★★★★★
“The scope of our project included new grass, a small retaining wall, elevating parts of our yard, releveling our existing brick path…”
via Google- Licensed Cape Cod general contractor · MA MA MA CSL CS122588 · HIC 217100
General Contractor • Barnstable, MA
Compass Home Group is a licensed general contractor based in Hyannis serving the town of Barnstable, MA, with work that spans kitchens, bathrooms, decks, siding, and whole-home renovations across all seven villages.
Barnstable combines older Cape homes, coastal exposure, historic-district review, and village-specific permit routing. Our written scopes account for the conditions that affect the work before construction begins.
This page covers our remodeling work, permit process, coastal building details, and service across Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable.
Kitchens · Bathrooms · Decks · Siding · Whole-home renovations
General Contractor
Barnstable is one municipality spread across seven distinct villages, each with its own character, housing stock, and in some cases its own permit jurisdiction. Compass Home Group works across all of them, operating out of 47-4 Warehouse Rd in Hyannis. Every project carries a 1 year written workmanship warranty on the labor we perform. Materials and appliances carry their own manufacturer warranties, which we register in your name and hand over at closeout.
Older housing, coastal humidity, salt air, and seasonal occupancy can change the scope once walls or exterior assemblies are opened. We inspect the conditions that affect framing, waterproofing, fasteners, and ventilation before finalizing the work.
Permit routing depends on the village, and properties north of Route 6 may also require Old King’s Highway Historic District review. We coordinate those requirements as part of the written project scope.
Richard Pereira is the building official covering Barnstable Village, which runs along Route 6A near the Sturgis Library, one of the oldest structures remaining on Cape Cod. Homes here skew older and many sit within or near the Old King's Highway Historic District, which adds a Certificate of Appropriateness review to any exterior work visible from a public way.
Ed Bowers covers Centerville as part of the Centerville/Osterville/Cotuit district. Most of the housing stock here is single-family detached construction from the mid-to-late twentieth century, consistent with Barnstable's townwide median construction year of 1977. Remodeling projects in homes of this era regularly surface deferred maintenance once walls open.
Ed Bowers also covers Cotuit. Like much of Barnstable's south-side villages, properties here are a mix of year-round residences and seasonal homes that sit closed for months at a stretch. Moisture problems develop in unoccupied houses without anyone there to notice, and the scope of a remodel often expands once the framing is visible.
Kevin O'Neil is the building official for Hyannis, where Compass Home Group's shop and office are located at 47-4 Warehouse Rd, off Independence Drive behind Route 132. The John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum sits on Main Street. Permit applications for Hyannis go through Kevin O'Neil's desk at the Barnstable Building Division.
Richard Pereira covers Marstons Mills. The village sits inland and is less exposed to direct salt spray than the waterfront villages, but freeze-thaw cycling still drives the same foundation and deck-ledger failures we see across the town. Sandy, fast-draining soil means any hardscape or masonry base needs proper compaction to stay level.
Ed Bowers covers Osterville as part of the Centerville/Osterville/Cotuit district. Properties on the water or near tidal areas can trigger Conservation Commission review separate from the building permit, when work falls within 100 feet of a wetland resource area. That process runs on its own timeline and cannot be folded into the building permit.
Richard Pereira covers West Barnstable, which sits north of Route 6 and falls within the Old King's Highway Historic District corridor. Any exterior change visible from a public way, including new siding, windows, doors, or fencing, requires a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Old King's Highway Historic District Committee before a building permit can be issued.
5.0
18 Google Reviews
“The scope of our project included new grass, a small retaining wall, elevating parts of our yard, releveling our existing brick path…”
via Google“They did it all in one day and left the kitchen spotless; the butcher block counters look great.”
via Google“He's great at communicating, which is key to great results. His subs all did a wonderful job. He's great to work with.”
via GoogleHistoric District
The Old King's Highway Historic District is the largest historic district in the nation, established in 1973. It covers properties north of Route 6, the Mid-Cape Highway, from Sandwich to Orleans. In Barnstable, that means Barnstable Village, West Barnstable, and the Route 6A corridor fall under the committee's jurisdiction.
The committee reviews any proposed change to the exterior of a building or structure that is visible from a public way. That includes siding replacement, window changes, door changes, new construction, demolition, fences, and signs. The review body is the Old King's Highway Historic District Committee, and it meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.
Missing a filing deadline means waiting for the next meeting cycle, two weeks minimum, before the review can happen. A building permit cannot be issued until the Certificate of Appropriateness is in hand. We account for this timeline in every written scope we produce for properties north of Route 6.
The building permit process and the historic district review are parallel tracks, not the same track. Both need to close before work begins on the exterior of a covered property.
