Historical May 1994 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST – there is another way to increase the living space of a house – adding a room.
In our neighborhood this is very often done by enclosing a porch or deck, sometimes as an independent project.
This will often add a suburban style family room or an extra room and that much needed first floor bath.
The first step is to determine exactly what the new room will be used for. Are you looking for added living space? Storage or closet space? bathroom space? Or to enlarge a room you arc currently using-(boy, those new kitchens in west county with all the work and eating space sure look good don’t they?–all this could be in your home…) Some of the same questions need to be asked in the case of an addition as in an attic or basement conversion. Can the existing systems handle the added load? Are the furnace and air conditioner big enough to heat/cool the new room? Is there an empty slot in your breaker panel for the new electric in the addition? Is there an existing deck or porch where you want the added living space?
This could lower your costs substantially since you may not need to build a foundation. Is there an easy way to route the new systems into the addition?
All of these basic questions can help determine how costly your addition will be.
As an example, I am currently in the process of demolishing a powder room that was added onto the back of our butlers pantry in the 50’s.
The plan is to convert it into a full bath in a bigger space, so that we will have a ground floor bath. Since the existing powder room was built onto the preexisting concrete porch, we can extend the new bath further onto the porch, and save ourselves the added expense of pouring a new foundation for the addition. Very often the roof of a preexisting porch can be saved to hold down costs also.
In this case, we’re putting in a walk out deck on the second floor, so we are pulling the existing roof down to facilitate that.
We also recently saw a cedar all-season porch (screened in summer, enclosed in winter) that added extra casual living space.
If the answers to the questions above are favorable and you decide to seriously pursue adding a room to your home, don’t forget to factor in the cost of permits, architectural grade roof shingles and siding, and the other assorted costs associated with being in a historic conservation district.
The plus side to that is that you don’t have to worry about what your neighbors will be putting up on their side of the fence. Just a quick word on costs – the average addition costs about $100 per square foot to put in (floors, walls, ceiling).
A high end addition with a lot of gee-gaws will cost approximately $200 per square foot, and I have seen a couple of additions that have cost $600 per square foot.
It all depends on what you want, and how much work you are willing to do yourself or talk your neighbors into helping you with.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, May 1994.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1994_05.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
