Where Do I Start If I Want To Add An Addition To My Home?

Are you thinking of adding on an addition to your home? Or can you renovate and make your home work with a new floor plan and layout? Or maybe you should just tear down and do a new build on your lot ….. These are all great questions and can be confusing to know where to start or how to determine the best course of action.

We’re here to break it down for you, as we get these questions all the time. Clients come to us and wonder, do we need to hire an architect first? Or a designer or a builder? Will the city even let me add onto my home? And can I even afford it?

The BEST way to figure out the way forward, is to consult with a design and build team, as they have both interior designers (the masters at rejigging floor plans or determining if you need an addition/new build), builders who can give you cost parameters on what it will cost, and engineers/architects that can help determine what the city will allow before moving too far down one road or the other.

At AC Design & Build, we do all of this at the initial site meeting. We will give you options for what is possible to do within the existing space you already have and the general costs you can expect for the design elements and construction. We will also advise what the costs and advantages would be for adding on an addition or starting from scratch.

In the traditional model, most home owners go to an architect and pay

(a large sum) for a new plan, addition or build. The issue with this is, what it will it cost to build it? Was there a way to achieve your end goals without a costly addition? What about the specific costs relating to your chosen style and finishes?

Our approach is to provide a recommendation and general cost parameters right from that first meeting. The second step is to perform the site plan and city requirements to evaluate the options for additions or builds. Once these are in place, our design team goes to work to see if they can achieve your goals with or without an addition and then will come back with the multiple options priced out. This helps home owners start the process, already knowing they are in the ball park of what they can afford and avoids a lot of wasted fees on designs that they cannot execute.

Are you contemplating an addition, new build or remodel? Reach out and let’s set up an onsite meeting to evaluate the best options moving forward for your property!

Linsday