Cottages, bungalows and block homes
The city grew out of the Lucerne townsite that the Palm Beach Farms Company started in 1912, and its neighborhoods filled in during the 1920s boom. City records describe many houses in South Palm Park and Southeast Lucerne as wood frame vernacular built around 1925. College Park, north of downtown, is mostly single-family homes from the 1920s through the 1960s.
Mixed in are Mission Revival houses with stucco walls and postwar block homes. Some old frame houses had stucco put over the wood siding years later, which can hide rot until it is well along.
Old wood houses move with the humidity. Doors swell in summer, wood windows stick, and paint fails first on the walls that take the most sun and rain.
Historic districts, HOAs and condos
Most of Lake Worth Beach doesn't have the guard-gated communities you find out west. What it has are six local historic districts: College Park, Old Lucerne, Northeast Lucerne, Southeast Lucerne, South Palm Park and the Old Town commercial district. Exterior changes to properties in these districts can require a Certificate of Appropriateness from the city.
We stick to like-for-like repairs: a rotted trim board replaced with the same profile, a screen door fixed, paint touched up in the existing color. If the work would change how the outside looks, or you aren't sure it's exempt, check with the city's historic preservation staff before we start, since that approval is the owner's to get.
If you live in one of the city's condo or co-op buildings, send us the building's rules on vendor registration, insurance certificates and work hours when you book.
Jobs we get asked for most
Wood is the common thread in this town.
Rot work stops at non-structural wood. If the soft spot reaches rafters, rafter tails, sills, framing or sheathing, we'll show you and point you to a licensed contractor. A house with a lot of bad trim can run past Florida's $2,500 limit for handyman work, so larger jobs get referred to a licensed contractor.
Nearly all of the historic cottages were built well before 1978. On any home that old, we check painted surfaces for lead before we sand, scrape or cut them, and a positive result sends the job to an EPA lead-safe certified firm.
- Replacing rotted fascia, trim, window casing and porch boards (non-structural), from $22 per linear foot in primed wood or $28 in PVC, $249 minimum
- Freeing doors that stick or won't latch after swelling in the humidity
- Rescreening windows and screen doors, from $35 per standard screen
- Exterior caulking at trim, window casings and where siding meets stucco
- Interior painting and wall patches
- Shelves, hooks and small storage builds that make a small cottage hold more
Seasons in Lake Worth Beach
Wet months, roughly late May through October, are when wood trim soaks up water and paint starts to bubble. Exterior paint and trim work goes better in the drier months, when humidity is lower and afternoon storms are rare.
This close to the ocean and the Intracoastal, salt air is hard on screen frames, door hardware and exterior screws. Stainless or coated fasteners hold up longer here, and that is what we use on outside repairs.
During hurricane season (June 1 to November 30), storm prep on a cottage usually means putting up the panels or shutters you own and getting porch furniture inside, and our prep visit starts at $299 for up to 10 openings. Part-time owners who leave for the summer can also set up home watch visits with photo reports.
Neighborhoods we serve
Our service area covers the whole city, from the historic districts east of Dixie Highway to the blocks west of it.
- College Park
- Old Lucerne
- Northeast Lucerne
- Southeast Lucerne
- South Palm Park
- Downtown and Old Town around Lake and Lucerne Avenues
Questions from Lake Worth Beach homeowners
Do I need city approval to repair my historic cottage?
Exterior changes in the city's historic districts can require a Certificate of Appropriateness. If the work swaps in different materials or details, check with the city first. On straight repairs, we match the existing profiles and colors so the house looks the way it did.
Can you fix rotted lap siding on a wood cottage?
We replace short runs of rotted siding and trim, matching the profile as closely as available material allows. If rot has gotten into the studs or sill behind it, that is structural, and we'll tell you so and leave it to the right trade.
My cottage doors stick every summer. Can you fix that for good?
We can usually make it much better. We tighten or reset hinges, adjust the strike and plane only where the door rubs, then seal the bare wood so it takes on less moisture. Sealing the top and bottom edges is the step that most often gets skipped.
Do you test for lead paint?
Yes, on any house built before 1978, before we disturb painted wood or walls. A positive test means an EPA lead-safe certified firm takes the job instead of us.