. The neighborhood association describes it as mostly a product of the 1920s land boom, developed by Jay Phipps, with independent builders selling Mediterranean Revival and Mission houses on most of the lots. Monterey and Art Moderne houses are mixed in. The district is on the local, state and National Register.

Houses from that era rarely use today’s stock trim. Before any baseboard or casing comes off, we photograph and measure it, keep a sample, and decide whether to repair, copy or replace. A Mediterranean Revival living room may want a heavier crown and stained beams. A Moderne house wants almost no trim at all, with crisp reveals instead.

Entry doors facing the street

A replacement door on a historic house answers two questions. Preservation review asks whether it fits the building. The building code asks whether it can take the wind. Palm Beach County is outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, which covers Miami-Dade and Broward, but the county still assigns a design wind speed by site and risk category, and the door needs a product approval that covers it.

Arched, louvered and paneled doors can meet both, provided the size and glass are settled before the order goes in.

Inside the house

Stairs in older homes often carry a simple wood rail on square balusters. Iron balusters can be set into the existing treads and capped with a stained rail, keeping the stair’s footprint and changing its character.