What You Need to Consider for Your Home’s Addition

By investing in a home addition, you can purposefully expand your living space and bring your vision to life. As you begin defining your budget, dreaming up your ideal design, and moving through the build, there are a handful of important things to consider. With these in mind, you can anticipate just what to expect and hire the right professionals for the job at hand. Here’s what you need to know.

Property Taxes

When defining your home addition budget, it’s important to remember that your property taxes could increase as a result of this project. These taxes are determined by your home value and large-scale additions can raise that value by $40,000 or more. For every $10,000 increase, expect to see your annual property taxes jump by at least $500, although the exact amount largely depends on the local tax rate.  

Foundation

The foundation accounts for up to 15% of the total cost of your home addition project, and for good reason. This important element serves as the base of your build, providing the ideal level of stability and support. The type of foundation you need and its overall cost depends on what the rest of your home uses. The most common types for additions include pole footings, slabs, and crawlspaces.

Electrical and Plumbing

Your builders will likely need to extend your electrical and plumbing connections into the home addition space. If you have a vented HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) system, they will also need to extend the vents and confirm your furnace and air conditioning unit can handle the increased load. Since these fixtures are hard to change once in place, make sure that you’re satisfied with the proposed position of the light fixtures, electrical outlets, and vents before those sub-contractors leave for another job and the dry wall begins.

Flow of Your Home

A home addition is a huge renovation project that can either disrupt or improve the flow of your living space. For the best results, the rooms should naturally flow into one another as should the building materials. You can eliminate surprises that many homeowners experience using our design-build process, the service of our team throughout your build to maintain a level of project management and communication between you and your contractor. For example, the paint, flooring, and trim should never abruptly begin and end. You can get a perfect match or go with a pleasing contrast by comparing samples to the original materials in natural and artificial light. This is something we can watch out for and make sure your project has smooth transitions.

Local Ordinances

While planning your home addition, you have to keep local ordinances in mind, like setback restrictions, easements, and permit requirements. With a skilled architect and builder by your side, you can create the perfect design that works with your property characteristics, goals and local codes. During that process, those experts will also look up the location of your utility lines before finalizing your plans.

Ready to Start Your Home Addition? Partner with a Skilled Architect

Although this all might seem like a lot to think about, taking the time to consider all the different aspects of your home addition can help the project go smoothly. You can also partner with our full-service architecture and construction firm at Drafting Cafe Architects to streamline the process from start to finish. Get a free estimate and have us save you a spot on our schedule.