From Concept to Construction ™

Tips to Ensure Your Home Addition Blends Seamlessly with Your Home

June 29, 2023

Home additions are an excellent investment that allows you to enjoy additional space. While this is the case, home extensions are complicated jobs, whether you’re extending outwards or upwards. For the perfect look, besides hiring experienced home addition contractors, you need to ensure that the new addition blends seamlessly with your home. To make this possible, you need to consider several tips that include: Start with the foundation Every home addition has a solid foundation, and the floor and roof lines or elevations must match. It’s also critical to ensure that the foundation is deep enough to be strong. The depth requirements vary by region and are determined by the local weather. If you build over the frost depth, the addition will shift independently of the main structure when the ground freezes and thaws, potentially causing foundation concerns. Furthermore, you must ensure that the foundation is adequate for the soil type in your area. Again, failure to do so may result in shifting issues for your new addition in the long run. You must ensure that your home additions match the foundation utilized in the original structure. If your current home is built on a slab foundation, the addition should also be built on a slab foundation. Any addition should also be if your original foundation is a crawlspace foundation. The addition will be robust, level, and seamless from the ground up. Consider the exterior finishes. Begin from the top and work your way down. Every feature on the existing home, including trim, windows, siding, doors, hardware, and paint colors, should be replicated in your room addition. Matching exact finishes in a historical home might be more difficult, especially if some elements are no longer in production. Home additions do not have to match exactly, but they should always be complementary in the following ways: The roof—Your addition’s roof should closely resemble the rooflines of your current home. This includes the pitch, soffit type, overhang, eave depth, rafter size, and spacing. It also implies that you may need to contemplate a completely new roof. Older shingles on an existing home may be discolored, making matching shingle tints on a room addition difficult. If your roof is beginning to show signs of wear, now might be a good time to replace it entirely. Siding and other external accents—Keep an eye out for siding colors. If your current siding has faded, the new siding on the home addition will not match. Using the same color and trim style can help tie the two structures together. Brick and stone exteriors can be more difficult to repair, but there are inventive methods to mix and match finishes that still look attractive and flow well together. The idea is to select complementary colors and finishes. Windows and Doors—It’s getting easier to obtain custom windows and doors that fulfill current Energy Star ratings and building requirements while also being available in historical measurements and designs that may match those on your old home. At the same time, precise matching is sometimes simple to locate, so consider designs that complement the existing style. Consider replacing outdated products with […]

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What to Consider When Building a Home Addition

June 22, 2021

Home additions are an excellent way to add extra space to your house, so you need to be cautious when building them, so you get ideal results. To help you out, here is what to consider when building a home addition as given by home addition builder: Your budget This is vital, and almost everything pegs on it. As you are budgeting for the project, you should know that home additions are expensive, so you need to be fully prepared for the project and ensure you have a large enough budget. Of course, your budget should match the addition you are looking to build. If you want to add a room outwards, you have to add a room at the ground level, so you will need to factor in the site work, excavation, new foundations, new exterior walls, new roofing and plenty of other things. If you want to add a second story to the house, you will need to strengthen the existing foundation or bear the walls to support the added weight of another story. You should note that the costs don’t stop after you have added the extra room. Remember that the larger the size of the house, the higher the expenses. This means that the lighting expenses will go up, heating, cooling, maintenance costs, and even sometimes, your property taxes will also shoot, so you need to budget for this too. Home addition design We all have different tastes, and for you to be proud of your new addition, the addition should match your design. When you are building a new house or remodeling the entire house, you have more freedom when it comes to styling it according to your tastes and preferences, but when you are adding a new unit, you don’t have the luxury, and you have to work with the existing style. You should work with an experienced professional to help you come up with a design that complements the already existing design and, at the same time, meets your tastes and preferences. Remember, you need to use the same materials, aesthetics, colors, and other features as the existing house for you to blend your new addition to the existing house. As you are coming up with the design and how everything comes together, pay attention to the roofing, tile, windows, flooring, doors, trim, and paint colors. If your house is old, you can have a more modern design, but you need to ensure that the above-mentioned aspects come together. The most important thing to do is ensure that the new house addition doesn’t feel like it’s tacked on. Local planning and zoning regulations The other thing you should consider is the local planning and zoning regulations. Each municipality has its regulations regarding height limitations, setback requirements, and floor area ratios that give guidelines on how high and how big the house can be. Remember, you risk a heavy fine or even the house torn down if you build your new addition without considering the regulations. To avoid this, take your time, visit your local municipal offices, and familiarize yourself with the regulations. If […]

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