Need advice on future addition
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So if anyone can offer their advice it would be greatly appreciated. I own a small 2 bedroom, 2 story with unfinished basement. Would like to expand to have an extra bedroom and bath. I have room on the side of home as a rough estimate prob 22w 30l, maybe more width with variance depending on how close I can get to neighbor. Behind home I have a 2 car detached garage and small grass area thatis down a long driveway and behind the home. My thought is build a new 2 car garage with second floor and attach it to home. Rip down the 2 car detached garage. I guess it is a shame to destroy but it is in a bad spot, would make yard wider behind home. Im assuming moving structure forward would be more difficult than it is worth. I’m trying to do this most economically, I’m only a school teacher not a builder, so I will be paying for this addition until I die. So I’m thinking:
1. Would it be a lot cheaper to only add a one floor addition, leave detached garage
2. Cheaper to add 2 floors and not a garage on side of home and leave detached garage.
3. Somehow extend garage structure forward about 22 feet so it connects to home. Have some kind of minimal entrance from first floor to get to second floor of garage
4. The house was built in 1903 would I be good with a prefab Addition to save money or in this case an old house needs specialized care
5. I also have about 30 feet in front to road same idea build garage and detach back of it to home.
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Replies
Lot of this is very region specific. I'm in the land of of older houses, so there are multiple additions to some places, this is some of the general trends I've seen.
Generally, if you basement is in reasonable shape and usable height (or can be usable height with a micro bench), your cheapest space is finishing this.
After that either a single or two story addition to the rear/side over a crawlspace. This can be done cheap if you already have some large doors/windows on that side which you can use for accessing the new space. Needing to remove the wall does add a fair bit to the cost.
To me garage is a workshop/storage, I would not move it from the backyard. Car ports are much more practical and pretty easy to build.
Your proposals are very wide-ranging. At the cheap end is a remodel in the basement: finishing out a bedroom and adding a SaniFlo-type bathroom could come in under $10K. But if conditions aren't optimal and you have to go through rigorous municipal inspections, this could easily triple. At the other end, tearing down a large outbuilding and adding a two-story addition to an older house could rival the cost of actually building a whole new house.
I would encourage you to meet with an architect and start finding a builder--involving them at the beginning will help guide your thoughts and save you time and money.
Construction and materials costs are higher than you think--have you considered simply moving to a more suitable larger house, and leaving this older place intact?
This exact scenario comes up a lot ("I have a house but need more room, I'm not a high earner so maximizing space and minimizing cost will be the most important aspect of the project"). I'd recommend finding a design-build firm locally as they will best understand and reflect the cost trade-offs early in the design process. It helps minimize the rounds of cost minimizing design changes needed at the end.
A caveat that applies to the rest of this post: I don't know your exact house so some of this not be applicable.
As Andy mentioned, finishing the basement will be the least expensive option. I usually don't recommend this because basement spaces (without a walk-out entrance) are hard to make attractive, usually have lower ceilings, and existing utility systems can require some odd layout trade-offs. I also doubt that $10k will cover it, as you likely don't have an egress window in your 1903 basement and putting a quality (this word is doing a lot of heavy lifting) egress window will eat up most of the $10k. Additionally, with your foundation dating to 1903 I doubt your basement is a good candidate for finishing, but again, I don't know your house.
A two story addition and keeping the existing garage is the best 'value' but may be out of your price-range due to the need to finish twice the interior space. You could leave one floor of the addition unfinished for now, but check with local code enforcement on that one.
I highly doubt a pre-fab addition will save you any money, as it will need to be designed to integrate with your existing home (for example, the roof structure). Pre-fab roof trusses and possibly wall framing are as far as I'd go, but pre-fab isn't really my area of expertise.
'Filling' twenty-two feet between your existing garage and the home will probably result in a pretty odd and unusable structure unless you want the whole thing as a workshop. You'd want the new front half to be the new garage (since that's the area pointing towards the street), which means your finished areas will need to be built into the existing garage which wasn't designed/framed for that purpose. A breezeway/portico connecting the two buildings would be an option.
Sam I do have a walk out entrance and 5 egress windows but the electric and plumbing is everywhere and I have been trying to solve dampness but it is challenging. Ceiling height is low but I’m 6’1 and don’t have to duck under my carrier beam, I have about 1-2 inches room underneath this low point. Like you said though old basements are challenging
Thanks for everyone’s input. My first thought has been utilizing basement for extra room. I have been attempting the diy route but have been frustrated with cost and difficulty. One estimate was for 52k just to put in walls, bathroom, and floor. Another was 28k with no bathroom. The space is roughly 16w by 30l not including all interior walls and furnace. It has thick concrete interior walls taking up a lot of that square footage. Maybe this is area specific, I’m in suburbs of nyc, one of most expensive places to live. I most likely would be better off keeping my 2 car garage just from cost of taking it down and revamping backyard. Had a price to add a side addition 2 car garage with bed and bath overhead attached to side of house. The estimate was 140k and this was modular. The house is sentimental, it was built by family in 1903 and houses in area are expensive. Are these just overpriced estimates or am I just in an expensive region? If I just wanted to widen basement area and add bedroom, bath overhead what is a appropriate range For my region? Stick build or modular?
Sorry but I also wanted to throw out this idea. The first floor is longer than the second. I have about 19w 9l on each side of the roof front and back. Also only 1 side of roof has a dormer. Don’t know how I could configure space but right now have 2 bed and 2 bath upstairs. Maybe I could somehow add another bedroom or bedroom and bath. Leave 2 car detached garage where it is and in future if I really want to move garage forward I can build an attached or detached garage only. I don’t know if it is ridiculously expensive to move garage forward, literally the whole structure or just rebuild. Leaving the garage as is, is fine also this would just be my perfect scenario.
This reply is coming a little late, but perhaps it will still be useful. Without seeing your home and the proposed scope, it's difficult to impossible to validate specific budgets.
With that caveat, none of those estimates look unusual.