We’re considering a house that will need a bit of construction done to be suitable (to us). Since any work would be far off, and even then it’s only one factor in the decision-making process, we don’t feel right calling in a contractor to give us an estimate. But we still need an idea — even a rough idea — of what kind of costs we’re looking at. I’m sure lots of people are in similar situations, and am hoping the loose nature of IMHO will give us some food for thought.
We’ve heard about $100-$150 per square foot, but have no idea if that’s a reasonable number to work with, or if it’s applicable to what we want to do (basically add an addition to house a staircase).
Here’s a description of what we’re looking at:
It’s a two story home in Staten Island, New York.
On the ground floor, there is an existing exterior door.
On the second floor, there is an exterior door that opens onto an un-enclosed terrace. The terrace runs the length of the wall. The entire interior terrace wall (i.e., the exterior wall of the upper floor) is made up of about three feet of brick (almost wainscoting-like) at the floor; to the ceiling is glass. If we took all the windows out of the second floor, we could walk from the living room onto the terrace at any point along the wall (save stepping over the bricks).
The second floor’s door is directly above the first floor’s.
The goal is to connect the first and second floor with a staircase that replaces/takes up the same basic footprint as the terrace. As far as we can tell it will require:[ul][li]moving the second floor door to the opposite end of the wall; []building a staircase; []enclosing the staircase/insulating it; [] putting footings/foundation down; []building a vestibule/entryway on the ground floor; and installing a new exterior door on the ground floor. [/ul][/li]
Since both floors already have an exterior door, we’re hoping this isn’t going to require significant work to the house itself (i.e., no knocking through walls). There is the movement of the door, but since the brick ledge isn’t substantial, we don’t think (hah!) it has any structural component.
So, barring wasting some poor contractor’s time, how the heck do we think of this job?