Thinking I wanna build a suite over the garage. The addition would be around 400sf and include a studio/large bedroom & full bath. Access to the rest of the house would be a half staircase directly to the living room or dining room.
Other houses in the neighborhood have had this addition done, but the current owners bought the houses that way and don’t know who did the work.
Where do I start with this? I’m assuming I would first want to buy some time with a residential architect in the area, then try & find a general contractor who might not do too bad of a job executing the plans?
One place to start, at the very tippy top, is to contact your city’s building department and get a list of registered contractors from them. They’ll have a list of everyone who is licensed to work in your location.
Also verify that the city zoning in your area allows this.
And ask the architect about making this something that could in the future be made into a separate apartment. Add some kitchen facilities, an outside stairway entrance (probably required to have 2 exits anyway), a lockable door into the rest of the house, etc. Might not cost much to do that now, but it certainly gives you options for the future.
Make sure the work is done by a licensed contractor and that the work is actually inspected by an actual inspector from the city zoning office. Sometimes unethical contractors will skip this step and not get the work inspected because it adds cost and time (and finds their shoddy work). The contractor will need to get permits from the city for this work. If you interview contractors and they say permits and inspections are not needed, don’t hire them.
Yes, find an architect, not only to design the addition, write the scope of work, and negotiate the often confusing municipal codes, but also to oversee the general contractor.
Make sure that you sign off on every aspect of the work: design, material choices and finishes prior to the start of work. Try to make sure that you are certain about all of it, as change orders will cost you dearly. Require a schedule of work up front. If there are delays in the work, make sure they tell you why and when work will resume. Agree as to when payments to the contractor will be made, and make sure you stipulate that the final payment will be made only when city/county inspectors have signed off on the work and that you are completely satisfied with the final product. NEVER TELL A CONTRACTOR THAT YOU ARE NOT IN ANY HURRY FOR THE WORK TO BE DONE.
For the latter item, do a walk-through of the addition with the contractor and the architect and note all items that need attention, even if it’s just a small chip in the paint. Make sure the contractor demonstrates that everything operates as it should: lights, outlets, faucets, etc.
Chefguy: former construction manager, quality control manager, and contract administrator.
Chefguy is correct. you need an architect to do the design work, assuming the work is allowed by the authorities of course.
I remember one episode of Mike Holmes where the previous owners had their attic turned into living space. Floor was collapsing and doing all sorts of bad things. They ended up stripping the roof and all the work right off the house and installing trusses and all the other parts required for the new load. May have included stronger supporting walls as well.
Could you use a structural engineer instead of an architect? I did 2 home remodels (different areas of the same house) and used an engineer to draw up plans suitable both for the building department and for the contractor to work from.
Both projects were within the existing frame of the building, so maybe that makes a difference. And I don’t actually know if I saved any money (that was my object) because I didn’t get a quote from an architect.
Your garage probably has a simple slab floor that was not designed to support a second story. More likely than not, you will need to do some re-enforcement of the foundation to support the 2nd story. The architect can draw up plans, making sure you are complying with the municipal code in your area. Some architects will do the structural drawings too, but you might have to hire a structural engineer to do those separately. The architect can take care of that for you, if you want.
I would not have the architect supervise the construction, unless you feel like paying for it. Hire a General Contractor with a good reputation, and you can supervise him or her yourself.
In our neighborhood there are several homes that have had the type of work done that I envision the OP suggesting. 2-story houses with basements, with the garage on a slab essentially abutting the 2-story living area. I’ve seen a couple of those done, and did not notice any additional support being built into the garage walls/foundation. The houses in our area were built in the late 50s and are VERY solid, so yes, definitely have an engineer tell you whether your garage can support the load.
One thing that is obvious from the outside is that some of the additions look like seamless parts of the house, while others look like big cheap boxes stuck on top of the garage. To attain the former, you will definitely need an architect, or a quality design/build firm. May also require replacing/reworking the entire roof, reworking the siding/cladding, etc.
