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Renew Urban Licensed & Insured General Contractor in Charleston, SC
Residential & Commercial
Historic Preservation & Restoration, Renovation, Luxury New Construction

09/26/2026

Framing is climbing at our Blue Heron build on Kiawah Island.

The home sits up on masonry piers, which is standard on a Kiawah lot where the living space starts above the flood elevation. The walls are framed through the top level. From up there the payoff is already clear: marsh views through the pines and palmettos, and the house will be oriented to capture them.

Framing is the stage most people scroll past, but it's where a home is really built. The walls, openings and load paths set now are what every finish later depends on. It's also the last point where a change is simple instead of expensive.

More updates to come as this one moves toward dry-in.

Thinking about building on Kiawah? Send us a message. We love to turn dreams into reality!

09/25/2026

Big week at River Marsh on Kiawah Island: the windows are in.

This is a milestone homeowners feel. For months a house is framing, sheathing and wrap. Then the glass goes in and the home starts to look like what's been on the drawings all along.

Here, that means tall walls of black-framed windows and doors across the main living spaces, facing straight out over the marsh. Stand inside today and the view is already doing the work.

Outside, the hardwood deck is down and the pool shell is formed and plumbed. Inside, the rough-in is underway. With the openings set, the house is closing in against the weather, and that's what lets the interior trades move forward.

We'll keep sharing progress as this one comes together.

Planning a custom home on Kiawah or anywhere in the Lowcountry? Send us a message and let's talk about your lot.

What shapes a Charleston custom home before the first board goes up? Usually three things.Elevation. The City of Charles...
09/24/2026

What shapes a Charleston custom home before the first board goes up? Usually three things.

Elevation. The City of Charleston requires new construction to be built 2 feet above FEMA's flood standard. That one rule affects the foundation, the entry, the porch and how the home looks from the street.

Architectural review. In the historic districts, the Board of Architectural Review approves the design before construction starts. It's part of what keeps Charleston looking like Charleston, and it needs to be built into the timeline from the beginning.

Coastal materials. Salt air and hurricane-season wind are hard on a house. Stainless fasteners, impact-rated windows and durable exterior materials cost more upfront. They cost far less than replacing things later.

That's why our process starts before design: a walk of the site, a budget consultation, a realistic price range, and then the right architect and designer for the project.

Thinking about building? Start here: https://renewurban.net/contact/

Sources: City of Charleston flood ordinance (effective July 1, 2020); City of Charleston Board of Architectural Review.

Charleston just ranked #1 in the country for new construction.Realtor.com's 2026 report ranked the 100 largest U.S. met...
09/22/2026

Charleston just ranked #1 in the country for new construction.

Realtor.com's 2026 report ranked the 100 largest U.S. metros, and Charleston came out on top. About 25% of homes for sale in the Charleston metro are new construction, and the median new-build list price was about $443K, which is actually lower than the $505K median for existing homes.

That tells you most of the new building here is production housing. That's good for the region. It just isn't what we do.

A custom home in Charleston is designed around one specific lot. It has to account for flood elevation, coastal wind requirements and salt air. If the lot is in a historic district, the design also goes through architectural review. We've been working through those details on the peninsula and the islands since 2009.

Considering a custom build? Let's talk: https://renewurban.net/contact/

Source: Realtor.com, "Top Metros for New Construction in 2026" (Aug. 31, 2026)

09/21/2026

This AMAZING custom build on Blue Heron is almost home. 🏡

The final touches are going in. The pool is filled and the outdoor fireplace is framed. Furniture is arriving, and every room opens to the pines and marsh views this lot was built for.

From the custom white oak cabinetry to the brushed brass in the primary shower, this one has been a joy to watch come together. We can't wait to hand over the keys.

Thinking about building or renovating in the Lowcountry? Let's talk. 📩

09/19/2026

A renovation this size is harder than building new. Here's why.

168 Surfsong on Kiawah wasn't a teardown and it wasn't a refresh. New kitchen, new wet bar, new built-ins, new millwork, new finishes throughout — inside a house that already existed, with walls that were already where they were and a structure that had opinions about all of it.

On a new build you draw the house you want. On a renovation you negotiate with the one that's there. Every wall you open is a question you can't fully answer until it's open. Framing that isn't where the drawings say. Plumbing running the wrong direction. A ceiling height that's an inch off across a room and has to be resolved before a single piece of trim goes up.

