I'm trying to assess if this is worth it before talking to contractors. I've done a lot of DIY remodels and hired out some but never anything of this magnitude. I want to build an addition on top of the garage and connect to the rest of the 2nd floor. Here's some assumptions I have.
-The slab foundation appears to have same construction as the rest of the house. Let's assume the footings are good for a second floor
-The joists and walls in the garage do not appear to be structured for a second floor. Will need to reinforce garage walls and add joists.
-This project would coincide with an already planned new roof and HVAC upgrade. So HVAC could be sized for the new square footage
Houses are going for about $275 square foot in our area. This will add about 250 square feet to the house. So if this could be done for $60k or less I won't lose equity.
- Any success or horror stories with this sort of thing?
- Any one tackle something like this as your own GC?
Seems like you've put a lot of thought into it already. What's preventing you for paying for an engineer survey as a next step to answer the feasibility questions/assumptions you have.
I agree with this. Spend a couple bucks to get quotes from engineers and contractors. The “worth it” part will be answered by their quotes, which you set along side comps for houses that are similar to yours with the added space, and what that space allows you to do that you couldn’t do otherwise.
I was hoping to hear some anecdotes of similar projects.
I briefly considered adding a 2nd floor to a 1-story home, and the 2nd floor would be a self-contained passive house, effectively, because for environmental reasons I’m unwilling to build anything that’s not passive (that needs heating and cooling). The new floor would need its own support system (could not simply be supported by the existing structure). So the cost came out to the same building costs as it would be for building a whole new home. Upon realizing this, I scrapped the idea. I might as well be building a separate home on an empty lot at that point.
One factor to consider: you never want to be the best house on the block. The low value of other homes will pull yours down while your higher value will prop their values up. Not sure if your plans are significant enough for this to matter. Or perhaps it doesn‘t matter to you anyway. Just something to be aware of.