Home Addition - NA

SoonerAviator

SoonerAviator

Final Approach
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SoonerAviator
Anyone have any experience with having an addition added to their existing home? We have a decent size home (~3K sq ft), built in the late 1960's. The problem for us, is that it doesn't have a garage. We have a carport as well as a decent shop (probably 20x20) attached via breezeway in the backyard/back patio, but we have to walk out in the weather to get to either one.

So, we're looking at doing an addition to the house which would be roughly 30x30 (oversize 2-car) with a room or two above which is all attached to the house. The good news, is that it would sit on the existing driveway, and there is already a side-door into the house. The bad news is that there is a portion of the wraparound porch that would need to be demo'd, as well as some method of attaching the second story in a way that doesn't look like an add-on. I've never really dealt with large-scale contractors, so I'm not sure what questions I should be asking. I also don't know much about typical construction costs, so judging a bid or a builder's qualifications are pretty difficult.

Any advice?
 
Would selling and moving be an option or are you tied to this particular parcel of land (e.g. because it borders the grandparents) ?
 
I think you've posted a pict of your house in one of Ted's truckerboat threads. It's multistory?

Anyway, some experience with large, rambling house construction years ago and far away. For an addition careful attention has to be paid to matching exterior details to the existing house or replacing all of the exterior finish on the appropriate level. One of the strongest ties can be the roof line.

Find general contractors who do custom homes and solicit their ideas and sketches. You may be in cost plus territory for something like this.
 
A buddy is a general contractor and did a decent sized add-on to our house (covered deck attached to the house) - not exactly as big a deal as what you are looking at, but the process will be similar. My neighbors added extensions to both the front and rear of their house.

Ask around for general contractors, get several bids. There are lot of companies that specialize in this, and there are lots of general contractors that can do it, too. It's all about finding the one that works best for you.

The hard part is figuring out this part: "What's your budget?", "I don't know yet, what's it going to cost?"

Decide on what kind of siding, what kind of roof, what kind of interior finish you want in the trim, walls, and ceilings, any other special fixtures, and write it all down before you talk.

They'll need to add on, or add new, to the foundation, so they'll be digging a lot and your entire yard will get torn up as they move equipment around. The time of year, and how soft the ground is, will make a big difference in how deep the ruts are. They should include regrading and either seeding or sodding, too.

The roofing, framing, electrical, plumbing, foundation, HVAC, and several other things will require inspections and permits. You won't be the one dealing with it, though.

When my neighbor had his work done, the construction was done in such a way that the exterior shell was covered up before they started removing the former exterior walls. That, and a lot of plastic, kept their existing living space sheltered from the elements when they started cutting big holes.
 
The existing driveway will get busted up to allow for footings under the addition.

You will have a giant tarp instead of a wall on the side of the house where the addition is being placed until it at least gets closed in. Strange cats will show up and eat your cat's food.

Get used to crews showing up and pounding on the house at 7:00 AM

Is the house sided? Brick? How close can it be matched?

How well things flow between the house and addition will depend on the layout of the house. Is there a hall against the wall that gets the addition or are you going to have to cut up a room?

Patching in the new roof or replacing all the shingles?

Hire an Architect.
 
The biggest headache is getting the GC and the architect on the same page. My preference for work like this (I've done it once, helped a friend with it another time recently, and am about to do it again next year) is to have a GC with an in-house architect. The largest source of big change orders comes when the architect planned to do something, but the GC finds that it is impossible, possible but very expensive, or possible but against code.

Without pics, it is hard to render an opinion on the 2nd floor appearance question.
 
As an aside, I'm not a huge fan of living space above a garage. Motors running making exhaust fumes and smelly things stored in there, and smells go up. Not to mention if there's a likely place for me to accidentally start a fire, it'd be in the garage. Ha.

Someone way back added the garage to our current house. Even out here in the boonies, a steel clad door was code between the garage and house. Of course, the stupid drywall right next to it would just go up in flames, but code said the door had to be steel coated with a foam core or something like that.

At least I can stick my ejection seat and rescue decal magnets to it when they're not on one of the cars. LOL.
 
We were going to do an addition to our house before we had to move and got as far as getting plans drawn up by an architect. I wanted to do it that way because he specified all the materials and provided detailed drawings, so when we went out for bids we would get apples to apples to compare. Also he acted as a great mediator between Mark and I when we disagreed on stuff; he had suggestions and compromises that helped us resolve a lot of decisions. He was going to help us during the bidding process and oversee construction which took some of the pressure off me in keeping the contractor to the specs.

