Oakland County, Southeast Michigan
The Oakland County remodel, run by one team
Home remodeling in Oakland County runs six figures, and it usually runs long when a homeowner has to coordinate an architect, a designer, a general contractor, and the subs. Wright’s Renovations puts design, permitting, and construction under one contract, from Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills to Rochester Hills, Troy, and Novi.
Why homeowners drive the work to us
What working with one team gets you
Oakland clients are not shopping for the closest pin on the map. They are buying a team that runs a six-figure project end to end, so the homeowner is never the project manager.
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01
One contract, one team
Design, permitting, construction, and finish work under one roof. No architect, designer, and general contractor for you to referee.
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One project manager
A single point of contact from the first walk-through to the final punch list. The 40-mile drive from Ypsilanti is built into scheduling, never billed to you.
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03
Fixed-scope budget
A line-item proposal before you sign. Change orders go in writing, and most Oakland projects close under 5 percent over the original number.
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04
Scoped to the block
A $150,000 kitchen fits a $1.3 million Birmingham home and over-improves a $450,000 subdivision. We scope to the comp set, not only the wish list.
Reading the house first
What Oakland County homes need
The housing stock here varies more than anywhere else in the service area. Pre-war homes around Quarton Lake and Poppleton Park in Birmingham sit near teardowns and new builds. Bloomfield Hills runs from 1920s estates on Long Lake Road to 1980s ranches on the chain of lakes. Rochester Hills and Troy are mostly 1980s to 2000s subdivisions that were modern when built and read closed-off now.
Birmingham and Bloomfield properties
Designer cabinetry, integrated appliances, floor-to-ceiling tile, and custom millwork. Budgets start around $250,000 and run past $1 million once a full second story is involved. This is the market a luxury home renovation is built for, right down to a full whole-home renovation in Birmingham.
Rochester Hills and Troy builds
Open the kitchen to the family room, pull the half-wall off the formal dining, turn the unused front room into a home office, and finish the basement as a second living space. The house gets modern without the estate budget, usually starting with an open-concept kitchen.
Mid-century ranches across Royal Oak, Berkley, and Birmingham’s south end are their own pattern: low ceilings, small windows, and chopped-up rooms. Owners want them opened up without losing the period proportions. That means raising ceiling heights selectively, widening the front windows, and redesigning the kitchen as one great room while keeping the wood floors and original details worth keeping.
Every one of these projects runs through a different building department. Birmingham enforces historic-district guidelines block by block. Bloomfield Hills reviews lot coverage and setbacks closely on the estate parcels. Novi and Troy hold their newer subdivisions to their own standards. Wright’s pulls the permits and sits through the inspections in each municipality, so the homeowner is not the one learning a township’s process in the middle of a build.
Where the schedule fills up
The work Oakland asks for most
Three project types dominate the Oakland pipeline: whole-home renovations on properties where the buyer wants the lot and the bones but not the layout, second-story additions on ranches that cannot grow sideways, and high-end kitchens with full custom cabinetry and templated stone. Each card below links to the Oakland page for that service, with a real budget floor rather than a marketing placeholder.
From $350K
Whole-home renovation
Keep the location and the structure, rebuild the plan. Full gut and reconfiguration on Birmingham and Bloomfield homes.
From $100K
Kitchen remodeling
Full custom cabinetry, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliance packages, and stone counters templated to the room, not cut to slab.
From $185K
Second-story addition
Room to grow up instead of out, once the foundation and first-floor framing are confirmed to carry the load.
From $70K
Basement finishing
Lower-level living with a second kitchen, full bath, and guest suite, built for daily use rather than an occasional visit.
From $150K
Primary suite addition
A private retreat with a spa bath and walk-in closet, framed to match the roof lines and elevation of the existing house.
From $45K
Bathroom remodeling
Freestanding tubs, frameless walk-in showers, and stone vanity tops, waterproofed correctly the first time.
Oakland work also routes through Rochester Hills kitchen remodeling and Rochester Hills bathroom remodeling for 1980s to 2000s subdivisions, plus basement finishing in Novi and Novi bathroom remodeling for the newer-build market, with first-floor great rooms coming in as home additions in Birmingham.
Finish detail runs deep on these projects: custom cabinetry, stone countertops, custom kitchen islands, walk-in showers, heated bathroom floors, home theaters, wine cellars, and wet bars.
What projects run here
Home remodeling costs in Oakland County
Oakland home values run higher than any county in the service area, so the renovation math works differently. The ranges below reflect recent local projects.
Kitchen renovation
$100K to $250KTypical range
Bathroom renovation
$45K to $125KTypical range
Basement finishing
$70K to $150KTypical range
Second-story addition
$185K to $420KTypical range
Whole-home renovation
$350K to $1M+Typical range
Ranges reflect recent Oakland County projects. Custom finishes, structural work, and full second stories sit at the high end. Run your own numbers with the renovation cost calculator or read the Michigan addition cost guide.
Birmingham clears $1 million on the median sale; Bloomfield Hills runs $1.2 to $1.8 million; Rochester Hills sits $475,000 to $650,000; Novi runs $480,000 to $720,000 by subdivision. At these prices the return window stretches to 8 to 15 percent of home value on luxury properties, because the upgrades have to match the neighborhood rather than only the owner’s taste.
