Building Additional Rooms Tips For You

Monday, January 19, 2015

With the economy today the homeowner should think of adding a room rather than go through the process of buying a new home when the need arises. Especially if your home has the floor plan you like and it is already decorated to your tastes. It would actually be cheaper to add a room than buying a new home. And you could make the room the size you want instead of having to accept a home that has rooms either bigger or smaller than you like.

When building room additions the first thing you need to do is buy a building permit. All states and most all municipalities require building permits when adding a room or doing any carpentry work on your existing home. You will also need to know how deep the frost line is because you'll have to pour a concrete footer for the foundation to sit on, and it has to be below the frost line. The person you purchase the permit from should tell you how deep to pour the footer. That too will need to be inspected. You can pour the concrete up to the floor level for the foundation or use blocks on top of the footer. Your choice.

Building room additions is not an easy job. There are many aspects of adding a room, or rooms, that must be considered and planned for. For the person who is comfortable performing carpentry work, you can build your own room. But there are a few things to consider when building an extra room.

First, you will need to consult with a heating and air-conditioning expert to decide whether or not you may have to enlarge the outside unit of your central air conditioner, as well as the furnace. If so, you'll need to have that work done by a licensed professional. You will also need to add the ducting for your air conditioning and heating system.

When building room additions you will also need to hire a licensed electrician to do the wiring. It's a dangerous job, so don't try to do it yourself. Besides, it has to be inspected afterward. You can save yourself some money by drilling the holes through the wall studs and running the wiring to the electrical box if you know what your doing. But the electrical connections have to be made by a licensed electrician.

You'll have to decide what pitch to use for the roof over your new room. You will have to tear off part of the roofing on the existing roof so you can tie in high enough to get at least a 6/12 pitch. That's a 6 inch fall for every 12 inch length of roof.

Building room additions is a great way to increase the value of your home. A 12 ft. x 15 ft. room addition will cost about $15,000 but will increase the value even more. How much more depends on the location of the home, size of the room and the quality of the work done. Good work will always bring rewards.