If you are doing only a garage I guess a step down would be okay but if you are adding living space, I highly recommend leveling it exactly with the rest of the floor. My parents made the mistake of adding a den two steps down because the additional foundation height would have been more expensive. Mom gripes about it constantly to this day! (And has since the mid 1970's). Whatever it costs, spend the money to bring it up.

Another mistake they made was mating the den directly to the brick exterior of the house. It was not properly sealed and was a great inroad for cockroaches and cold winter air. Just this year we finally fixed that, went in and lined the closets (the exterior walls were located at bilateral closets) with wood paneling, sealing off those cracks.

We also added one of the little Mitsubishi ductless heat/cool units. We'd had a window unit in there plus a baseboard electric heater, so glad to get rid of those. Even if you're just adding a garage, if you are planning to use it as a work space might want to include one of those things.

If your roof has any age on it might consider replacing the whole thing rather than having part of the roof new and part old. Confusion might ensue in the future - we had that happen. My parents replaced only half of their roof ("because it was south facing and in worse shape") and lost the paperwork, and we had to confront the question of what to do when the other half needed replacing but the new part was not quite as old as the old part. We did the whole thing so it all is matched now.
 
Insulate the garage. the ceiling and walls will be insulated where there is living space on the other side or above, but the rest of the walls might not be. Extra insulation makes a good sound barrier and will keep the garage warmer in winter even if it isn't heated.
 
denverpilot said:
As an aside, I'm not a huge fan of living space above a garage. Motors running making exhaust fumes and smelly things stored in there, and smells go up. Not to mention if there's a likely place for me to accidentally start a fire, it'd be in the garage. Ha.

Someone way back added the garage to our current house. Even out here in the boonies, a steel clad door was code between the garage and house. Of course, the stupid drywall right next to it would just go up in flames, but code said the door had to be steel coated with a foam core or something like that.

At least I can stick my ejection seat and rescue decal magnets to it when they're not on one of the cars. LOL.
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If it has a fire code door then the drywall should be two layers of 5/8. That's been code since I was doing window and door frame drawings back in high school. Anyway it's supposed to give an hour or two of protection. It's sorta tough to burn gyp.
 
Driveway.jpg
Pic for reference.
Driveway_zpsfm8gua4v.jpg



weilke said:
Would selling and moving be an option or are you tied to this particular parcel of land (e.g. because it borders the grandparents) ?
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It's possible, but I purchased the house way below market (foreclosure) several years back. Even if we were to downsize, it would probably require at least an additional $80K for us to get into something comparable assuming we sold the house without any major changes. I'm not particularly attached to the home, but trying to sell a 3K sq ft home with no garage might prove difficult, although if I was only trying to get out of it at cost it wouldn't likely take too long.

Matthew said:
The hard part is figuring out this part: "What's your budget?", "I don't know yet, what's it going to cost?"

Decide on what kind of siding, what kind of roof, what kind of interior finish you want in the trim, walls, and ceilings, any other special fixtures, and write it all down before you talk.

They'll need to add on, or add new, to the foundation, so they'll be digging a lot and your entire yard will get torn up as they move equipment around. The time of year, and how soft the ground is, will make a big difference in how deep the ruts are. They should include regrading and either seeding or sodding, too.
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That's sort of where we are, since we have no idea on what it would cost, it's too early to worry about financing it. As far as the yard, we haven't made any improvements to front yard/landscaping, so no loss there. The driveway currently sits where the addition will be, so they'll be busting it up anyway.

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
The existing driveway will get busted up to allow for footings under the addition.

You will have a giant tarp instead of a wall on the side of the house where the addition is being placed until it at least gets closed in. Strange cats will show up and eat your cat's food.

Get used to crews showing up and pounding on the house at 7:00 AM

Is the house sided? Brick? How close can it be matched?

How well things flow between the house and addition will depend on the layout of the house. Is there a hall against the wall that gets the addition or are you going to have to cut up a room?

Patching in the new roof or replacing all the shingles?

Hire an Architect.
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Outside wall is brick on lower story, and siding on the upper story. Problem would be that it is an adobe-style brick and you won't be matching that. However, we don't like the brick color anyway, so we intend on painting the entire house, so as long as they can find something that matches close enough in size, it shouldn't matter. The only tarping would likely be where the patch into the existing roofline on the second-story, which is fine since there's nothing up there but a bedroom we don't use. Home needs a new roof as well, so all roofing would be done at the same time. Existing side entry door goes into the mud room/laundry room, so no cutting up will be needed. Gas and electric are already on that side of the home as well as plumbing nearby, but I don't know if we'll add a bathroom upstairs or not . . . again, cost dependent.
 
Clark1961 said:
If it has a fire code door then the drywall should be two layers of 5/8. That's been code since I was doing window and door frame drawings back in high school. Anyway it's supposed to give an hour or two of protection. It's sorta tough to burn gyp.
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I'd have to cut into it to find out but maybe it is.

