Room Addition Above Garage (Evansville, Hope: fit in, real estate, houses)
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We are looking into adding 528 sq ft up above existing attached 3 1/2 car garage. Currently is ranch style house. Garage measurements are roughly 22*46, with the 3rd car area straight back on the outside wall of garage. The addition we are considering is 24*22 total, master bedroom, 13*16 bath, 13*6 closet. Also adding staircase from in the house to upper level. Currently standard trusses, room to add stick/bonus truss without removing roof. Existing roof 5/12 pitch. Cutting in 2 dormer windows in front of home. Will probably need to go back 12ft to start for adequate head room, with the understanding on the front and back walls will start up with barn like shape. Standard ceiling height 8ft. As far as permits, etc. Our county in Indiana, ranges anywhere from $50-$150, which is certainly not a problem. Licensed contractors are not required; inspection just must pass during process. We are looking for a rough estimate for approx. supplies/labor. In order to stay within our price range we are able to do finish work if needed.
I hope you are able to give us an idea. No sense in paying for plans, etc if our cash flow will not meet the cost.
Thank you for your time.
Christine Morgan
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I am not a builder nor professional of a building trade but I love to work on houses. I have put on 5 additionals that included raising roofs in my life. Depending on the accessability you want from doing roof work or the amount of snow that rests on a roof, to me, will generally make me believe the less steep the slope the easier it is to roof. However, the more steeper the roof the longer it will last, look better and it will not require snow removal when it gets 12" or more. No ice dams etc. will form.
5/12 is not enough pitch for heavy snow. Why don't you raise the entrie roof and use the 7/12 pitch?
24 years ago two of us charged $70K to raise a roof to do a full finished 2nd floor. 2 rooms and a bath with sitting room. We included a 8x8 ceramic tiled bath included a vanity, walk-in tiled shower and standard to pass local inspections. TYVEK wrapped second floor (a must), 30 rating for insulation and vapor barrior, 5/4 Oak stairs, 6 named brand double insulated windows, insulation between rooms and extra for the bathroom, exhaust fan in bath and hall, and 4 doors with hardware stained to cust. color. We also included 6 xtra outlets over code for cust. convienence and 6 cable outlets. R-30 in roof and sides. 30lb paper with ice and water shield on edges of roof.
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In today's market I would say the costs rise to $185/ sq ft. in the Northeast section of the US. Philly and Northern NJ and NYC vacinities..Custom finishing is only what extras you desire. Roof shingles may be 3 tabs + are normally known as Architecture Shingles which look better and will probably last longer than 2 tabs. Please use the top end roofing material if you are going to increase your pitch.
Good luck and I hope I answered a part of your question but consider yourself and others as a help to a very good licensed building contractor including plumbe and electrician.. We did and we hired the contractor at $30/hour for 7 hours per day, 5 days a week for 3 weeks. The electrician gave us a bid and he was our friend, and the plumber also was our friend but we paid them good rates. Then we did the manual labor.
which is certainly not a problem. Licensed contractors are not required; inspection just must pass during process. We are looking for a rough estimate for approx. supplies/labor. In order to stay within our price range we are able to do finish work if needed.
I hope you are able to give us an idea. No sense in paying for plans, etc if our cash flow will not meet the cost.
Christine,
I cant tell you anything about the cost of doing this project. I just want to throw in a couple of things for you to think about, if you haven't already considered them.
First, are you doing this improvement because you really need the extra space or because you think you will improve the property so much you will be able to get back all the money you put in it when you go to sell? (especially now, not all additions that add footage return all your dollars)
Second, you don't want to be the best house in the neighborhood, be sure you aren't over improving the property. You might ask a friend who is in real estate to run some comps for you. If neither of those things come into play, then go for it, sounds like a great project and good luck with it!
The resale value of an addition may also concern you but it did not concern us when we added a 30x28 addition on our PA home. Yeah kinda big but we did add a 2nd floor that the nephews, neices and family kids loved. Made it like a rec room that included our old 21" TV, lots of lighting and 3 sash nam brand windows. The kids had fun painting cartoon characters on sitting area of the addition. No beds just a big room for them and when the adults need rest we gathered there too. We added a small storage room for stuff.. We exposed the roof joists and insulated on the exterior of the roof making it real homey for all. Painted the 2x6 beams white and hung a swing on a quad + glued 2x6" rafter for the kids or small grownups (Not me. I'm too old).
Anyway, I thought considering an addition a few more things may be on your list and our payback on our addition was as my wife says" We had fun". We never looked at our payback on our home addition because we just wanted something we as a family would enjoy and was not too expensive. When we sold the home we did not get what the realtor said we could due to market conditions 2.5 years ago but it was a a lot of fun for those 18 years. Oh...We discovered the new owners didn't like the 5 year old 20x40' pool so they filled it in 12 months later..Too much work they said..Now they have a nice garden with no swimmin' hole.... They love it and we are happy for them.
Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. We are planing to be in this house, till death do us part. lol
We like the area, we have a nice size lot in 8 home subdivision. Good neighbors, still considered country/county. Good school district for our daughter. So, we would be adding due to needing more space.
