Second Floor Additions To Ranch Homes – If you live in a one-story house, you may at some point think about more space. You could sell your house and buy a bigger one, which could make it more attractive to live in and add to the home. Read this guide to learn more about what it takes to add a second floor to your home.
When building an extension, many homeowners choose to go above and beyond by adding a second floor, which has its advantages. You don’t need to add a new and expensive foundation. Plus, you don’t have to worry about zoning setbacks and being too close to your property lines. You can also increase the market value of your home. But adding a second floor to any home is a big undertaking, so think carefully about the details before finding a builder.
Second Floor Additions To Ranch Homes
Call your local building department and find out about the applicable zoning codes in your area. For example, there may be height restrictions that prevent obstructing neighbors’ views or limit the square footage of a home. If you have a small or old septic tank and want to add a bathroom, you may need to increase the capacity of the system.
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Whichever you choose, make sure the plugin has the right style. This is where a designer or architect makes money. It’s one thing to identify your space needs—say, two bedrooms and a full bath—and another to integrate the exterior cladding of those spaces into the scale and style of your existing home.
Spend some time considering how the new addition will fit into the neighborhood. Your neighbors will appreciate this idea.
When it comes to choosing a builder, do your research. Experience is important. A builder who has done similar projects will be able to identify and fix problems before they become costly. Local is usually better – increased travel time for staff can cause delays and they are less likely to respond to issues outside of working hours. A local builder is also interested in maintaining a good reputation in the community. During the interview, ask for the names of recent clients and talk about their experiences with the builder.
The next step is to hire a structural engineer to evaluate your foundation. This is an important step – a foundation has been built to support a story and now you want it to support maybe twice its mass. If the foundation or the soil supporting it is not up to the task, you will either need to reinforce the foundation or abandon the idea altogether.
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You will need to obtain a building permit from your local building department. Permits must cover engineering, zoning approval, framing, seismic considerations, as well as the work of subcontractors (electricians, plumbers, etc.). Generally, as a percentage of the total cost of the project, the national average for a permit is about $1,300.
Homeowners can get a permit, but that task is usually left to the general contractor. Once you get the permits, a city or county building inspector will visit the site regularly to make sure the construction meets the proper building codes.
Unless you choose a semi-detached house built on top of a non-essential part of the house, such as a garage, or decide to build a detached house, you and your family can live elsewhere during construction. Think months, not days. If you stay, you can live without a roof, electricity, plumbing and air conditioning for a long time, and then daily attacks by builders, garbage in the driveway, etc. Unless you can stay with family or friends, staying in a hotel or rental will add to the overall cost.
There are many variables when trying to estimate additional costs. You may need to hire a structural engineer in addition to an architect and contractor or a design/build firm. How many square feet are you planning to add? Is there a bathroom in the annex? High quality finish? You need a new ladder. Do you live in a big city where costs are high or in a backyard where prices are low? If you live in an earthquake zone, seismic inspections may require additional materials and labor. And as mentioned, you may need to rent out the living space until the project is completed.
Second Floor Additions
All these factors affect the cost. Be sure your addition will be expensive. According to resources like Fixr.com and HomeAdvisor.com, even the cheapest addition can cost more than $100 per square foot, with the highest costs between $300 and $500 per square foot. or more.
One thing that can ease your conscience is to think of a second floor addition as an investment in your home and its life after construction. Adding a second floor not only increases your home’s space, but also increases its resale value. If you’re considering the market, it’s always a good idea to check with a real estate agent to make sure your investment is likely to result in a higher resale value.
If you choose to stay in the house during construction, ask the builder to build a temporary set of stairs outside to make it easier for you to get through the house.
If you have an older home, you may need to upgrade existing parts of the home, such as framing and electrical and plumbing systems, to bring it up to speed. The facade may also need to be modernized – the old windows are visually incompatible with the new windows on the second floor.
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You may be able to offset some of the costs by taking on some of the later work on the project, such as drywall or painting.
Be open to options in the design process. Your architect or builder may have ideas that can save you money.
Get the latest DIY home news, solid tips, tricks and clever DIY projects from our experts – straight to your inbox. Dear James! I want a bigger house but my budget is tight and I want to stay in the same school district. . Is it possible to add a second floor to an existing ranch house? The lot is too short to build on. – Gina G.
Dear Zina: It is certainly possible to add a second floor to an existing one-story ranch house. Since your space is too small to add more rooms on one floor, your only option is to add a second floor for more space.
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Two-story homes are generally more energy efficient than ranch-style homes of the same size. This is because the living room has a smaller roof area and the roof is where heat loss is high in winter and summer. Therefore, your utility bills should be lower throughout the year than if you extend your home outside.
First, take a look at your surroundings. If all the homes are single-story ranches, the zoning may not allow two-story homes due to height restrictions. If other two-story homes are visible, it may be permitted, but still check planning requirements to be sure.
Call remodeling contractors in your area until you find a few who have worked on this type of project before. Adding a second floor is very different from adding a room from scratch. An experienced contractor will be able to provide a more detailed cost estimate and assist in the design of the second floor.
There are several factors that you and your developer should keep in mind. It is necessary to check whether the existing walls of the first floor are strong enough to support the second floor. If it isn’t, you can downsize your project and simply raise part of the roof to create an extra bedroom or two.
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The strength of the foundation is also a concern. A check of local building codes will tell you if the existing foundation is properly sized to support the additional weight of an entire second floor. If the foundation needs to be strengthened, it will definitely affect the construction methods and the design of the walls of the second floor.
You have to decide how to get to the second floor. Stairs take up more space than most people realize. This reduces the existing usable area on the first floor.
Consider building a deck off the second floor bedroom with sliding glass doors to open up furniture to access the rooms. This allows you to install spiral staircases to minimize the loss of floor space. There are many prefabricated, ready-to-install spiral staircase kits.
For every second floor, it probably makes economic sense to install a separate heating/ventilation system for it. A heat pump connected to a high-speed system in the attic does not require further changes on the first floor.
Jll Design: June 2014
You should also consider how you will add new plumbing and wiring on the second floor. A new bathroom on the second floor should be above the one on the first floor. It will be one thing
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