Handyman in Charleston Heights

Charleston Heights grew in the 1950s as Las Vegas spread west from downtown, and it is known for single-story ranch homes that helped define mid-century building in the city. The neighborhood sits roughly between Decatur and Buffalo, with Washington, Westcliff, Alta and Charleston as its main east-west roads. For a Charleston Heights handyman, that means houses now 55 to 70 years old.

In ZIP 89107, the 1960s produced more of today's homes than any other decade. Building carried on into the late 1960s, when the Charleston Rainbow subdivision went up nearby. The Charleston Heights Arts Center on Brush Street, with its 365-seat theater and the long-running Rainbow Company Youth Theatre, is a neighborhood landmark.

About 147 houses in Charleston Heights tracts three and five, built by Burns Construction Company in 1955, are known as the Cliff May Homes, after the designer often called the father of the mid-century modern ranch house. They were advertised as FHA-approved starting in August 1954. Their one-room-wide layouts were designed to tie each room to the outdoors.

A plan built around the outdoors tends to mean more glass and more exterior doors than a typical house of the same size. After 70 years those doors can drag, leak air and let in dust, and door installation and repair often makes the most noticeable difference. Fresh caulk around the openings and exterior painting of the trim help them through monsoon season.

The city's Historic Preservation Commission has been researching these tracts for the City of Las Vegas Historic Property Register, and a city-commissioned survey named more than a hundred homes in the neighborhood as candidates for preservation. If yours might be one of them, keep original details where you can.

Six decades of owners and additions can leave wiring from several eras side by side. Two-prong outlets, cloth-covered cable and a kitchen running on too few circuits are the usual suspects when breakers trip or lights dim.

An original bathroom at this age is often ready for a full remodel, and opening the walls is the moment to replace old supply pipe and add blocking for future grab bars. Where vintage tile is still sound, caulking and grout work plus new fixtures can keep it going for years.