Nelson Kitchen & Bath serves homeowners in Evans City and the surrounding area with custom kitchen and bathroom remodeling. Our showroom is at 637 Route 228 in Mars, about ten minutes south on Route 8 or through Adams Township, close enough that Evans City has been a regular part of our service area for the entirety of our 30-plus years in business. We know this community, we know its homes, and we bring that familiarity to every project we take on here.
Evans City: A Borough With History and Heart
Evans City sits in the valley of Breakneck Creek in southwestern Butler County, about 28 miles north of Pittsburgh. The borough covers just under a square mile and had a population of around 1,737 at the 2020 census, with estimates pushing closer to 1,900 by 2024. Route 68 passes through the heart of the borough, connecting Evans City to Butler to the northeast and to Zelienople and Harmony to the northwest, while Interstate 79 is just two miles away, a proximity that makes the daily commute to Pittsburgh or the northern suburbs genuinely manageable.
The history of Evans City goes back further than most people realize. The area along Breakneck Creek was a significant point on the route between Fort Duquesne and Fort Machault during the French and Indian War era, and the creek itself carries a name that French travelers gave it centuries ago. The first permanent settlement in the area came when Robert Boggs built a gristmill here around 1790 and christened the property Boggs Mill. The Pittsburgh and Western Railroad arrived in 1878, which was the catalyst for serious growth, and the borough was formally incorporated as Evansburg on September 22, 1882, before being renamed Evans City later that same year in honor of the local businessman who had laid out the original village along the creek.
Oil was discovered in the area in 1915, which briefly accelerated Evans City’s growth before overdrilling depleted the supply. But the town and its businesses had already put down roots, and the community continued to grow steadily through the 20th century. Today Evans City is primarily a residential suburb with a genuine small-town character that distinguishes it from the denser planned communities to the south. The median household income in the borough runs in the low-to-mid $70,000 range, and the median age of around 42 reflects a community of established households, people who have chosen Evans City for the long term and take care of their properties accordingly.
The Seneca Valley School District serves Evans City, and that matters enormously to families in the area. Seneca Valley is one of the largest and most highly regarded school districts in western Pennsylvania, and it draws families who plan to stay long enough to see their children through the system. That kind of long-term commitment shows up in how homeowners in Evans City approach their properties. When someone in this borough decides to invest in a kitchen or bath remodel, they are not making a short-term decision. They are improving a home they intend to keep.
Evans City also carries a cultural footnote that people either know immediately or learn about with some surprise. it was the filming location for George Romero’s 1968 horror classic “Night of the Living Dead,” one of the most influential films in the history of the genre. The cemetery scenes were filmed here, and the film has become part of the borough’s identity in ways that the community has leaned into over the years. It is a quirky piece of local history that says something real about the place, Evans City has always had character.
Older Evans City Homes Can Be Renovated
Evans City homeowners who come to us reflect the variety of the housing stock and the range of circumstances that lead a homeowner to finally make the call to remodel.
The borough has a mix of housing types that spans well over a century of construction. There are older homes in the downtown core near Route 68 that date to the late 19th and early 20th century, well-built properties with real architectural character but kitchens and baths that were designed for a completely different era of daily life. Then there are the mid-century homes that went up during the post-war suburban expansion, solid ranches and split-levels that have been family homes for decades. And on the edges of the borough and into the surrounding Jackson Township and Forward Township areas, you have homes built in the 1980s through the 2000s that were designed for a more contemporary lifestyle but finished with builder-grade materials that have run their course.
A common situation we encounter in Evans City is the homeowner who has lived in the same house for fifteen or twenty years and has been putting off a kitchen or bath project because the timing was never quite right. The kids were young, the budget was tight, the schedule was packed. Now the timing has shifted. The kids are older, the income is more established, and the frustration with a kitchen that has never worked right or a bath that should have been updated years ago has finally reached the tipping point. These homeowners know what they want. They are done waiting.
We also work with Evans City homeowners who are tackling older homes that have been partially updated over the years in ways that no longer hold together. A kitchen where someone replaced the countertops but left the original cabinetry from the 1970s. A bath where the tile was refreshed once but the vanity was never touched and the room feels disjointed. These piecemeal approaches are a common result of trying to address a space without committing to doing it right, and they often create rooms that feel more frustrating to live with than if nothing had been touched at all.
Kitchen Remodeling in Evans City
Kitchen remodeling in Evans City covers a genuinely wide range of project types, given how varied the housing stock is. An early 20th-century home near the center of the borough has a completely different set of opportunities and constraints than a 1990s colonial on the edge of Jackson Township. What does not change is our approach. We start with your specific space, how you use it, and what you want the result to feel like, not with a catalog of options we are trying to move.
Nelson Kitchen & Bath designs and builds custom kitchens from scratch on every project. We do not sell packages and we do not walk you through a showroom of preset configurations. Before we talk about materials or finishes, we want to understand your household. How many people are cooking? How does traffic move through the space? What storage problems have driven you crazy for years? What do you want to feel when you walk into the finished kitchen? That conversation drives everything that follows.
Here is what kitchen remodeling with Nelson Kitchen & Bath typically covers in Evans City homes:
- Cabinet design and installation: Custom and semi-custom cabinetry designed around your specific layout and storage needs. In older Evans City homes, this frequently means working around structural features that a standard cabinet configuration will not accommodate. We handle that work rather than compromising the design to fit a preset.
- Kitchen Countertops: Quartz, granite, and solid surface options selected for durability and the overall look of the room. We help you find a surface that holds up to real daily use, not just one that photographs well in a showroom.
