Everybody has a claim to fame. Sometimes they change, and I hope mine does, but here’s what it was back in the old days: I was the guy who could figure out how to add a second floor onto any house, even after other contractors said it couldn’t be done.

There were usually two issues. The first was support and foundation. It was too expensive to augment the existing footings to support a two-story. (I shared the secret solution to that here)

"Winders" Can Make an Impossible Staircase Possible!

The second, sometimes harder to solve, problem was the stairs. Often, the existing house just didn’t have a decent place to put the stairs. Building codes have strict standards on the width of risers and treads.

Riser: The part of a set of stairs that you see facing you when you look at the steps from the ground floor. Often painted, these are the boards that fill the space between each step. “Open Stairs” have no risers, but the code applies as-if one was there.

Tread: You guessed it, the part of the stair you tread upon. The step.

The code is kind of complicated so that it can cover all sorts of circumstances, but a classic stair configuration is a 7/11 stair. 7″ risers and 11″ treads. In my neck of the woods, the rule-of-thumb was this “two risers and one tread should add-up to between 24 and 25 inches”

This staircase has open risers. It looks great, but is too steep and too narrow for most building codes.

Width requirements are also an issue. The one that can stump even brilliant designers sometimes (or so I’ve heard) is the headroom requirement. I still remember my shock and fear after the stairs were installed on one job and, as I descended them, I looked straight ahead at a huge beam. I barely cleared it. A guy an inch taller would hit his head on the way down. (time for the beam relocation plan)

So what’s the secret? Unfortunately there isn’t really one secret. The design of the second floor structure is the key, but one of the tricks I learned to use frequently was “The Winder”.

Winder Steps Shorten Overall Staircase Length

There are often times when you want the bottom of the stairs and the top of the stairs to be in different directions. This is usually accomplished by having a lower section of stairs that climb to a landing, then having an upper section that climbs to the second floor.

These winders would meet many codes, but some (like Florida) wouldn't allow the winders steps to come to a point.

Sometimes there is a full 180 degree turn at the landing, but the most common configuration is a 90 degree turn at the landing. This requires a smaller landing and allows the stairs to live in a corner.

Winders are steps that are “in” the landing. More accurately, they are in the place where the landing would be if you had one.

The advantage is that you gain “rise” in a space that otherwise would remain at one level. This shortens the overall staircase length and can greatly increase design flexibility. Like big time.

Check Codes For Minimum Tread Depth

This is a typical winder installation in lieu of a landing.

One of the dangers in designing stairs with winders is that in some building code jurisdictions (I work in Florida and this is the case here), there is a minimum depth a winder can be. So you can’t install a pie-shaped or triangular step that runs all the way to a point in the corner, you have to design it so that the narrowest portion of the winder is at least the minimum. I think it is 5″ here, counting the nosing. (the nosing is the part of the stair tread that sticks out past the riser below, often rounded, and is included in the measurement of a tread)

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There you have it! On the off chance your weekend includes designing a staircase in a tight spot, you’re all set.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

- RG

The pictures for this post were found in a few places:

So… I decided to start blogging again. For the families of all those who held their breath, I’m very sorry.

So, to catch-up where we left off: I know lots everything about houses and I have better taste than anyone. (present company excepted, of course)

What I don’t have (and this also frustrates me) is enough money to actually do all the things I can dream up.

But I can write about it and show pictures!

For example… check out this picture above.

Easy Sunroom Addition

Here’s what you might want to notice in this picture:

1. You can build this sofa/couch/sectional thingy. (or have your carpenter build it) The legs on this are nothing more than plywood. Any decent carpenter and every cabinetmaker in the world knows how to do this. Cushions… harder but not impossible.

Bottom line, you can create this awesome look for hundreds, not thousands.

2. Large slate floor tiles. Here’s the secret: REALLY flat concrete slab. But the cool thing is that it’s really easy to get a super flat slab on a room this size because it’s narrow enough to use a long 2×4 or piece of aluminum to “screed” the concrete. Once the slab is flat, the floor can be done easy as pie.

3. Simple structure and roof. I’m talking roof, not ceiling, though the ceiling is easy too. I’m talking about the shape of the structure. Here’s a sketch:

You can add a little room like this right on to the side of your house for less money than you might think! It’s even possible for a highly ambitious DIY’er.

It’s a great way to get a little space for an office, studio, or just a place to escape and enjoy a nice view.

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Glad to be back! Do I still have any readers?

When homeowners are considering a remodeling project, the question “What will it be worth?” is one of the foremost for many. The idea that the work is in many ways a real “investment” has served as great comfort to folks as they write the check for Draw#1. Things have changed though, at least for now.

