Different Building Methods for Room Additions

Plan Around Needs

• It’s important to assess why you need an addition. For instance, plan an additional master suite if you need room for aging parents. Your house may need a large family room or kitchen expansion as your children become teenagers. Once you’ve defined your family’s needs, you can look at alternative ways to add space.

Look at Options

• Evaluate any unfinished areas you have available. If you have a large wrap-
  around porch, you can enclose it to add a home office or guest room. If you have a large attic, you can convert it to an in-law suite. Check out your garage, basement or patio space to see if additions might fit in these areas. Roof space that is already enclosed will save lots of time and money in creating a new room.

Blend in New Materials

• A room addition should look original to the house versus added on later. The room’s foundation must fit well with the foundational materials for the rest of the house. If your home has a brick façade with brick covering the foundation, a formal addition to the front of the house must have this same look. The roof line, overhangs and guttering of the new space must blend seamlessly with the roof already in place. Otherwise, the addition will look like an afterthought.

Plan a Sunroom or Porch

• Enclosing a porch or patio for a sunroom or four-season room requires detailed drawings. Don’t just randomly select a sunroom kit that you will install on a concrete foundation slab. Sketch the existing house with all roof lines drawn with exact angles. This way, you can select a sunroom kit or design a four-season room that harmonizes with every aspect of the existing house.

Raise the Roof

• A two-story addition can improve an outdated home. For example, if your house is a boring single-story ranch, you can build an addition that provides two separate levels, connected by a staircase. Or, you can construct a 1 ½-story addition that will feature a vaulted ceiling over the new space. Raising the roof line will make a house look contemporary, provided the dimensions of the old and new space blend harmoniously.

Convert a Garage

• If your house floor plan includes a garage on the main living level, consider enclosing this garage space for a room addition. This works well if the garage already has windows that blend perfectly with front facade windows.

Remodel the Basement

• Basement space can yield lots of square footage. If you remodel your entire basement, you can acquire extra floor space equal to your existing house. This works well in a ranch house, for example, to create a couple of bedrooms and a recreation room. Because walls and basic flooring are in place, along with joists overhead to serve as ceiling rafters, this is an economical way to build a new addition.