That is why scoping here reads the comp set as closely as the wish list. A $150,000 kitchen recovers most of its cost in a $1.3 million Birmingham home, where the buyer pool expects it, and over-improves a $450,000 build where it never comes back. For how the calendar shakes out, see the addition timeline.
Royal Oak, Berkley, and South Lyon sit lower, closer to $350,000 to $475,000, and the math there rewards a different play: quality where it shows and gets used every day, restraint on the finishes that a $1 million buyer would expect but a $425,000 buyer will not pay for. The scoping conversation on a Berkley bungalow looks nothing like the one on a Long Lake estate, and it should not.
Design-build vs the multi-vendor path
Why design-build wins on Oakland projects
The standard path puts a homeowner between an architect, an interior designer, and a general contractor. Wright’s runs the design, the budget, and the build under one agreement. That is the whole argument for design-build.
| Category | The multi-vendor path | Wright’s Renovations |
|---|---|---|
| Team | An architect, an interior designer, a general contractor, and you coordinating all three. | One design-build team, one contract, one project manager. |
| Estimate | A verbal range up front. The real number lands after demo, often 30 percent over. | A fixed-scope proposal with line-item materials and labor before you sign. |
| Timeline | 14 to 22 months on a serious project. | Nine to 14 months on comparable scope. |
| Communication | Text the foreman. Sometimes a reply. | A live portal: daily photos, real-time schedule, every document in one place. |
| Change orders | 15 to 20 percent of contract value, absorbed as the job goes. | Under 5 percent. Most projects close at the signed number. |
| The 40-mile drive | A reason local shops give for not showing up. | Built into scheduling, never billed. Site visits at least weekly. |
This is also why the 40-mile drive works. Oakland clients are not hiring the contractor with the closest pin on the map. They are hiring the team that will run a $300,000 project from first drawing to final walkthrough without turning the homeowner into the general contractor. The drive is the cost of doing business with the right team, and it is built into the schedule rather than the invoice.
5.0 rating
We bought a 1962 ranch in Beverly Hills with the idea of opening it up. Every contractor we met wanted to either gut it to the studs or apply a cosmetic refresh. Nobody was reading the house. Will Sujek came out, spent two hours walking the property, and proposed what none of the others had: keep the original walnut paneling in the den, raise the kitchen ceiling to 10 feet by rerouting the duct chase, and reframe the rear elevation with three floor-to-ceiling windows.
Connor and the project manager held a weekly walk-through, and the daily updates were exactly that. The budget was tight, but the team flagged two material substitutions early that kept us inside the original number. The house reads contemporary now without losing the period it was built in. We have since sent two friends in Bloomfield to Wright’s.
Daniel R.
Whole-home renovation, Beverly Hills, MI
Where the crews work
Towns Wright’s serves across Oakland County
Birmingham is the headline market, but the crews run the full county. Each group of towns brings its own housing stock, its own budgets, and its own version of the same question: how do we make this house work for the next twenty years.
The luxury core
The highest concentration of seven-figure homes in the service area, with a homeowner base that takes design seriously.
The family suburbs
Newer homes and larger lots along the M-59 and Adams Road corridor, with strong school-district demand.
Mid-century and close-in
Smaller mid-century homes for the crowd that wants quality without the seven-figure footprint.
Straight answers
Questions Oakland homeowners ask
Does Wright’s work in Birmingham given the distance from Ypsilanti?
Yes. Oakland County is one of four major project regions, and Birmingham is the highest-priority town in it. The 40-mile drive is built into scheduling, not billed to you. Site visits happen at least weekly, and the project manager attends every on-site progress meeting.
What is a realistic budget for a luxury Birmingham kitchen?
$100,000 to $250,000 is the working range. Custom cabinetry alone runs $40,000 to $90,000. A Sub-Zero and Wolf appliance package runs $25,000 to $50,000. Templated stone counters with a waterfall island run $12,000 to $25,000. Floors, lighting, fixtures, and tile add $20,000 to $50,000. Labor, demolition, and project management fill out the rest.
How long do second-story additions take on a mid-century ranch?
Five to nine months once permits issue. The structural engineering that confirms the existing foundation and framing can carry a second story is the long pole up front. Once framing starts, the structure goes up in about six weeks, then the trades roll through. There is a fuller timeline breakdown if you want the week-by-week view.
Can Wright’s handle the architectural drawings?
Wright’s produces drawings in-house for almost all residential projects. For Birmingham and Bloomfield jobs that need a formal architectural stamp, usually new construction over 3,000 square feet or anything triggering structural review, Wright’s brings in a stamping architect inside the same contract, so you still sign one agreement.
What is the lead time to start an Oakland project?
Eight to 14 weeks from signed contract to demolition for most projects. Spring and summer book heaviest. The consultation itself is usually scheduled within two weeks. Larger luxury jobs run longer in design because the finish specification takes more time to lock down.
Beyond Oakland
The other five counties Wright’s serves
Start the conversation
Talk to the team about an Oakland project
Tell us the house, the scope, and the number you have in mind. If design-build is not the right fit for what you are planning, we will say so.