While I know that the prevailing sentiment is that things have certainly changed for the worse in all things real estate related, I prefer to look at the bright side. I don’t say so easily either, I’m certainly among those who would be considered “severely” impacted by the market shift. But that’s another story.

Before getting into the bright side, let me explain a little bit about how people have gone about determining value in years past.

Cost vs. Value Report

Remodeling Magazine publishes an annual report called the “Cost Vs. Value Report“. The report goes to great lengths to help determine what the resale value of a project is in different markets nationwide.

They do this by providing specs for a typical project, such as a Bathroom Addition, to remodeling contractors in each featured market for the given year. The remodeling contractors provide cost estimates, based on the prescribed specifications.

The researchers also provide the same specs to a selection of local real estate professionals, including appraisers and real estate agents. It’s up to this group to review the project and give an estimate, based on their own experience, as to what the project will be worth.

A Great Sales Tool

This Cost vs. Value report is widely used as a sales tool, or at least it was when values were a little stronger. A home improvement seller such as a general contractor, a window replacement firm, or a siding company, would show the prospect in black and white what they could expect to get for the work if they sold the day it was finished.

Siding has always been strong for example. So the siding contractor shows you a report published by a national magazine, an apparent expert on the market, which clearly shows that you will recoup 90% of your investment. I know that any decent salesman would add the line “and that’s if you sell today! Clearly it will be higher in a year from now as the house overall appreciates.”

I know, because I’ve said those exact words, though I never used the report.

Average Cost Per Square Foot

This is the resale value method I always used when a client asked me “What will it be worth?” My answer was fairly boiler-plate and it went like this:

“Well, it seems that the houses in the area are all going for about the same price per square foot. I’m no expert on value, but It stands to reason that if we make your house 500sf larger, then you can just multiply out that number to get a decent estimate of the value.”

This worked fine for me because I was selling room additions for the most part, and reading it now, it makes perfect sense. In a predictable world that did what it was supposed to do, it would still make sense. But it doesn’t; not today. Not for now.

The Mental Cost Reduction

The purpose behind all of this is what I think needs to change. I think way too many people, on the professional side, and on the consumer side, were focusing much to strongly on the investment value of a home improvement project.

The homeowner sees an estimate, say it’s $100,000.00. That’s a whole lot of money! “Maybe I don’t want to spend $100,000.00″ they think. But they want that space, there must be a way to make that make sense. And this is where resale value of remodeling comes into play.

What if the client believes that they will have $100,000.00 in value from day one. Then how much are they spending? Zero, right? It’s no longer an expenditure, now it’s a transfer of funds from one place to another. Why not put it in the house where we can enjoy it?

The same would apply if the report shows them that the value will be $75,000.00. “Well, at least this is only costing me $25K, the rest is real value.” Makes perfect sense, right? Not today. Not for now.

Borrow, Borrow, Borrow

This actually could make some sense, even today, for those buyers paying cash. I’m among the majority who still hold out hope that real estate values will, eventually, bounce back and return to being an asset that appreciates, rather than one that drops in value, like a rock.

But the idea of borrowing based on these estimates of resale value seems very misguided to me at this time. Which brings me to the good news.

The Bright Side

Remember me saying that I wanted to look at the bright side? I bet you were starting to forget there was one! I know I was. My own writing was depressing me! I wonder if that means I should do some editing?

But the good news is really good news.

If we all wake up from this hypnotic trance where our homes are our “biggest single investment” and consider them as HOMES, not investments, I think we’ll start making much better choices. Much better!

I received the following question in an email and I thought the answer might be useful to others, so rather than just respond in email, I’ve posted it here .

I’ve spoken to many hundreds of excited owners over the years who want to add a second floor on the house and Natalie asked the typical questions.

Question:

We need to add on to our house at least one bedroom, and a guest room would be nice as well. The way our house is situated, the most aesthetically pleasing way to do it would be to add a couple of rooms on a second floor.

My question to you is, what are the limitations with adding on a second story to a house that is currently only a single story? Can it be done, or will it be prohibitively expensive. Any experience you have to share would be appreciated! – Natalie

Answer:

Hi Natalie,

I appreciate your question and I do have some experience I can share. My company has designed and built a few dozen second floor additions over the years.

Let me break down your question into segments.

Can it be done?

Yes. There is no such thing as a house that cannot receive a second floor addition one way or another; or at least not one I’ve seen yet…somebody will probably send me a picture of a house under a concrete overpass or something.

Years ago, after struggling with engineer after engineer on job after job trying to determine if the existing first floor foundation would hold up a second floor, I decided to skip the first floor footings altogether.

