Which comes first when adding an addition to your house?

BigClay

BigClay

Knower of useless ZJ things
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Location
Winston-Salem
Thinking about adding an addition to my house instead of selling and trying to build from scratch or trying to buy a different house. My question is, do you normally bring a builder or architect out first? Does the builder need to see plans first? Does the builder need to see the area first before I mess with an architect? Thoughts?
 
Bedroom or living or bath room? In our county and most have a rule if you add a bedroom you are required to add to your septic system. If you have city sewer you shouldn't have anything to worry about. If you have a bedroom in mind you might want to think of labeling it as a office get everything inspected then add a closet. The closet is what labels it a bedroom in our county.

*Plan your next ride @ THE FLATS 828-442-7932 *
 
BigClay said:
Thinking about adding an addition to my house instead of selling and trying to build from scratch or trying to buy a different house. My question is, do you normally bring a builder or architect out first? Does the builder need to see plans first? Does the builder need to see the area first before I mess with an architect? Thoughts?
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Going through this very thing right now.
In theory, if you could find a good builder/GC you should call them discuss what you want they would then sub an arch if needed etc.

In practice I cant find one that wants to touch an addition that isnt sketchy as hell. As such I am talking to an architect asking them to draw up some plans/scope and then going to hand that to a couple GCs and let them bid it out.
 
Often architects already have GCs that they know and work with often as a team, so they can point you to somebody to do the work.
 
johnski said:
I always thought money, and lots of it, came first before the other two.
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nah that's why we have this thing called "credit". Actually having the money in hand is so... last century.
 
jaybird1ton said:
Bedroom or living or bath room? In our county and most have a rule if you add a bedroom you are required to add to your septic system. If you have city sewer you shouldn't have anything to worry about. If you have a bedroom in mind you might want to think of labeling it as a office get everything inspected then add a closet. The closet is what labels it a bedroom in our county.

*Plan your next ride @ THE FLATS 828-442-7932 *
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This.

If you're on a septic system you'll need to have that reviewed first. Doesn't really matter what the room is going to be, it will have to go through Environmental Health if you have septic. If its a bedroom, your system has to support it. If you have county/town zoning, you'll probably also need to check with them.

Also keep in mind that any work over 30,000 dollars requires a Lien Agent now.
 
First thing as I found out when considering this is to look at the costs. You could be looking at about $120/sqft. Is it worth it when considering the value if your house?

It was going to be about $95k to add 800 sqft to my house. That's 75% of the value of my house and I know I wouldn't be able to sell it for $200k when done.

I gave up pretty quick on the addition idea when I looked at it that way.
 
designbuild firm that way you pay once and as the build can change as it goes without waiting for engineers letters
 
So long as they're within setbacks and building in accordance with the existing site zoning, no site planning review should be required.

They'll need a site plan drawing if you're adding to the footprint when you apply for the building permit. It will have to show the distance to the setbacks, total square footage, maybe total impervious if you're in a watershed overlay or something like that. Getting "some" drawings of the proposed work is helpful when writing the contract with the GC, if only because it helps to define what the scope of work is and what they're expected to deliver. Some GCs can do this for you, or you can do it yourself if you're so inclined. If you trust the GC and/or just like to wing it, you can just pay him by the hour and he'll build whatever.

But finding architects that do single-family residential work... especially small additions... is tough. There just isn't much money there. What usually happens is either the owner gets turned away by the idea of paying a couple thousand dollars to an architect to produce drawings for a $20k addition, or they agree to a not-to-exceed contract, and then burn up all the fee with changes to the scope.

The best way to proceed, honestly, is to ask people that live around you who they've worked with and what they've done. I don't know anybody in W-S to give you any more direction than that, though.
 
Speaking from the perspective of someone that's been doing single-family residential design for about ten years now: I'd suggest you consult with a designer/architect before you do ANYTHING else. Any contractor, sub-contractor, county/city authority or financial institution involved in your project will have to work off what whatever ideas you have in place for the additions/modifications...and the easiest way to do that is to get some a basic scope of the work and the potential costs involved. My suggestion is to get in touch with a designer first and generate a workable concept/plan, and move onward from there. Rough preliminary designs don't cost several thousand dollars; in fact, most of the fully-completed custom plans I draw for complete new-construction homes are about $3,000 or so, and remodeling plans are often somewhat cheaper. Once you have some rough ideas on paper, you can involve the contractors and banks and officials and get an accurate view of what funds the project will likely require.

Again, you need a quick consultation, first...and for very little time/money the designer should be able to give you some rough answers about what will and will not work. Once you have that in-hand, your remodel/modification can proceed.

Hope this helps; if you need some further advice on the subject, shoot me a message. :D
 
Decide what you want ... then find any reputable homebuilders in your area ( GOOD LUCK! - Most new homes are really slapped together these days) and get a couple or 4 quotes.

Then go house shopping.

We were in a similar situation about 8 years ago.

We saved $40,000 by buying a house.



Matt
 
This is the architect we used to design our new home.

http://shjobe.com/

He was great to work with. I highly recommend him if you decide that you need an architect.

In your other thread about building versus buying a house, I mentioned that we spent a year or more working on our plans, but that was not due to anything he did wrong. It was due to us changing our mind numerous times about what we wanted, and the lack of time we had to focus on the plans during that period of time in our lives. Every time we went back to him requesting changes be made, they were done promptly, and he met with us whenever requested and wherever we requested. I really cannot recommend him enough.
 
I have seen charts on the internet that provide average values of return on house renovations. For example, a kitchen remodel will net you 80% return on your investment, basement might be 65% etc. Each room has a historically proven percent return on investment. I think the basic rule is that it doesn't pay to renovate unless you are going to live in the house for a long time.
 
Thanks for all the opinions and suggestions everyone. I have reached out to a few members on here and have received some good feedback.

In short, the reason for the addition versus selling and buying/building is I think this addition could allow me to stay in this house longer. I know this will not add dollar for dollar to the value of my house, but it will allow me to be happier with this house and be able to stay much longer.
 
Macdaddy4738 said:
This.

If you're on a septic system you'll need to have that reviewed first. Doesn't really matter what the room is going to be, it will have to go through Environmental Health if you have septic. If its a bedroom, your system has to support it. If you have county/town zoning, you'll probably also need to check with them.

Also keep in mind that any work over 30,000 dollars requires a Lien Agent now.
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That's what we went through.... turns out our septic was only spec'd for 3 BR and we were trying to add another BR. The Inspector said he had bad news, but he also had good news... The bad news was that we couldn't build a bedroom. Good news was that we could add a "bonus room". I asked if we could have a bathroom off the bonus room with a 100 gallon whirlpool tub and he said, "sure... big as you want." After we got the certificate of occupancy for the addition, we moved our bed in. Not much they can do about it at that point unless we go to sell it (which we don't plan to do). If we need to sell, we would just convert the smallest BR to a "study" by closing off the closet and facing it into the other bedroom.
 
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