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Room Addition
A home addition is a great way to increase living space and add value to your home. Whether you need to turn your attic into a bonus room, expand the size of your bedroom, or enclose your outdoor patio, a room addition can have a big impact on your family’s needs and lifestyle
If you feel like your home is bursting at the seams and space limitations have cramped your lifestyle, it may be time to add a room or two to the house. Take a look at your home’s structure and property size, and consider a qualified room addition contractor to help accommodate your family’s additional space needs.
Will The Addition Accomplish My Space Needs?
Before adding on, assess your current living space and determine if the addition will accomplish your needs and solve your problems. If your house is small and doesn’t include a guest room, a bedroom addition would allow out-of-town family members and friends to visit more often. If your grandchildren love to play at your house, an added playroom would provide a safe space for activities.
Before you spend the money for a room addition, make sure it will add benefits to your lifestyle and give you needed space.
Will The Addition Increase my Home Value?
Even if you don’t plan to sell your home in the near future, you need to think about the impact of the room addition on resale value. Whether you sell, refinance, or take out a home equity line of credit, you’ll want to get the best possible appraisal of your home.
Because room additions are typically costly, they often return less on investment than home remodels. According to building and real estate studies, an average payback on a single room addition like a bedroom or bathroom is about 53 percent. To maximize the return on your investment, add amenities that are in demand. For example, if most homes in your area have master suites, and you don’t, that would be considered a good investment. Don’t overbuild compared to neighboring houses. It will be more difficult to recoup your costs.
Is There a Lower Cost Alternative?
Even if your investment payback isn’t great, you can still add on to your house. If you’re planning to stay in your home for at least five years, and the addition will solve an important space problem, the addition will be worth it. To evaluate your options, you can look for other ways to achieve your space needs at a lower cost such as remodeling an existing attic or basement space, or simply re-configuring your existing living space.
How Should I Tie The Addition Into The House?
A room addition takes careful planning so it looks like it was always part of the house when it’s finished. You need to consider how the roofline of the addition connects to the house and how to enhance the style of the house with doors, windows and exterior materials and finishes.
Depending on your space needs and property size, you will need to decide if you should build up or build out. If your property size restricts building out, building up may be your only option to achieve your goals, but building up is always more expensive. Main-level additions are often the simplest, since they don’t require retrofitting the home’s foundation. Second-story additions often require structural retrofitting down to the foundation, as well as moving interior walls and removing exterior materials.
