If it still works, keep it. If it doesn’t work, fix it. That’s the principle behind historic preservation of family homes and other residential buildings, as practiced by the employees and owner of Heritage Restoration Inc.
The company, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, specializes in smaller projects, mostly residential, that involve restoration and preservation of historical and older buildings.
The approach to preservation is different than most construction specialties, which now are often using prefabricated sections. When he approaches a project, owner Robert Cagnetta said, he’s almost following a set of instructions as to how to treat the building.
“Something like a window at your house. This can be fixed, so we’re going to fix it,” he said. “Anything that can be repairable, we’re going to keep. Anything that can’t, we’re going to reproduce.”
The projects that Cagnetta accepts can be as small as a broken door lock or a door that will no longer shut properly. Or his team can go all-in. Their work to restore the windows of the Leroy King House, a McKead, Kim and White design in Newport that dates to 1885, involved restoration of 97 windows in the house to original function. The project contributed to the owner winning a Doris Duke Historic Preservation Award in 2010.
Cagnetta is a graduate of Roger Williams University, with a major in historic preservation and a minor in architecture. He started out as a nonprofit employee working for Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island.
He opened Heritage Restoration in 2001. His customers are primarily residential property owners who want to save their buildings. The properties may be historical, or they may just be aging and loved.
“The customers are people who already know they want to keep a building. They’re not calling a company called Heritage Restoration to get a cheap remodel,” Cagnetta said.
It can be a door latch that’s not working, or a window that’s drafty and won’t open.
Windows are an example of something that is cheaper to replace, short term, than save. But long term, it’s more cost effective to repair and keep them in the building, Cagnetta said.
He’s worked on glass that’s as old as the 1770s.
“We restore old windows,” he said. “The short-term economics of restoring an old window isn’t there. It doesn’t make sense. If you look at it over 100 years, it’s a lot more cost effective to restore it.”
Rhode Island is filled with structures that have old windows. Most can be saved.
And younger homeowners are seeing the benefits of keeping what is already there, partly out of an ecological standpoint.
“A lot more of the younger generation are aware of the sustainability of keeping an old house,” Cagnetta said.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, that attitude has multiplied. The company is as busy as it’s ever been, he said. People are home more, looking at things they don’t like, that should be fixed.
“They’re finding things that are annoyances. It could be two or three windows. It could be a floor. It could be an alteration. It’s not big things and that’s OK,” Cagnetta said.
OWNER: Robert Cagnetta
LOCATION: 8 Robin St., Providence
TYPE OF BUSINESS: General contractor focused on historic preservation
EMPLOYEES: 15
YEAR FOUNDED: 2001
ANNUAL SALES: $1.2 million
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