The truth is that most newer one story homes have almost zero “extra” strength built into them. As such, most one-story homes have insufficient foundations for the added loads of a two-story. Each state has it’s own set of building codes and Florida is among the most stringent, so a local professional will be able to help you better in that particular area. The lengths I’m accustomed to going to might not be required everywhere.

In the event that the existing foundation is insufficient, there are two options. First, you can augment the existing foundation with additional concrete and steel. The other option, the one I went to on all second story additions, is to build new footings for the second floor itself.

We did this by essentially building a “stilt house” within the existing home. Structurally speaking, these were like two independent structures. You could remove the first floor from under the addition, and it would remain intact.

This is done by placing adequate foundations directly under posts (we often used 6×6 posts) which supported the framing for the second floor. I would design the additions so that these posts can be placed inside existing or new first floor walls, or otherwise integrated into the first floor design with new features. The point being that these posts are “invisible” after the work is done.

So, this is a very long way of explaining that yes, it can be done in almost any house.

Is it prohibitively expensive?

Second floor additions are more costly than first floor additions, but I wouldn’t say prohibitively so. In my experience, the cost for a second floor job is about 20%-30% more than the same square footage built on the ground level. The majority of this extra cost has to do with the requisite remodel of the area under the addition and the cost of the stairs and stairwell.

The cost of an addition can be quite a bargain in times like this when the money you might effectively “lose” by selling in a depressed market is substantial. If you feel an addition of any type would be a good investment, I wouldn’t let the cost of a second floor addition scare you off.

Other Considerations:

Design

A good design is always an absolute imperative on a room addition. I would advise you to not compromise on this. Work until you have a design that meets your needs and you feel will be aesthetically pleasing.

Second floor design work is much more challenging, so you want to be certain that you’re working with someone who has experience in second story additions. If someone says “I haven’t really done many, but it’s no big deal.”, don’t believe them. It is a big deal and the design is the key.

Living During Construction

First floor additions have the great advantage of being able to be completed to a 95% level before breaking into your living space. Even if you’re remodeling adjacent space, the construction area can be effectively sealed off from your home.

Not so with a second floor addition. If the area where you plan to add-on is over an important living area, it could present a real problem. You really need to be able to move-out of the area directly under the addition for the duration of the project.

I’ve had a few clients move to a rental during construction and for a major project that can be a good idea. For most folks, it’s not an option. So plan on “camping-out” in your own home for awhile and be ready for some major inconvenience.

Over the Garage

For a number of reasons, building a second floor over the garage is a great move. The garage has a pretty impressive list of advantages:

• The cost to fix-it after construction is much lower since there is no floor covering, basic walls, little trim if any, etc.
• The ability of most families to live without the garage for a couple of months is much greater, as compared to the kitchen for example.
• The garage floor is often lower than the adjacent house. This is a huge advantage if the skies open and the rain pours down right after they tear the roof trusses off your house. The water will run out of the garage and down the driveway, instead of into your living room.

So, if it works in your plan, consider building over the garage.

I think that covers the basics…I hope it is helpful.

Have you ever looked with slight contempt at one of those exterior walls and thought “If I could just bump that wall out a little bit...”? I know I have! I guess I don’t count, but you’re still not alone! I wrote a post back in January about small spaces and one of the most commented features on that post was the Bump-Out Room addition. (see the post: Making The Most of Small Spaces)

Bump-Out Additions Make a Big Impact

It’s really kind of amazing how much of a difference a space like this can make. The uses are only as limited as your imagination! Here are a few ideas:

• More cabinet or seating space in a kitchen
• A light filled breakfast nook
• A window seat in a bedroom or office
• A small little corner to paint or do crafts

The list could just go on and on. What would you use it for?

Easy To Build

Generally speaking, projects like this aren’t anywhere near as complex as full-scale additions. Sometimes the work can be done without even the need for a foundation, as-in the photo above. A small bump-out can be just built to “hang” on the side of the house.

These cantilevered style structures aren’t without their limitations though. For some jobs, the only way to go is build from the ground-up, just smaller!

This addition (photo courtesy: Marvin Windows) blends very nicely with the house and clearly adds a dramatic amount of light. Just imagine the change that takes place when you transform two regular side-by-side windows to this! Talk about night-and-day!

A Light-Filled Nook

I found another picture that shows an example of what type of use might work inside a bump-out addition. (photo:Natural Home Magazine)

Check this out:

In this case, a bump-out has created enough room in the kitchen to allow an island. The designer of this project did a great job of dealing with some very thick walls (probably concrete block) using beautiful wood trim to create a panel look. Looks like a great place to stand at the sink and look outside!