That's the actual work. Not the finishes — the problem-solving that makes the finishes possible.

The result is a house that reads like it was always this way. Which is the entire point, and also the reason nobody can tell how much work it was.

Renovating on Kiawah or in the historic district? Send us a message with 'DESIGN'.

09/17/2026

Nothing you see in this house was decided this month.

78 Blue Heron is in finishes. Floors are down, the kitchen is set, the pool is full, the landscape is in. It reads like the fun part. It's really the accounting.

The slab behind the range was sized off a drawing before that wall was framed. The green cabinetry in the scullery was specified early enough that electrical rough-in put outlets where the appliances actually landed. The shower glass fits because someone dimensioned the curb months ago. Every one of those was a decision made in a room with no walls.

That's the part homeowners don't expect. The finish stage doesn't create the house — it reveals whether the planning was any good. Projects that go sideways at the end almost always went sideways at the start, when somebody said "we'll figure that out later."

We don't build many houses a year. This is why.

Planning a custom home on the islands? Send us a message with 'BUILD'.

The last payment isn't the last conversation.A new house moves through its first year whether anyone is watching or not....
09/16/2026

The last payment isn't the last conversation.

A new house moves through its first year whether anyone is watching or not. Framing lumber keeps drying and shrinking. Doors drift out of square. Grout lines show hairline cracks where the house settled. The HVAC finally meets a full Charleston August and tells you whether it was sized right.

None of that is a defect. That's a house becoming a house.

What matters is whether you can still reach the person who built it when it happens. We stay in touch with our clients after a job closes out, and we still hear from people whose houses we finished years ago. Sometimes it's a real problem. More often it's a question about a material, or a recommendation for a trade, or a door that sticks every July and never in January.

That kind of access costs us very little to offer, and it is rarer than it should be. Plenty of builders are unreachable by the time the punch list clears.

So if you're weighing builders right now, ask each of them the same question: who do I call in year two? Then ask for the phone number of a client whose house they finished three years ago, and actually call it.

The answers will sort your list faster than any portfolio will.

Building the house you plan to stay in? Send us a message with 'BUILD' and we'll start the conversation.

09/15/2026

This is the last week anyone can change their mind for free.

53 River Marsh is dried in. Roof underlayment is down, the wall wrap is on, and the house has stopped being weather. Inside, it's wire and pipe — every outlet, every switch leg, every run of PEX sitting in open studs where you can still see all of it.

Right now, moving a light is a conversation. After drywall, moving that same light is a demo, a patch, a repaint, and a schedule hit that ripples through three trades.

So this is the walkthrough that matters most and gets skipped most often. Not the finish walkthrough with the tile samples. This one — standing in an unfinished room with the electrical plan in hand, deciding where you'll actually reach for a switch when you're carrying groceries in at night.

The clients who get the most out of their house are the ones who show up at this stage and ask boring questions.

If you're building this year, put a rough-in walkthrough on your calendar before you pick a single finish. Link in bio to talk it through.

The strongest part of your house disappears in week 9.Once drywall goes up, nobody sees the framing again. Which is why ...
09/14/2026

The strongest part of your house disappears in week 9.

Once drywall goes up, nobody sees the framing again. Which is why it's the stage that separates a custom build from a production one.

A house on the coast doesn't fail at its strongest point. It fails at its connections. So the work here is tying the roof to the foundation in one continuous load path: straps at every rafter, hold-downs at the corners, engineered hardware where a production crew sets a few nails and moves on. Every one of those connections gets inspected before anything covers it.

Here's the number that sets the standard. Under the 2021 South Carolina Residential Code, coastal Charleston County frames to an ultimate design wind speed close to 150 mph. On Kiawah and the barrier islands it runs about 148. The whole area also sits inside the wind-borne debris region, which is why opening protection isn't a preference here, it's code.

Meeting that on paper is the floor, not the goal. The house has to hold it in year 40, after four decades of Lowcountry humidity and salt air have worked on every piece of metal in the building.

Here's the practical version for anyone about to break ground: ask your builder for their framing photos. Not renderings, not finished rooms. Framing. A builder who's proud of what sits behind the walls will have hundreds of them and will want to walk you through what you're looking at.

Save this for your framing walkthrough.

Address

706 Orleans Road, Suite 202
Charleston, SC
29407

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(843)6394731

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