Coastal Conditions
Barnstable's townwide housing stock is 27,488 units, with a median construction year of 1977. About 11.8% of homes were built before the 1940s. That age profile, combined with a coastal climate that runs hard on every assembly, is what drives most of the scope expansion we see once a project opens.
Salt air accelerates corrosion on standard steel fasteners. On a deck ledger or a railing post base that was installed with standard hardware, the failure is not visible from outside. It shows up when the ledger pulls away from the rim joist, or when the post rocks. Stainless steel fasteners are the baseline for exterior work here, not a line-item choice.
Freeze-thaw cycling is documented here. UMass Extension recorded the Barnstable soil freezing to a depth of four inches, with 59% of days from December through late March averaging below freezing. Water that enters an assembly in November expands in January. The failure shows up in the spring and looks like a material problem. It is almost always a flashing or water resistive barrier detail that was skipped.
About 36% of Barnstable County housing units are seasonal, recreational, or occasional use. Houses that sit closed and unheated for months develop moisture problems without anyone there to notice. Subfloors, rim joists, and wall cavities can be significantly worse than a visual inspection suggests. We open what needs opening before we price it.
Floors in homes built before 1980 have settled. Walls are rarely plumb. Cabinets and tile work have to be scribed and shimmed to the actual condition of the surface, not installed to a theoretical flat plane. That takes longer and costs more than the same work in new construction, and scopes that do not account for it will have change orders.
Permits
Compass Home Group pulls building permits for remodeling work in Hyannis through the Town of Barnstable Building Division, where Kevin O'Neil is the assigned building official for the Hyannis area. Most structural, mechanical, and significant cosmetic work requires a permit. Massachusetts mandates a written contract for any home improvement job over $1,000, and we pull the permit in our name on every project where one is required.
The Building Division oversees permitting and inspection for building construction, zoning enforcement, electrical, gas, and plumbing work under state code mandates. Online permit applications are available through the town's Online Permit Center at barnstable.gov. The specific threshold for when a permit is required depends on the scope of work. Rather than stating a threshold here that may not match your exact project, we confirm permit requirements during the written scope review for every job.
Hiring a registered Home Improvement Contractor also matters for another reason. It keeps you eligible to claim up to $25,000 from the Massachusetts HIC Guaranty Fund on an unpaid arbitration award or court judgment. That is a state program, not something we pay, but it only applies when you hire a registered contractor. HIC 217100 is our registration number, publicly verifiable on the MA Contractor Hub.
Your Village
Seven villagesOne municipality
The town of Barnstable is a single municipality that contains seven villages: Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable. Each village has a different building official, and two of them, Barnstable Village and West Barnstable, fall within the Old King's Highway Historic District north of Route 6, which adds a separate review process for exterior work. Compass Home Group works across all seven villages. When you call, knowing your village helps us route the permit questions correctly from the first conversation. If you are not sure which village your property sits in, the Town of Barnstable's GIS village map on barnstable.gov shows the official boundaries. We confirm the jurisdiction and the applicable review process as part of every on-site scope.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clear answers about villages, permits, historic-district review, coastal construction, and licensing.
We are based on Warehouse Rd in Hyannis, one of the seven villages that make up the town of Barnstable. Working from inside the town means we are already on site, not driving in from off-Cape. Every project carries a 1 year written workmanship warranty on the labor we perform.
Properties north of Route 6 in Barnstable fall within the Old King's Highway Regional Historic District, the largest historic district in the nation. Any exterior change requires review by the Historic District Committee before work begins. We account for that review in the project schedule so nothing moves to permitting before approvals are in hand.
Yes. The Town of Barnstable Building Division oversees permitting for all construction, including kitchen and bathroom remodels. The division assigns inspectors by village, and permits are filed through the town's Online Permit Center. We pull permits as part of the project and coordinate inspections so that step does not slow your schedule.
Barnstable sees freeze-thaw cycling across most of the winter, and coastal salt air accelerates corrosion on fasteners and exposed framing. We select materials rated for that environment and finish cabinet work in our Hyannis shop rather than inside an open kitchen, keeping moisture and airborne salt out of the finishing process entirely.
If your cabinet boxes are solid and the layout already works, you need refinishing, not a remodel. That is Compass Painting, our family's other company. If the kitchen has to come out and get rebuilt, that is us. We give you the honest answer either way, because both options exist under one family and we are not limited to selling you only one of them.
Barnstable Project Consultation
Call (508) 615-1009 or request a written, line-by-line scope on site. We work across all seven villages, coordinate the applicable review process, and pull the building permit in our name. Ivan Junior and the crew work out of 47-4 Warehouse Rd in Hyannis. The consultation and estimate are free.
Last updated: September 12, 2026