Adding Extra Space to Your Home?
The cost of adding to your home is dependent upon your vision for your home addition. As such, the cost can be minimal or exceed the cost of the entire home. If you wish to simply extend on the space available at your property, here are a few options of home additions you may be interested in.
An Additional Room – Bump-out
This type of home addition aims to extend the square footage of your home by adding an extra room to the property. Usually built on one side of the house, it is designated to have a single function, such as an additional bathroom or bedroom.
Because a bump-out is a small scale addition, it could also be adding to the square footage of an existing room. For example, adding an additional 50 square foot to your kitchen to increase storage and working area. These types of additions often call for a new roofline.
A Garage Conversion
If the home has a double or single garage which is not in use, it may be converted into an additional living space. Well this type of addition begins with a conversion from garage to become a bedroom or living room. The garage’s foundation, electricity, roof, concrete flooring and walls are already there as an invitation to start.
As the basic structure exists, this may seem a simple home addition. Yet such an addition calls for additional flooring, ceiling installation and replacing the garage door with a solid wall. Also, depending on the type of room conversion made, plumbing is another task to be undertaken.
Sunrooms
These additions are usually made to the side of the home and serve as an auxiliary room. The sunroom is typically accessible from the main house through doors. Because this type of room is not meant to be a permanent sleeping area, various upgrades cannot be made during a home addition.
They are expected to have neither mandatory heating or cooling systems nor a kitchen or bathroom. Thermal resistant glass, aluminum and other pre-fabricated materials are often used for the construction of the sunroom. Yet to allow the sunroom to blend in with the general structure of the house, some sunrooms have been built using concrete, lumber and other materials used to build the house.
Full-sized Home Additions
A full sized home addition usually accommodates more than one room and remains open to the main house. It is often constructed at a side of the house and if built properly, can become one with the house it is attached to. Unless this sort of addition is intended to be an apartment, full-sized home additions rarely include a kitchen.
This type of home additions normally contains one or more of the following, a family room, guest bedroom, dining room or master bedroom. Though rather costly, such a home addition actually adds to the overall value of the home.
Build Upward
Not all additions must be done on the same level as the existing structure. Home additions can also be made upward, from adding an extra room to creating an entire second floor. However, if the existing structure has to support a new level it should be reinforced to support the load of the addition.
The home addition will also need a staircase to access it. These usually take up 80 – 120 square feet of space. On the upside building up removes the need to pour a new foundation.
Detached Addition
As the name suggests, the detached addition is not connected to the original structure of the home. They are available in a range of sizes and designs based on their purpose, from small simple storage shed to guest bedroom. The function of the proposed addition will also determine cost. Also, an electrician needs to do the electrical work and wiring. Materials can range from prefab to concrete.