Room Addition

Room Addition

 When your family grows larger, a son or daughter returns home after college, an elderly parent can no longer live alone, or if you just want to enjoy some additional amenities and/or add to the resale value of your home, it may be time for a room addition.

At Artech Roofing, we understand how to build a wide variety of room addition types, whether on the ground level or an upper story, and we know how to keep you compliant with all zoning laws. Additionally, we have cover the full spectrum of trades involved in putting on an addition, including plumbing and electrical work, and are careful to fully integrate your addition to the structure and style of the original building.

Is an Addition My Best Option?

We are fully equipped with the tools and expertise to construct any new room you would like, be it a bathroom, above-garage bedroom, master suite, family or dining room, game room, pool house, an expanded kitchen, or a walk-in closet. However, it is always worth exploring your other options first since a room addition can cost twice as much as remodeling an existing room.

For example, finishing an unfinished basement or attic, re-purposing a little-used spare bedroom, and removing/adding walls are ways to make fuller use of your existing floor space. However, when there just isn’t enough space available, a room addition of some kind is the only option (other than moving to a new home).

Building Your Room Addition

Once you decide to have an addition and which room you are looking to add, the next major consideration is the location. At Artech Roofing, we have deep experience with additions and can help you weigh the pros and cons of locating your addition on this or that side of the building or on an upper story.

We can then assist you in the design phase and make a blueprint and a 3D model so you can envision what the completed addition will look like. We will keep your home safe during the demolition stage and will handle all aspects of new construction, from framing to drywall to insulation to paint/siding.

We take special care that the new and old rooflines blend into one another, that both the exterior and interior of the addition complement your original house, and that your HVAC systems, wiring, and plumbing pipes all properly interconnect. We also make sure that we minimize any disruption to your daily activities the construction project might bring with it so you can continue to comfortably live at home while the addition is underway.

Building Out vs Building Up

One of the most critical decisions to be made when putting on a new addition is whether to expand horizontally or vertically. Ground-level additions are by far the most common, but this is largely because there are so many one-story homes and because certain rooms (like a kitchen) virtually have to be built on ground level.

If adding one or more rooms at ground level, the first task is to backhoe the area of your yard where the new room(s) will lay. Your foundations/slab must then be extended, unless it is a small enough addition to do a “bump out” (which needs no foundation work).

Next, the walls and roof are installed, so that the new room is now connected to the original building but with the old exterior wall still between them. At that point, the old wall is removed. Leaving it up till later in the process prevents your home’s interior from getting exposed to the weather and minimizes any possible disruptions. At that point, we can finish both the interior and exterior.

Building out is often the best option, but it also eats up your yard space, and its location may be restricted by zoning “setback” laws. Usually, your building must be 7.5 feet from the sides of your property limits, 15 feet from its back, and 20 feet from the front, but this varies from locality to locality. Also, there may be limits on what percentage of your lot can be covered (home and pavements) and how close you can build to wetlands.

Building up, on the other hand, saves lot space but often requires strengthening of the foundation/underlying walls to increase weight-bearing capacity. The ceiling below an upper-story addition may also have to be temporarily torn up to bolster the addition’s floor and to feed in wiring and pipes. Building up can also run into zoning restrictions that limit the height of houses, but this is not usually a problem. Finally, if you add a second story to a one-story house, don’t forget that a new stairwell will be needed, which will take up some of your lower-story living space.

Contact Us Today

At Artech Roofing, we have decades of experience in adding all manner of additions, small and large, built out or up, second story or first. If you live in the Atlanta Area and are considering adding new space to your home, contact us at 404.783.4949 for a free estimate or fill out the online inquiry form.