Watershed Construction & Restoration — Historic Building Restoration & Custom Roofing in Montpelier, VT
Watershed Construction & Restoration works out of 17 Court Street in Montpelier, covering historic building preservation, custom roofing, energy efficiency retrofits, and new construction. Founded by Ben Dunham and Keith Schumacher, the firm is licensed and insured, and handles project management from initial permitting through finished construction.
The combination of historic restoration and energy efficiency work is not common. Most contractors do one or the other. Doing both requires understanding how to improve a building’s thermal performance without compromising its historic fabric — a different challenge from new construction, where you can insulate however the code requires.
Services
Watershed’s core specialties are slate, copper, and cedar roofing: specialty work that most general contractors in the region don’t attempt. The firm also handles full historic building restoration and preservation, energy efficiency upgrades and weatherization, ground-up new construction (including off-grid and homesteading projects), and landscaping and excavation.
The slate and copper roofing work in particular is a diminishing skill set. Very few contractors in Vermont still do slate repairs or new slate installations competently. For owners of older Vermont buildings with original slate roofs, finding a contractor who can match and repair the existing work rather than replacing it with asphalt shingles is worth paying attention to.
Service area
Montpelier and central Vermont. Contact: 802-279-2417.
Why it’s on home.renovation.reviews
Watershed fills a genuine gap in the Vermont market: a contractor that handles heritage-sensitive restoration and modern efficiency upgrades. Owners of older Vermont homes who want to preserve the building’s character while improving its performance will find few better options in the area.
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