Building an Addition on your House Questions?

[HoldingAg]

Hello To Some of the Most Resourceful People on The Net,

I am about to buy my first house. It will eventually need an addition put on (1820sq. ft. is the size, that has to be a basement included figure as it is a small 3 bedroom, 3 bath). It's not a b.o. location just a family house, that serves our family well because it has a huge yard, a great business oriented garage (own small but growing lawn care/tree business) with office and loft and enough space to store all of my equipment and my work truck, my back up beater work truck, and a dumpster on its own concrete pad next to the driveway and against the garage.

The place is on 1.87acres of just beautiful grass, and it has some surrounding privacy trees, that I am going to have to buy and plant. It looks more like 2 and a quarter acres to me... so its PERFECT for my two young boys. Plus there's a cool little old garage/shed kind of building that I think would make a killer fort for the boys. And there are tons of possibilities with mostly all of the yard, although there is a septic field... keep my garden and fruit trees as far away from that as possible. Also it is about an hour or two walking distance from philly, so... i figure that would give me SOME padding. You know, from zombies.


My questions are:
Can I Hire Friends that are skilled in Trades such as, Framing/drywall, Electrical, HVAC, Concrete/Masonry work to do the work to save a buck?

I met an extremely resourceful guy today that I think I would like to help me... what if he doesn't have the necessary licenses/paperwork but has the knowledge and does good work?

Can I just start another business as a Re modeler and hire him and insure him myself under my new Inc, or whatever is cheapest (I am an Incorperation and it cost me 975 plus about 125 a year)?

I know I need to contact the township and the county. But lets just say I live in close proximity to Philadelphia PA, anyone know off hand or around about what I'm getting myself into. I do think it would be a good Idea to hire a complete professional for electrical, and foundation work, but framing and drywall should be ok for some sweat equity and someone who knows what they are doing watching/helping me right? I have guys for HVAC, and I am pretty sure Electrical, but I have to see if he is interested.

OH YEAH, the outside is concrete or stucco. We are about to go for a formal tour. My wife just did an open house without me.

Any words of wisdom,
Advice,
Ideas,
Costs/Calculations/Estimates,
Would all be VERY GREATLY APPRECIATED. Heck maybe one of you lives near by and knows a trade and wants to barter for landscaping/hardscaping/treework, or cash, or just help a young fella cut his teeth?
Thanks for trying to read this jumble and help,
Holdin' and Never Foldin'

[HoldingAg]

By the way, with the amount of money we have saved for a down payment, plus the money I bring in monthly, just barely gets us this kind of property. My WONDERFUL wife, has been searching relentlessly for the last year or so for the best of both worlds, a house that is somewhat close to my work area (15-25mins commute each way max), plus we want PRIVACY, NO NEIGHBORS, AND A FARM LIKE SETTING. We have lived with what we thought was great gratitude until we got on our feet with my business. But now we are at the breaking point where we have to GET OUT NOW. IT'S SUCKING MY SOUL FROM MY BEING LIVING WITH OUR FAMILY MEMBERS FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS. So its like just get whatever will suit us and pass inspection and get the bleep out.

Thanks for reading my rant,
HA

[REO 54]

Are working with a realtor or is this a FSBO? [for sale by owner]. get a home inspection from Lic/bonded inspector. Are you city sewer or septic?
How's the water supply? Well or municipal.What is the quality of water? Basically,check out your infastructure so it is within means. More later.

my wife called me for din din.....

[Goldhedge]

You can be the General Contractor and hire subs to do the work. You could do all the work yourself, if you have the skills.

I suggest you call up the Building Code Enforcement folks in your town and ask them what is required.

They'll want to be in on the loop. They get involved when you pull permits for the construction. They also will approve drawings of what you plan to do and you'll need drawings.

If there's not enough electrical panel to support the addition, they'll tell you and you'll have to upgrade the panel, stuff like that.

That's where I would start.


I would also check and see if your 'friends' are bonded and insured. You don't want a lawsuit because one fell and broke their leg. The road to hell is paved with good, helpful friends...

[funk]

Why does someone with only two kids, need to enlarge a home with 3br and 3ba's and almost 2000 sqft of living space? The money and resources you will spend would go a very long way in getting your home set-up towards self-sufficiency.

Just play devils advocate.

[gnome]

We just moved into a 1000sf 2br/2bath. I use 1br/bath for an office. Wife and I live in the other 800 or so sf - which is OK except there is very little storage space.

The east side of the house has a sturdy trellis and a concrete patio. We are going to put up a clear corrugated polycarbonate roof.

Still torn on how to enclose the walls. We want to be able to open it up in summer and close it for solar gain in winter. Maybe use the polycarb to make some sort of sliding doors or maybe just poly sheets that can be rolled up.

• add about 500sf under roof
• solar gain in winter - should be able to eliminate our heating bill almost entirely
• collect about 3,000 gallons of rain per year
• place for veggie starts and for overwintering tender tropicals
• Laundry Room where we can sun-dry clothes without the risk of hummingbird poop
• storage space
• sunny, green chill-out space in winter

The kicker is it will cost maybe $2,000 max. No permits, no contractor, no foundation, no electrical, but multi-functional living space.

[Strawboss]

[chris_is_here]

I would recommend against adding on, it is not usually good economics.....unless you find yourself in a real estate bull market, it will be very difficult to break even on the investment. And, I don't foresee any housing bull markets anytime soon, unless the chinks start coming over here en masse.

But, if you must do this, do NOT EVER hire a friend to do the work - this is a formula for disaster, and I can personally attest to this.

Do your homework, get references, and hire the best guy you can find for the money. Lastly, the quality of the subcontractors is critical to the success of an addition. If you have the option, use your own subcontractors and make sure YOU are paying them, not the GC.

Best of luck to you.

[RUSH2112]

Rule#1

If your doing it yourself, educate yourself on the difference between a load bearing wall and a non-load bearing wall.

Rule#2

If you have to do it yourself, always ask for a professional opinion, regardless of cost.

[TomD]

If you do it on you own and you have never even witnessed an addition come out of the ground, you will need help. If your new acquaintance and and will be your advisor, good luck. Without a reasonably accurate budget, you'll be working blind even if you have someone who knows how to do it physically. NEVER pay anyone in advance or completely until everything is finished, including the punchlist. Always keep at least some ahead with the money.

Disaster lurks for totally unknowledgeable people who strap on an addition project. Unless you can find a competent and honest adviser, I'd recommend against doing it yourself, too many pitfalls. Even with a contractor, you need to get lots of bids and vet the hell out of anyone before going to contract. Don't do business with anyone who insists on upfront money. Lots of sharks in those waters too.

I was in the industry, though on a slightly larger level, for 30 something years. If you get to the position where you need to do something, send me a PM.

[JFN111]

One way you could approach the addition is to have a professional come in and do the framing. Getting the addition to blend in with the existing roof-line and properly removing the outside wall can be tricky.
You can then save money by doing your own sheet rocking and trim work.

[ttazzman]

As stated before

#1 learn your infrastructure .......gas..water..sewer..electric..fire protection...telephone...roads...tv...internet access....zoning...ordinances..encumbrances..coven ants..etc<<<dont take any one of these for granted

#2 talk to and know your governing authorities


you have received some good advice on construction......i especially like the hire a professional to do the Shell building and you do the infill/finish work