Home Renovation: Builder Advice? Est Costs? (Austin, West: how much, house, construction)

[JVAL01]

My wife and I just purchased a 2800 sq' home in West Austin and would like to add a 2nd story on our 2-story living room. I estimate the room would add an additional 280 sq' to our home. The custom builder's plans originally called for a bonus room for this space but it was eliminated by the original owner at the last minute. Does anyone have any builder recommendations? Also, any idea how much a project like this would cost? I'm hoping somewhere in the $50 - $70/sq' range. Thanks.

[centralaustinite]

One of my closest friends is an architect, another is a general contractor. In general they advise using $150 a sq foot for new or remodeled space as a ballpark figure -- you can get it lower but change orders, materials issues, etc can change. If the $150 figure reveals a price that it just impossible, then you should rethink your options.

But here you are talking about putting a second floor into an existing space? Right? it is a two story space and you want to put a floor/ceiling in to create space on the second story without changing the envelope (outside dimensions) of the house? and you are creating just a bonus room? no bathroom or kitchen space? Then your $50-70 might be closer to correct. You might need an engineer to be sure that foundation and existing beams can handle the extra load but if it was there in the earlier plans you are probably okay too.

Call around and talk to some people. Work is slow for lots of folks these days, many will be happy to talk.

[JVAL01]

Thanks. We're not looking to change the exterior of the home at all (with the exception of possibly adding a window) and are not looking to add any plumbing. We just want to add a floor to create an extra bonus room upstairs. Hope we can do it for under $70/sq'! Thanks again!

[centralaustinite]

You know, you probably can, particularly if you can get access to the earlier plans that have that space there. That would be helpful and could save you some money. Hopefully there would not be some tricky issue with the adjoining spaces (construction always holds surprises). The best news is that you wouldn't need all the trades there just carpenters and electricians.

good luck!

[Exiled Texan]

My totally uneducated guess....20K. I had a friend who HATED her 2 story family room and put in a new faux "coffered ceiling." The dead space just became dead space as the house was already big. Their's cost 20K in Greenwich, CT. While COL is greater their and they did a lot of detail to their new ceiling, the ceiling didn't have to hold anything as it was just a dummy ceiling.