There's also a hole in it at attic level for a large multi conductor electrical cable at least 1.5" in diameter, maybe 2", that isn't fire-stopped, so there's that... LOL. Runs from main box to sub-panel for the upstairs.

Maybe if I ever get up there with a ladder to fire stop it I'll look and see if there's a second sheet of drywall behind the first. Doesn't look like it at places where there's electrical outlets and switches, but I could pull one of those and look sometime too.

Kinda don't care. This place would go up like a tinderbox if it ever caught fire. Especially with the typical winds out here. I watched one of the neighborhood houses burn this year out here and it was over with before the first fire hose water hit it. Started outside the house in a potted plant and was in the attic in about two minutes.

Residential stuff makes me cringe after doing so much commercial stuff over the years. But living space above a garage I definitely don't like. Put a rec room up there or something nobody will be sleeping in.
 
Just FYI @SoonerAviator the second photo isn't visible because photobucket has elected to make themselves mostly useless in the modern era of photo hosting being free and not having limits on who can view the files. LOL.

db92dbe1927b9788ed15366953629641.png
 
Yes, I've done it.

A good general contractor can make an addition look like it was part of the original construction. All it takes is money, and low bid usually isn't the best choice. In any case your lives will be interfered with. Remodeling an occupied home is very stressful on the family life.
 
mscard88 said:
THIS! Architect will design it the way you want it and provide suggestions. 'Puter programs will spit what it will look like from all angles.
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Well, we considered that, but also didn't want to embark on dropping several thousand to have an architect draw up plans when the project was going to be way too expensive to even pursue. Goes back to the "how much does it cost?" section. If we don't know how much it costs (at least as a ballpark figure), it's difficult to commit towards dropping money on detailed plans that will never be pursued. I also didn't want to act as a liaison between a 3rd party architect and a contractor who can't build what the architect drew.
 
denverpilot said:
Just FYI @SoonerAviator the second photo isn't visible because photobucket has elected to make themselves mostly useless in the modern era of photo hosting being free and not having limits on who can view the files. LOL.
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Yeah, I couldn't change that part of the post after I made it, so I just went with the direct upload, lol.
 
Call a local GC that you trust and ask for help to establish a budget to see if you want to move forward.
 
Stewartb said:
Call a local GC that you trust and ask for help to establish a budget to see if you want to move forward.
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Yes this and also consult an architect who can give you estimates on project total costs as well as his fee. The key in both cases is to find good ones. A contractor who can't build what the architect drew had no business bidding on it in the first place. Any way you go, getting good references for reputable contractors/architects is essential. If the structure will be simple without a lot of complication I might trust an experienced contractor, especially if he has done similar jobs you can go look at yourself.
 
Stewartb said:
Yes, I've done it.

A good general contractor can make an addition look like it was part of the original construction. All it takes is money, and low bid usually isn't the best choice. In any case your lives will be interfered with. Remodeling an occupied home is very stressful on the family life.
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And the stress of living in a construction project. :eek:
 
A good GC will have an architect reference. The GC will have a better handle on the overall scope and costs than an architect.
 
Decide the level of finishing you want.
Call a few local GC, ask them to give you a budget range, not a formal bid. That will come after the architecht is hired. This is just to level set a budget rang.
You should be able to find a few.

Tim
 
Stewartb said:
Call a local GC that you trust and ask for help to establish a budget to see if you want to move forward.
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Lol, well that sounds simple, but since I haven't dealt with them, it's been mostly googling to find someone. Most GC's that have any online info seem to specialize in high-end custom home builds, which isn't territory I want to get into. :)

Ventucky Red said:
Along with the structural engineers and the City Building Inspector...
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Luckily we're outside of city limits (barely), so county codes should be all that are necessary (and are obviously more lax), and perhaps neighborhood covenants but I doubt there's anything prohibitive other than just property line/structure minimums.
 
I'm considering building a house in a year or two, and I'll need an architect. With the current building boom that going on, will I be able to get their attention with a small one-off custom home (~$250k in Alabama)? I ask, because y'all make it sound like they'd be interested in doing an addition and I'm wondering if they'd even want to mess with a house. Seems like the cookie cutter subdivisions would have them completely booked.
 
Check with a local builder. In most jurisdictions that I'm familiar with single family homes don't require an architect. Builders use local designers or they may have an assortment of stock plans that they can doll up as necessary.
 