Imagine The Potential

Small budget, small yard, not enough time… all sorts of challenges start to look a little less daunting when the scale of the project is brought back a little bit. Imagine all the places you could gain a little more space!

What sort of bump-out would you do? How would you use it? Tell me about it in the comments!

Wait! Don’t change the channel just yet! It’s not how it sounds. I don’t mean I rock in the whole “yeah, I know it, I rock” sense of the phrase. That would be vain, and they didn’t write the song about me. Honk if you get it.

No, I don’t mean I rock all the time, I mean that I can RAWK (?) on occasion. We’re talking music here. Rock, roll, the works. I’m trying, in my standard long-winded fashion, to tell you about my night last night. My whole day in fact. Because you’ve been wondering about that. Right?

So, my son AJ is a huge metal fan.

His favorite band is a Christian band that goes by the name of Disciple. I think they have some form of advanced communication enabled, similar to my RSS feed, that lets him know exactly what Disciple is doing at any given moment. So when they scheduled three concerts in Florida he knew it. And then I knew it.

We picked the show in Vero Beach, obviously because it was near a beach, and got our tickets. AJ and I left bright and early yesterday for the three hour drive to Vero. We wanted to be sure that we were there in plenty of time for the 7:00pm show. We made it with time to spare.

I won’t bore you with all the details of our day. It was great and involved body surfing some HUGE waves, catching a movie at a beautiful theater called The Majestic, and getting in-line for the concert at 4:30, ensuring us front row seats for the general admission show. Did I mention it didn’t start until 7pm ?

(I’m getting to some remodeling stuff, I promise…)

There were three bands and the show started right on time at 7:00. That was the last I saw of my seat. It faded away behind four deep teenagers in the two feet of space between the stage and the chairs. Don’t ask me how they fit? They did, and apparently they felt like there was plenty of wiggle room because they proceeded to jump, and flail, and otherwise act out the joy coursing through them.

There were speakers. Let me give this to you in remodeling terms. Imagine two Sub-Zero’s on top of one another. They were about six feet from my head. And a stack of twenty wine cooler size speakers were hanging from the ceiling. But they weren’t wine coolers. Nope. So when I say the joy was coursing through them, I mean it.

So there I was (paperback novel in my pocket in preparation for the potential retreat that never came) on the front row, right on the stage, trying to “blend“…yeah, right, like THAT is going to happen. It was fun. Really, it was.

Kids Are Energy

Whew, you made it to the remodeling part. I woke up this morning thinking of all the room additions I’ve built as hang-out’s for kids. Parents all over are building room additions just to keep the kids at their house where they can see them. They fill these rooms with cool home theaters, pool tables, video games, and bean bags. I’ve built dozens of them.

But I realized this morning that I should have reinforced them! These kids are like little tanks! They can destroy! I started thinking of what I would do if I wanted to “teenager-proof” a room. Here is the list I came up with…

• Door Casing – Kids just kill the doors! What is that? So I would need to make sure that my door casing couldn’t be pulled off. That would mean an extra stud behind my door casing when I did framing, so that way it could be nailed solid on both the inside and the outside edge. I’d use glue too.
• Solid Core Doors – Forget these puny hollow core doors. Any respectable group of teenagers will make mince meat of that in no time flat. You would need solid doors. Either solid wood or LDF (Low Density Fiber-board).
• Light Fixtures – Lighting is important, you might need it for impromptu first aid. Fixtures should be mounted, up-high. Forget the lamps, they’ll never make it.
• Walls – I’m thinking solid wood up two-thirds of the wall. A wainscot type look with a nice cap rail on top. It looks great but is indestructible. You could do drywall, but you’ll need this post on drywall repair.
• Paint – Let’s be serious. I have to tell my son five times in one two sentence conversation to “stop hanging on the door”. He touches everything and despite the energetic bouncing I saw at the concert, teenagers apparently need bodily support from walls and doorways most of the time. So the paint needs to be very durable, and washable, and while you’re at it, I say go with a distressed look that way you don’t care when they take a chunk out of the wainscot in some completely unforeseeable way.
• Floors – Stained concrete? If that’s too cold, then I would go with either a solid 3/4″ thick nailed down hardwood floor, finished in-place, or a laminate flooring like Pergo. You’ve seen the demonstrations where they smack it with the hammer right? There you go.
• Windows – no windows.

So there you have it. The story of my wonderful day with my son, the huge metal fan, and some tips on how to design your remodeling project to be teenager proof. I wish I could go back in time, I’d be selling wainscot and solid core doors leftswing and rightswing. Contractors take notice…change order money here!

