Home services in Cranston, RI

Local utilities and rules

Rhode Island Energy handles power and gas in Cranston. Most of Cranston gets its water directly from Providence Water, the same Scituate Reservoir supply Providence uses. If a job needs a permit, it is issued by Cranston's building inspection office, and sewer questions go to the city sewer system.

Getting to know Cranston

Cranston runs from dense, older blocks near the Providence line out to a western side that is still open and semi-rural, with farms and larger lots. Edgewood, near the Pawtuxet River and the bay, is known for early-1900s homes on tree-lined streets, many with original details and aging systems. Pawtuxet Village straddles the Cranston and Warwick line where the Pawtuxet River reaches the bay, and its historic homes are close together.

Knightsville, the city's longtime Italian-American neighborhood, has many two-family houses and small commercial buildings. Garden City and the area around it grew up after World War II, with ranches, capes and split-levels that now have decades-old systems. The Pawtuxet River forms much of the line between Cranston and Warwick, and homes near it saw serious flooding in March 2010.

Eden Park and Oaklawn are mostly single-family neighborhoods where basements, garages and yards are part of the picture. Cranston gets the same coastal New England weather as the rest of the area: cold, snowy winters, humid summers and the occasional tropical storm. Much of the city's housing went up between the early 1900s and the 1970s, so it is common to find a newer kitchen sitting on top of an older basement. Because the city mixes owner-occupied single-family streets with two-family rentals, who arranges a repair can vary from house to house.