Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Anyone here ever do an addition to a home before?

We have been wanting to put an addition on our house for about 5 years, and we think that we can possibly do it this year, however, I am at the early stages of research in to costs (which are all over the board) permits, etc. I have done a good amount of construction INSIDE a house before (framing, putting in windows and doors, some flooring, drywall, electrical, plumbing, and some HVAC)... Is this something that with help of my father and father in law (who both have done all of that plus roofing and siding work) we could tackle? I would need to have someone put in the foundation, and someone to drawn up the plans for the permits and for us to use, but I think that the rest would be withing reason.

This is a simple "box" that would be about 20' x 18'. It would include the basement level (which is a walkout) and the main floor. The new space will be a guest room with some storage space in the basement (boy, wouldn't it make a nice dedicated home theater for v4.0 of my theater?) and the main level will be a large dining room which is what our house in missing badly. No bathroom, or anything like that to really crank up costs, just walls, electrical, and flooring (to over simplify it)...

It won't be putting our house to such an elevated price level, but actually put us in line or just about 200 sqft about a few houses in the neighborhood, but again, it is somewhat a small addition, so market value shouldn't be bad. My sister told me, "Why not save the money and just buy a bigger house", well we like the location and the neighborhood, plus this is our 4th house, I am tired of moving. In addition, with the housing market so crappy, we would probably struggle to get our house sold for the amount we would need to in order to buy something with a little more space.

Am I crazy or not? OK, let me rephrase that to prevent any funny comments, is this a crazy idea or not?

Sounds like you have enough of a background and experience to handle it. If you can interpret the blu prints, then it sounds like you can do it. Tieing in the roof lines is probably the biggest challenge. I am currently finishing off a 20X20 addition to my parents place that my dad and I have been working on since last year, they are 2hrs away so I can't get up there to help much with the drywall but we hope to be finally done by summer. It sure takes alot longer when you only have a few hours a day to put into it(my dad) and I am only good for a weekend or 2 a month.

I don't think it's crazy at all.

If I were in your position, I would almost certainly be the general contractor and chief-bottle-washer for that project. Especially since you're not adding plumbing.

I don't think buying a new house would be "cheaper". I don't know about you, but I think just the realtor and closing costs could just about get the addition done.

That being said, you have to seriously ask some important questions. Like, how long will you be in this house? If not for an extended period, are you likely to recoup the costs when you sell? It doesn't sound like you are overbuilding for your neighborhood, which is also really important.

I would be tempted to get get an experienced framer for the shell. Starting from nothing rather than doing remodel work is hard and dangerous and will take YOU forever, but somebody who does it for a living could do it in a couple days. It will make the project go much faster, and save your muscles and energy for the stuff you KNOW you can do. So, I guess I'd sub-out the foundation and the framing and probably do just about everything else myself. You'll probably have to get a licensed electrician to do at least part of the work, but hopefully you can find one that will let you run the wires to save some money.

I'm envious of your adventure and will look forward to frequent updates with pictures

I wonder how much the framer(s) would cost.... As for electrical, I used a guy for my basement that I bought the wiring that he told me to, I ran it all to the boxes (outlets and switches) and lights and even stripped the ends. He checked it all out, and basically took the stripped ends, and plugged them into the outlets and switches (we got ones that the wires just push into and lock in place). The canned lights in the basement actually had a similar wire connection system where the wires just pushed in place. The cost for his services were much lower since he treated me as a subcontractor that he wasn't paying, and in order to be up to code and for him to sign off on it, he had to make the actual connections.

If I could get the foundation and framing done by someone else, then it wouldn't take a terrible amount of time to put up the plywood sheathing, put on the roof, add the windows and sliding doors to the decks(basement level and main level), and put on the siding. I would think that a week would do that pretty easily as long as we have all of the materials ready to go and don't need to run to the home improvement store too much. Then the shell would be done and that is the most complex. The rest can take a year for that matter as it would all be inside away from the elements.

You've pretty much got the time frame down, we were closed in after a few weekends of work. the rest has taken much longer as it has been hard to find time to finish it.

Some pics:

Time for the buol theater V4.

Yeah, but then I'd have to post pictures of V3...

Well, silly me.... I had my numbers all wrong... FOr whatever reason, I was thinking that the new addition area would have been 20' x 18'... I went outside with Mr Measure, Mr TAPE Measure and have no idea where I got those numbers.... The area is more like 21' x 12'... Which would actually save on costs. That makes it 252 Sq Ft not 360 Sq Ft. I was seeing some estimates online of about $20-$25 per SqFt for someone to do the foundation and frame up the shell. Don't know if that was 1 level or 2 though. Even though framing is not hard, it might be a way to jump start the project and know that it will be connected to the house correctly... Does anyone know if that number is even remotely possible?