The Kansas side of the metro, and nowhere else

We cover the Kansas half of the Kansas City metro. That is a deliberate boundary rather than a limitation: crossing the river at rush hour can cost an hour, and a promise of same-day service that depends on a bridge is not much of a promise. It also means dealing with one set of licensing offices — the Unified Government in Wyandotte County and Johnson County Contractor Licensing — rather than two states' worth of rules.

Wyandotte County

Kansas City, Kansas is our home patch and the oldest housing we work on, with a median build year of 1961. Strawberry Hill, Rosedale, Argentine, Armourdale and the streets around Village West — narrow single-car openings, detached garages off the alleys, extension springs still in service, and doors that have been patched more than once. Bonner Springs and Edwardsville sit out along the K-7 and I-70 corridor, where detached workshops and pole buildings are as common as house garages.

Johnson County

The newer half of the work. Overland Park is the largest single piece of it, with a median build year of 1989 and wide double doors on two-storey houses. Olathe is the youngest housing we see at 1994 and produces more high-cycle spring upgrades than anywhere else. Lenexa at 1992 and Shawnee at 1990 fill in between, though Shawnee runs from 1950s streets to brand-new developments in a single city.

Leawood brings three-car garages, carriage-style doors and architectural committees that want the colour approved first. Prairie Village is the opposite end: a median house from 1959, narrow post-war openings, tight headroom and timber jambs that are often the real job. Merriam sits along the I-35 corridor with Turkey Creek beside it, modest 1970s housing and more bottom-end corrosion than anywhere else we go.

Leavenworth County

Leavenworth is the furthest point we reach and the oldest city in Kansas, founded in 1854, with everything from nineteenth-century houses to 1970s subdivisions and a steady stream of Fort Leavenworth families working to fixed moving dates. Lansing next door grew from 1,264 people in 1960 to over 11,000 and built almost all of its housing in one burst, which makes the failures arrive in predictable waves.

Also covered

Mission, De Soto, Basehor and Edwardsville are all within reach and we take calls there regularly; they simply do not have pages of their own yet. If you are on the Kansas side and not sure whether you are in range, ring and ask — the answer is usually yes, and if it is no you will be told rather than strung along.

What we do not do

We do not cross the state line. Missouri-side addresses — Kansas City MO, Independence, Lee's Summit, Liberty, Blue Springs, North Kansas City — are outside our area, and we would rather say so immediately than take a booking we cannot serve properly.