12 Questions to Ask Before Building an Addition Onto Your Home
Posted by Eric Skates on
Building an addition onto your home is a bold and empowering move for any homeowner. You are making a move of ownership that will bring your house one significant step closer to becoming your dream home. With this extra space, you can increase your home's square footage, functionality, and beauty in one incredible project. But before you begin, there are a few questions you should ask yourself and your contractor.
1) What Room(s) Are to be Included in Your Addition?
Naturally, you want to start by considering what rooms will be expanded or created with the addition's construction. What are you hoping to accomplish? How will it enhance your experience and family life inside the home?
2) How Large Will Your Addition Be?
Ask yourself how big you want the addition to be. How many square feet you plan to add will impact many things about the project from the scope to the cost to the impact it has on your life when completed.
3) Are You Building a Two-Story Addition?
Two-story additions are spectacular, but also double the effort and double the safety requirements to make it work. You can make a beautiful two-story addition or a sweeping one-story addition but it's important to know your goals before you start.
4) How Do You Want the Addition to Flow from Your Current Floor Plan?
Consider not just the space you will be adding, but how it will experientially and physically flow from the original floor plan into the space you're creating with the addition. Whether you are opening up a great room or adding additional rooms to the home.
5) What Will Your Addition Look Like from the Outside?
Don't forget to consider outside aesthetics. While you are transforming your experience and floorplan inside the home, you want this addition to also increase the external beauty of the home as well.
6) How Much Outdoor Space Will Your Addition Take Up?
Adding an addition has one notable cost beyond money or materials: Yard space. If your home is in the suburbs, you are likely calculating to lose a certain amount of your front, back, or side yard in the process.
7) What Permits Do You Need Before Starting Your Addition?
Every construction project needs permits. Your location and the extent of your addition will determine which permits and how many permits the project will require.
9) What is Necessary to Make Your Addition Acceptable to the HOA?
If you live in an HOA community as so many do, there are going to be specific regulations about what your home can look like externally and certain features you can add. Be sure to check with the neighborhood policies before you begin.
10) How Much Will Your Addition Cost to Build?
Now we're to the point of putting together a real estimate and settling on the final cost of your addition. You will need to know your budget upper limit and compare that to the potential cost of your vision for the addition. Often, the difference can be made up in your choice of materials or just a few square feet of space.
11) How Much Disruption Will the Construction Cause to Your Homelife?
Remember to consider that additions don't appear overnight. They take months to plan, then open up the house and build. Your homelife will inevitably be disrupted. The only question is by how much, for how long, and what you will do to maintain a functional routine during construction.
12) When Do You Plan to Start and End Construction?
Finally, it's time to set your dates. When you understand the full scope of your addition plans, you can determine a practical start date and planned end-date for the construction and begin making your dream of an addition a reality.
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Building an addition onto your home can be the greatest homeowner decision you ever make, enhancing your enjoyment inside and outside and bringing your house into the reality of the dream home in your mind. Contact us today to consult on your plans for a new home addition or give us a call at (877) 255-3554 (toll free).