Mistake Not... said:
I'm considering building a house in a year or two, and I'll need an architect. With the current building boom that going on, will I be able to get their attention with a small one-off custom home (~$250k in Alabama)? I ask, because y'all make it sound like they'd be interested in doing an addition and I'm wondering if they'd even want to mess with a house. Seems like the cookie cutter subdivisions would have them completely booked.
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Well, in my case, my thinking is something like this: I bought the house for less than $120K. if I can do an addition for $80K or less, we stay here in a neighborhood we like, in a house that we are committed to for at least 10 years. In order to get into a house that we would consider "equivalent" (even though the sq ft would undoubtedly drop to below 2,500), it would require $200-220K. Adding an attached garage makes the home infinitely more marketable, and we wouldn't lose any value on the addition because similar (and smaller) homes in our neighborhood sell for over $220K.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Luckily we're outside of city limits (barely), so county codes should be all that are necessary (and are obviously more lax), and perhaps neighborhood covenants but I doubt there's anything prohibitive other than just property line/structure minimums.
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Where we're are the county codes are a bit more relaxed on setbacks, footprints, and size and height.... not on the actual construction... Our friends like you just built a large garage with an entertainment room above it... or in the case almost level with the rest of the house... The original 1 and 1/2 car garage is going to be used for a larger kitchen, additional bathroom, and laundry room. If they lived within the city limits a variance would have been needed.

Good luck with your project... post some pic as you make progress.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Well, we considered that, but also didn't want to embark on dropping several thousand to have an architect draw up plans when the project was going to be way too expensive to even pursue. Goes back to the "how much does it cost?" section. If we don't know how much it costs (at least as a ballpark figure), it's difficult to commit towards dropping money on detailed plans that will never be pursued. I also didn't want to act as a liaison between a 3rd party architect and a contractor who can't build what the architect drew.
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We usually figure about $120/sf for single story utility buildings.
 
Sac Arrow said:
We usually figure about $120/sf for single story utility buildings.
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Yeah, I've seen a pretty wide range of estimates online. Anywhere from $70-150/sq ft. Makes it really hard to plan for, lol. $135K is a lot different than $63K.
 
Tying it into the existing house will drive the cost up, as will a finished 2nd floor. If I had to guess I'd lean more toward $200 per foot of the footprint, so $180K. Stuff you don't expect will pop up with an addition so have some reserves for that.
 
SoonerAviator said:
It's possible, but I purchased the house way below market (foreclosure) several years back. Even if we were to downsize, it would probably require at least an additional $80K for us to get into something comparable assuming we sold the house without any major changes. I'm not particularly attached to the home, but trying to sell a 3K sq ft home with no garage might prove difficult, although if I was only trying to get out of it at cost it wouldn't likely take too long.
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If you bought it below market and you do some basic sprucing up, you should be able to sell it 'at market'. All-in (design, permits, other work like the roof) the addition is going to set you back at least 80k, whether it adds that much to the value of the home is uncertain.

I understand that there are social and family realities that make it impossible to move, but this doesn't seem to be the case for you. Unless there is some local wrinkle in your real estate market (highly desireable city lot), adding on may also not be cost effective.
 
I am with @weilke
Unless you are really attached to the house, Spruce it up and sell it, then buy what you want. If you need a garage to sell, do the minimum and skip the second story.
 
John221us said:
I am with @weilke
Unless you are really attached to the house, Spruce it up and sell it, then buy what you want. If you need a garage to sell, do the minimum and skip the second story.
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I also agree with this. If you are thinking of selling in ten years it's not worth it. Take the money you would have put into the addition and invest it or use it to pay down the principle on your mortgage, so you can position yourself to be able to buy something that suits your needs rather than try to retrofit this house. I wouldn't worry about the marketability of it without the garage. It will sell. True it will sell at less but if you spend 80K on a garage I doubt you will get all of the 80K back when you sell it.

Building a garage to make a house more sellable is a bad reason. I would only build it if you love the house so much you plan to stay there forever.
 
Depends on the market.
I almost bought a house in the DC Area, which needed a garage. The cost to add the garage was almost a dollar for dollar increase in the value of the house and it sells a lot faster. Which outside of Boston now, adding a garage does almost nothing for the value of the house.
Which makes absolutely no fricking sense to me.

Tim
 
I'm sort of in the middle of a monster home addition. In actuality, we planned the house to be built in phases. In 2008 I built the airplane hangar, car garages, workshop, guest suite (which we are currently living in), kitchenette (to become Margy's project room), my office, and the wine cellar. The new phase has the proper kitchen, living/dining room, master bedroom. It also has the room for my grand piano which currently is sitting in the foyer (a bit overpowering to have a 6'7" piano in that space). Also going in are the party deck, (endless) pool room and the TV Room/Bar and another guest room.

I didn't want to build this until I was on site to supervise (and not a day goes by I'm not talking to somebody on the project).
 
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