Also, assuming your garage is unheated, make sure the floor is well insulated. We have a split-level, with the master over the garage. It is the coldest room in the house. In addition to the floor being cold, it is the furthest room from the furnace.
As others have posted contact your city’s building department first. The other side of this is do everything they say. You cannot fight them, so don’t even try.
[QUOTE=Dinsdale;20756415Also, assuming your garage is unheated, make sure the floor is well insulated. We have a split-level, with the master over the garage. It is the coldest room in the house. In addition to the floor being cold, it is the furthest room from the furnace.[/QUOTE]
Very good advise. The building code will probably require insulation, but you can always up the R-value for better results. Insulation is cheap. Just be sure to finish off the garage ceiling once you do add it-- you don’t want to be breathing that stuff!
Agree with the first para, not necessarily the second. Unless one has a working knowledge of the trades, it’s likely that things will be missed. Even good contractors can have a sub who screws up.
Roderick Femm Re: a structural engineer. A lot of architects work with engineers and even share offices with them. The architect’s drawings have to pass muster with the city code people, so he will likely consult with engineers on them.
Right now the garage ceiling is insulated (blown in, to 1971 standards) and drywalled, and the walls are unfinished I would like a warm place to work on the cars so part of the plan is to gut the garage and refinish it after the addition is done. I’m planning good insulation on the walls and including some soundproofing & insulation for the floor/ceiling.
If this is the case I might just start with the engineer. The house has a foundation issue I should address before doing the work–house is “broken” such that the north half moves up about an inch or two during times of severe cold and then resettles in the spring. It’s disquieting but it’s been that way for the better part of half a century so I’m not too excited. The garage is on the south half of the house, which is quite stable. But still, straws and camels considered, I think the engineer should assess the sitch before the hammers start swinging.
And although I am generally a situationally ethical scofflaw I actually respect city hall & consider building codes to represent a minimum standard.
Codes are always minimum acceptable standard. Local building codes may exceed national codes, but may not be less than national codes. The best reason to follow code and get the city to inspect and sign off on the work is that when you sell the house, any buyer with a brain is going to check to see if work was done and and then check to see if permits were issued and closed out. I wouldn’t buy a house unless that was done.
The engineer usually needs a set of architectural plans to work from.
Chefguy: It’s going to cost quite a bit to pay the architect to supervise the job, and how often is he/she going to be on the site? I work with a lot of architects, and I wouldn’t have them supervise a job unless there were some tricky architectural elements that need paying attention to.
That can certainly be the case. I worked with a lot of A&E firms in my working life, and some were better than others. Our contracts with them always included site visits and design changes, but on large projects we hired our own quality control folks for the day-to-day. The arky we had for our laundry room build showed up prior to city inspectors coming on the site to make sure things were being done properly, but my wife and I both have facilities management and QC on our resumes, so it wasn’t critical that he be there. We mainly kept him on in case a change order came up, so he could deal with the bureaucracy.
What local resources do you have to find people to do the work? Is there any sort of Facebook or NextDoor page for your neighborhood? You can use websites dedicated to finding contractors, like AngiesList and HomeAdvisor, but you have to still do lots of research on anyone you like. Google the name of the company or person doing the work to see if any red flags come up. Sometimes you may find complaints that people have made about their work. Go with someone who has deep ties to the community. You don’t want a fly-by-night who goes from city to city or will close up shop abruptly.
I think I would recommend just getting someone to do just the rough building rather than completely finish it out. That is, just have them get the drywall up but not painted, the underfloor complete, etc. Then you find people to do the painting, flooring, etc.
If it were up to me, they’d just frame the external walls and stick the roof on it, and I’d do the rest. But The Missus would like to inhabit the place sometime in this century.
If you’ve never done finish work, you don’t want to cut your teeth on your own house.
Let the tile experts do the tile, let the cabinet guys do the cabinets, and if you really feel you must do some of the painting, let a pro do the trim and the doors, and you do the walls. You’ll still be doing a lot of work even if your contractor does everything. Someone has to pick out all the finishes and there will be lots of on-the-spot decisions that will need to be made.