I’d love to hear some “my teenager destroyed my house” stories, just NOT FROM YOU MOM!

~ RG

I had a great question today about “going up”, the term people often use for building a second floor addition. There are no pretty pictures, but I answered the question in-depth at RG:Grande… it might interest you.  Click here to read the post.

Room additions have always been popular. The idea of making the house a little more spacious and giving everyone a little more room to spread out has almost universal appeal. The obvious goal:

More Space

On of my all-time favorite projects!! (after)

As families grow, the need for space increases. When my wife, Kim, and I were fist married, we lived in an apartment that was about 400 square feet. Even with just two of us, we wanted more space pretty quickly!

Bring kids, friends, dogs, and twenty years of collected ‘stuff’ into the mix and most people start to feel like they are bursting at the seams. In a recent post on making best use of small spaces I talked about how to maximize the space you already have.

Some of you probably react to that something like this “Look, Remodeling Guy, yeah, yeah, yeah…I understand the whole efficient use of space concept; but you don’t understand, I need a room for guests to sleep in, a room for kids to play in, and a room to do my work in…I can’t do these things under my bed, no matter how creative I get!”

Point taken. Many folks are in a situation just like this. They usually have two options: buy a new house, or build a home addition.

Just after “Before” (does that make sense?)

The Economy of Additions

The current gloomy state of the housing market is having a major impact on these decisions. The option of buying new is fading away for many people. This is happening for a number of reasons:

• Existing house value has depreciated
• Outlook for an acceptable and quick sale is weak
• Access to credit is squeezed

Of course, at the same time, if some of these issues aren’t a concern for you, now might be the absolute best time to buy a home. There are some great deals to be had.

The result of all of this is that more people are considering additions.

The Real Reason for an Addition

Economy is one thing, but it’s not the biggest reason people add-on. I know from experience (I’ve built hundreds of additions) that the main reason people add-on is this: “I love the neighborhood!”

The real reason for an addition isn’t negative at all. It’s 100% positive. People love where they live, so when life circumstances change and they need more space, they start making room addition plans.

My honest opinion is that the challenges of the economy will actually force many people into doing what they really wanted to do anyway. I’ve seen people move out of a neighborhood they love simply because they were afraid of the process of building a room addition.

Here are the major steps:

The major steps of an addition follow the same sequence as any other project, just in a bigger way. Regular Remodeling Guy Crew know that these consist of four categories: Dream, Design, Build, Live.

Dream

The first step in building an addition is to develop the vision you have for the project. Know what you want it to be. Know what you need to accomplish. Know your limitations, but don’t place false limits on the project.

Let me tell you something: The Dream phase is the true “foundation” of the project, well before the first concrete is poured. Don’t rush through it, don’t take it for granted, and don’t let someone else do it for you.

Design

This is where the dreams are put on paper. The design phase looks with a creative eye at how to make those dreams come true. During design, all of the home addition costs are considered. Building permit considerations are dealt with. Real working drawings are developed.

Build

A work in progress!

When it comes time to finally build something, people get very excited! The day has come, the end is near. But of course the build process has to start with a long list of decisions such as “should I hire a contractor?”, “should I contract this myself, or DO this myself?”.

People consider contract related questions and insurance related concerns. The list goes on, and on, and on. This is the part that many people don’t get past. The fear of the unknown can paralyze homeowners who have a great vision and a design in hand!

It can be done. There is no real need to be paralyzed and if approached in the proper manner, this needn’t be so tough.

Live

For those who make it past the first few stages, the ultimate enjoyment arrives eventually! One of my favorite compliments at the end of an addition is “I just wish we had done this sooner! The extra space makes a huge difference!”

Consider the following list of a few addition types:

• Garage Addition
• Second Story Addition
• Family Room Addition
• Bedroom Addition
• Bathroom Addition
• Sunroom Addition
• Bonus Room Addition

These are just a few types of space that can be added if you want to add room to your home. The list is as long as your imagination!

Need Help?

I can help you with this. This is one of the areas where I have unique experience and due to the amazing relationship building of blogs, I can get to know you and help you with your project.

Just stay in touch through the email Newsletter, and the regular subscriptions to the blog itself.  You can also email me with your questions and I’ll do my best to answer.

Want to see the inside?

Interested in a couple of pictures of the inside of the job shown at the top? Here ya go:

This is a two sided fireplace!

You’re seeing two sides in the pictures!

The roof-top deck is a great place to hang out! Just step out of the Master bedroom French Doors.

Add-On your thoughts!

How about some additions to this post?  Let me know your addition thoughts or questions right in the comments!