Our daughter is going on 14 and has a 10*11 room and with all her girly nonsense she tries to fit in there, it is just not working. We have an oversized king bed and big bedroom furniture and with that in the room we don't have a whole lot of room either. The kids also think this is the hang out and most weekends we have between 4-6 girls here. That is a tight fit in her room. SO.... they end up in the family room with us but we only have so much patience with all the craziness, that either we live with it or we retire to our bedroom. With this addition, we would give her our current room and our "get-away" would be the new addition. Far enough away to hopefully drown out the noise and high pitch screams, but close enough to keep an eye on things.
A friend of ours who has drawn up our plans on this home and the others that we have built, is currently looking over things to see what we can doo or what options we have. Hopefuly we hear something early this week from him. I know as of Friday, his only concern was where the staircase would go, due to lack of space.... he seems to think that with the area we have up there and the size of area we are wanting, it should not be a problem of getting this done without having to tear the roof off and rebuild. Of course we understand that on the front and back of the house those walls will only be 6' as they increase up towards the middle of the room. We just need to find "the contractor" who is willing to take this on. That is the hard part right now. I have some calls into a few well-known, in our area that I heard are in desperate need for work. 2 weeks now and no calls back. 1 contractor who is doing some small interior and exterior work for my sister said he would love to do the project and could use the extra $$$ but when I called him and told him what the plans were, he laughed and decided that was just too much work for him to commit too. But he wanted to still come by and take a look, maybe his thinking is more complex than what I am trying to get across. That was 2 weeks ago, no call and he has not been by. We live in a town right outside of Evansville, IN. Things are of course tough here right now, many lay offs, union strikes, etc. We keep hearing how people are willing to do work for nothing just to pay bills. Well I can't even get anyone to call back not to mind come out here to look.
Well again, I appreciate the feedback.. I will keep you updated on how the process is going and if we decide to go through with it.
It may not be a good idea to remove the roof just for stairs. There is a good way we incorporated in some of ur plans but the homeowners decided to remove the roof insdead. I would suggest to install the steps on a side wall and have a small landing in order to avoid the roof pitch. So it can be just a straight up for lets say three 7.5" risers then make a right or left turn for the small landing so the steps can be put on a 90 degree angle to avoid the roof pitch. The steps would hug the walls and be out of the way yet be very comfortable to navigate...
"Stair treads should be 10 inches and the riser should be 7.5 inches to make what I believe are the perfect set of steps. The steps also should have a one inch nosing. The nosing means the tread projects past the vertical face of the riser a set distance. Your foot needs this extra inch when you climb steps. You will often find your foot sliding slightly across the tread until your toe touches or nearly touches the face of the vertical riser. Without the extra one inch of space created by the nosing, the tread would feel narrow." No staircase should be uncomfortable to step on and the wider they are makes it more safe and great for kids and adults to navigate. Use screws and glue the wood at all joints to avoid future squeeks.
How to calculate:
84.5 Overall Rise, 7.5 Building Code Maximum Rise Per Step, divide 84.5 by 7.5 = 11.27, 11.27 is the ideal number of steps, round up to 12 full steps, now divide 84.5 by 12, 7.04 this is your calculated Rise Per Step
Example of a straight staircase without a landing
8-foot ceilings: 13 stairsTake headroom into consideration when planning stairs. In this example, the floor- to-floor height measures 106 inches (96-inch ceiling height plus 9-1/4-inch framing and a 3/4-inch subfloor).
Have you checked with a local building supply center? They may be able to help you connect with reputable contractors who will return your calls. The one I work at is more than happy to work with the general public. We have some contractors we recommend and some we refuse to recommend. Remember too that price is not necessarily a good factor to use when choosing a supplier. Be sure to consider, will the supplier help make sure you are getting what you actually need and what kind of reputation do they have.
Don't forget to make sure the floor joists will support a living area. Most roof trusses are designed for nothing more than storage, if even that.
I am reading further into yhor first message and following to your second message I can now say that 6' ceilings at any location in a reasonable room is not acceptable for standard construction. If you doa s you say stay ther forever then an 8' ceiling throughout would onlyeem fair in your remodeling. I've been in beautiiful homes that have 6'6" ceilings above their garage and it does no good for those who live there and the heat is at time unbearable. Air conditiong usually does not remove low ceiling heat lines.
Also I always insulate bathrooms from rooms, halls or jsut for the sake of being quiet.... Don't forget extra wall recepticles during the rough out because it is so much easier to do before the wall is up. TV cable etc should also be considered in places where you may think a TV would go later on.
Good luck and please remember that a garage add on is not difficult just be sure your go over the plans many many times prior to beginning the work. Ceiling fans etc would do a new location just good. So the idea of raising the ceiling makes sense unless it is not feasable.
Again good luck and keep us posted. Hey...We can almost build it for you guys via this web blog....
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Take headroom into consideration when planning stairs. In this example, the floor- to-floor height measures 106 inches (96-inch ceiling height plus 9-1/4-inch framing and a 3/4-inch subfloor).
