Kitchen Remodeling by Home Era in Vancouver, WA

The year a house was built predicts a good deal about its kitchen: how big the room is, whether it is closed off, what the walls are made of and what is likely to be hiding behind them. This page looks at Vancouver's housing by era and what kitchens from each period commonly need. The patterns are what remodelers see often, not rules. Your own house, and whatever earlier owners did to it, decides the real scope.

How old is Vancouver's housing?

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2020-2024 five-year estimates) counts 85,421 housing units in the city of Vancouver and reports a median year built of 1988. The breakdown by decade:

Adding those up, 9.5 percent of units were built before 1950, 40.1 percent before 1980 and 48.0 percent in 1990 or later. The 1990s and the 1970s are the two largest decades. These figures cover all housing units, apartments included, not only owner-occupied houses, and each carries a margin of error of about a percentage point.

Pre-war homes: before 1950

Vancouver's oldest houses are concentrated in the neighborhoods around downtown. The City of Vancouver describes Hough as one of its oldest neighborhoods, with early 20th century styles including bungalows and four squares, and Victorian homes. Clark County describes the Hough historic district as the largest collection of surviving pre-World War II housing in Vancouver, with buildings constructed mainly between about 1890 and 1945. The city describes Arnada as one of its oldest neighborhoods, with vintage homes and mature trees; Carter Park as having craftsman-style bungalows and other early to mid 1900s styles, with garages on alleys; and Hudson's Bay as a mix of two-story frame houses from the late 1800s and early 1900s and 1930s bungalows.

Kitchens in houses of this age were built as small, separate work rooms, often at the back of the house with several doors. What they commonly need:

• Layout work. The room is often too small and too chopped up by doorways for modern appliances. Borrowing space from a pantry, porch or adjoining room is common. See small kitchen remodels.
• Electrical capacity. A modern kitchen needs far more circuits than these houses were wired for, so new circuits and sometimes a service upgrade are part of the job.
• Plumbing replacement. Old supply and drain piping is usually replaced once the walls are open.
• Walls and floors that are not flat, level or square. Lath and plaster, settled framing and layered floors all add labor when cabinets and counters have to go in straight.
• Insulation. Exterior walls of this age are often uninsulated, and an open wall is the time to deal with it. The energy rules for opened walls are summarized in Washington building codes for a kitchen remodel.

Many owners of these houses want to keep original trim, windows and built-ins, and a good plan works around them. If your property is listed on a historic register, read remodeling a kitchen in a historic Vancouver home before you design anything.

Post-war and mid-century: 1950s and 1960s

About one in eight Vancouver housing units dates from these two decades. The city notes that the newer homes in the Central Park neighborhood were built in the 1940s and 1950s. Ranches and split-levels of this period usually have a modest enclosed kitchen, a galley or a U, often with a dropped soffit above the upper cabinets and a small eating area beside it.

These kitchens respond well to removing or opening a wall toward the dining or living room, which is why opening a kitchen wall is worth reading early. Expect soffits to contain a duct, a pipe or wiring at least some of the time, and expect the electrical system to need added circuits. The original site-built cabinets are often solid wood and occasionally worth keeping; more often the layout is the reason to replace them.

The 1970s and 1980s

Three in ten Vancouver housing units were built in these two decades, with the 1970s alone at 18.1 percent. The city describes Fircrest, in east Vancouver, as having "classic 1970s homes" alongside newer builds. Kitchens of this period are typically a U or an L with a peninsula, a soffit, a recessed fluorescent light box in the ceiling, laminate counters and sheet vinyl flooring.

The rooms are usually large enough that the choice is real: a pull-and-replace or a full layout change. Common work includes removing the soffit and light box and replacing them with a proper lighting plan, converting the peninsula to an island where the room allows, and dealing with flooring. Kitchens of this age frequently have more than one layer of old resilient flooring, which is where the asbestos caution below matters most. Houses built before 1978 are also covered by the lead rules.

The 1990s and 2000s

This is the largest group: 33.9 percent of Vancouver's housing units were built from 1990 to 2009. Kitchens from these years tend to be bigger and already open to a family room or eating nook, often with an island. The wiring and plumbing are comparatively modern and the layout usually works.

What wears out is the finish level. Builder-grade cabinets, tile or laminate counters, dated lighting and tired flooring are the usual complaints, so most of these projects are pull-and-replace remodels, with targeted changes such as a larger island, a better pantry or a properly ducted range hood. The decisions are mostly about cabinets, countertops and storage, not structure.

2010 and newer

About 14 percent of units were built in 2010 or later. Kitchens this new seldom need remodeling for condition. Projects are usually about personalizing a builder's standard kitchen: better cabinet storage, upgraded counters, an appliance change, added lighting. Check what remains of any builder or manufacturer warranty before altering original work.

Lead paint: homes built before 1978

Washington runs its own lead-safe renovation program through the Department of Commerce. The state rules apply to renovations performed for compensation in housing built before 1978. In practice:

• The work must be done by a certified firm using certified renovators.
• The firm must give you the EPA pamphlet "The Lead-Safe Certified Guide to Renovate Right" no more than 60 days before work starts.
• Minor repair that disturbs six square feet or less of painted surface per room is below the threshold, but demolition of painted surfaces and window replacement are not treated as minor. A kitchen remodel that removes cabinets and wall finishes will normally exceed it.

More detail is in lead paint rules for kitchen remodels.

Planning around your home's era

Tell every remodeler the year built and what you know about earlier work, and ask how they handle lead-safe practices and the asbestos survey. JDI Construction is family-owned, has operated since 2007 and handles permits and project management for the homeowner. You can see a range of house styles in our kitchen remodeling projects, or start with the Vancouver kitchen remodeling page.