- Kitchen Flooring: Hardwood, luxury vinyl plank, and tile installed as part of the complete project. In older homes especially, subfloor condition is a real factor that needs to be properly addressed before new flooring goes down. We do that correctly rather than covering problems over.
- Backsplash and tile work: Custom tile installation that ties the design together. The quality of a tile job lives in the details, grout line consistency, clean transitions, proper pattern alignment, and we take those details seriously on every project.
- Lighting: Under-cabinet lighting, recessed lighting, and pendant placement that makes the kitchen functional at every hour of the day. Older Evans City homes frequently have kitchen lighting that was never properly planned. We fix that as part of the project.
- Appliance integration: Built-in appliances, panel-ready refrigerators, and range installations handled as part of the overall design so everything finishes cleanly and consistently with the surrounding work.
You work with Ray Nelson directly from the first conversation through the final walkthrough. There are no handoffs to a project manager you have never met, and no crews showing up without a clear picture of your home and your project.
Bathroom Remodeling in Evans City
Evans City bathroom remodeling is one of the most impactful investments a homeowner in this area can make. The primary bath in particular is a room that drives the perception of a home’s overall condition, both for the people who live there and for anyone who might consider buying it down the road. A dated bath in an otherwise well-maintained Evans City home is one of the fastest ways to leave value on the table.
We remodel primary baths, guest baths, and powder rooms throughout Evans City and the surrounding area. The right scope for any given project depends on the specific room, the homeowner’s goals, and the budget. Some projects are complete gut-and-rebuilds where we take everything back to the studs and start fresh. Others are more targeted, such as a tub-to-shower conversion, a vanity replacement, new tile work, or a fixture upgrade that modernizes the room without replacing elements that are still in good shape.
In older Evans City homes, bathroom remodeling often involves more preparatory work than people anticipate. Tile backer from early and mid-century construction was not waterproofed to modern standards. Plumbing that has been in place for fifty or more years may need to be updated as part of the project. Subfloors that have absorbed moisture over the decades need to be properly assessed and addressed before new tile goes down. We do not skip those steps. A bathroom that looks finished on the surface but was built on a compromised substrate is a bathroom that will have problems in a few years, and we have seen enough of those over three decades to be firm about doing the preparatory work correctly.
Here is what bathroom remodeling with Nelson Kitchen & Bath covers:
- Shower and tub work: Tub-to-shower conversions, custom tile showers, frameless glass enclosures, and built-in niches constructed on a properly waterproofed substrate. We build showers that are done right from the inside out.
- Vanity and storage: Custom and semi-custom cabinetry designed around the scale of the room and your real storage needs. In smaller older baths especially, smart storage design makes a meaningful difference in how the room functions every day.
- Tile work: Floor tile, wall tile, and accent tile installed with the care and precision that separates a professional result from a patched-together one. We get the grout lines right, the patterns aligned, and the transitions clean.
- Plumbing fixtures & hardware: Faucets, showerheads, handheld sprayers, and toilet replacements selected for quality and coordinated consistently across the room so everything finishes together.
- Lighting and ventilation: Proper bath lighting combined with ventilation that meets modern standards. In older Evans City homes, ventilation is frequently inadequate. Addressing it during a remodel is far less expensive and disruptive than dealing with moisture damage after the fact.
- Bathroom Flooring: Heated tile floors, luxury vinyl, and natural stone options installed on a properly prepared substrate so they stay flat and grout-tight for years.
Why Evans City Homeowners Choose Nelson Kitchen & Bath
Evans City is a community where people know their neighbors and pay attention to the quality of the work being done in the homes around them. Word travels in a small borough, and the homeowners who come to us from Evans City are frequently referrals from people in the community who have already worked with us or seen the results firsthand.
We have been doing this for over 30 years, and the way we work has not changed. Ray Nelson is not a regional franchise operator or a brand name on a sign. He is a craftsman and a business owner who has spent his career building a reputation in this specific part of Butler County. He is the person you meet at the first consultation, the person who designs your project, and the person accountable for the outcome from start to finish. That kind of direct, personal accountability is genuinely rare in the remodeling industry, and it shows in the results.
Our showroom is at 637 Route 228 in Mars, about ten minutes south on Route 8. You can stop in without making a special trip, see materials in person, and have a real conversation about your project before committing to anything. That first conversation matters to us and we never rush it.
Here is what you can count on when you work with us:
- Experience with older homes: Evans City has a significant amount of early and mid-century housing. We know how to work in these homes correctly, including the preparatory work that separates a remodel that lasts from one that does not.
- Direct access to Ray Nelson: You work with Ray from the first consultation through the final walkthrough. He is the person responsible for your project and he is reachable throughout the process.
- Custom design for your specific home: Evans City homes span more than a century of construction styles. We design around your space, your household, and your goals, not around a package we are trying to sell.
- Transparent pricing before any work begins: You will know exactly what you are paying before the first nail goes in. We do not build a business on low estimates and change orders.
- Work we stand behind: We have been in this area for decades. If something is not right when the project is done, we make it right. That has been Ray’s standard since 1994 and it has not changed.
Schedule a Consultation
Evans City homeowners in need of kitchen and bathroom remodeling, please reach out to us. Stop by our showroom at 637 Route 228 in Mars or reach out to schedule a consultation with Ray Nelson directly. We serve Evans City and the surrounding communities of Cranberry Township, Mars, Seven Fields, Adams Township, Middlesex Township, Valencia, Pine Township, Wexford, Warrendale, Gibsonia, Zelienople, Harmony, Jackson Township, Marshall Township, Allison Park, McCandless, Hampton Township, Richland Township, Baden, New Sewickley, and throughout the Northern Pittsburgh suburbs.