Many times, our first job as a home addition contractor is to help clients determine if building a room addition or even a second-story addition is the right answer. Sometimes this is a great solution, but sometimes even the best home addition won’t solve all the problems or provide all the “extras” a homeowner wants. In that case, it’s often better to look at selling the home and building or buying a new one.
How can you tell if building a home addition is right for you? Here are a few starting points:
- How do costs compare? How big a home addition do you need? Obviously, if you simply want to expand your kitchen or add one or several more rooms, the cost for doing this is going be dramatically less than buying or building a new home and moving. Sometimes, even building a major multi-story addition can cost less than moving to a new home, especially when you consider real estate commissions, moving expenses, and other costs.
- How much do you love your existing home? If you love your location and neighborhood, and you love most things about your home, then calling a home addition contractor makes more sense. With a new room addition or even adding a large in-law or master suite, you may find you can now love everything about your existing home.
- How much has your home and property appreciated and what would it cost to buy or build a new home? If your home and property has appreciated a good deal since you purchased it, building a home addition has an edge over buying or building a new home. Why? Because you are not paying for the appreciated cost of the existing home and lot. When buying a new home or lot, you are paying it’s appreciated price. Building a new home on your existing lot lets you benefit from the appreciated cost of the land but you then have demolition costs and the cost of renting a temporary home during the construction of your new home. Most of the time, homeowners can live in their existing homes while building an addition.
- Will a home addition work with your particular house? As an experienced home contractor, we can usually find a way to make a home addition mesh with the rest of the house. If the yard is small, we can build up to give you a second-story addition or even a multi-story addition. But sometimes there are limits that even our creativity as a room addition contractor can’t overcome. Zoning restrictions, for example, may mean you can’t add on the space you really need to make the home addition satisfy your needs. In that case, you may have to move to get that extra breathing room. Additions, though, can be done quite creatively so don’t rule them out without talking to us! In the meantime, take a look at our home additions photo gallery.
