DIY Home Improvement Room Addition

Prep Work

• DIY home-improvement room additions require a lot of preparation work. Before any construction can be begin, you need to decide on a location for your addition. According to HomeAdditionPlus.com, when planning the location of your addition, keep in mind the location of septic, drainage or utility pipes running beneath your property, as well as underground electrical wiring. If you are unsure of what is beneath your property, visiting your local municipality's zoning or housing board can be beneficial. Once you know where your addition will go, create a detailed set of blueprints and apply for a permit. It may be helpful to have a professional (such as a certified engineer or architect) assist you with the blueprints because your local municipality's zoning or housing board will scrutinize them rigorously before giving you the go-ahead.

Financing

• According to HomeAdditionPlus.com, building a DIY home-improvement room addition likely requires that you take out a bank loan, unless you have thousands of dollars to spare. It is important to have a strong sense of how much the addition will cost before you begin construction. HomeAdditionPlus.com recommends listing all of the materials you need, including their prices, and in what quantities you need them. This helps you calculate fairly accurately how much the project will cost.

Construction Process

• Building a room addition can be quite a daunting task. According to AskTheBuilder.com, an average home-improvement room addition takes roughly 1,000 hours of labor to complete. Because you need to dig, pour and back-fill a foundation, build a frame and roof, install hookups for electricity and plumbing (if necessary), install insulation, put up drywall and then sand and paint the drywall, AskTheBuilder.com strongly recommends getting help. While you and a few friends could get the job done, you may want to work in conjunction with a contractor. This may take away from the addition being a true DIY project, but you will have the benefit of knowing that an experienced professional helped oversee and double-check all of the work. This is extremely important when someone from the zoning or housing board inspects the addition.