Adding a second story addition

[mefordis]

We have a ranch and are looking into adding a second story addition, which will turn our ranch into a colonial. Anyone do this? Are you happy with the decision? Did it run into more $$ than you anticipated? Time? Anything else you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.

We'd like to do this to make our current house closer to our dream house without having to move.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I think first you have to make sure your ranch can support a second story. A friend of mine bought a ranch with that intention but found out afterward it couldn’t, so they had to move. We built on, not up, a couple of times, and it always ended up costing more than anticipated, lol. Good luck with it!

 

[neverlandsky]

City & City premits are the biggest. You need a contractor you can trust and have an extremely close relationship with. Once walls are open that means things have to be brought up to current building codes. Whatever your budget is take that amount and add 3 times that. It's a lot easier adding on to the ranch house single level vs. going vertical and adding an entire second story/attic space/etc. Timeline you're looking at anywhere from 12 months to 18 months. GL.

 

[melk]

We did this. We’re very happy with it. We knew we wanted to expand and building up was the cheapest option since we wouldn’t be needing to pour a foundation. But know that it’s always more expensive and will take more time than you’ve planned.

One piece of advice is to get an architect to work with and when they do the plans go over them, have them do the revisions then go over them again for any last revisions. We ended up changing a couple of things when the contractor was doing the work and it was a pain. Would have been better if we had changed it on the architect‘s plans in the beginning.

 

[tvguy]

We did this. We’re very happy with it. We knew we wanted to expand and building up was the cheapest option since we wouldn’t be needing to pour a foundation. But know that it’s always more expensive and will take more time than you’ve planned.

One piece of advice is to get an architect to work with and when they do the plans go over them, have them do the revisions then go over them again for any last revisions. We ended up changing a couple of things when the contractor was doing the work and it was a pain. Would have been better if we had changed it on the architect‘s plans in the beginning.

I think it depends on the design of your current home. The cost of the steel beams we would have needed to add the same square footage going up would have cost as much as the entire addition going out cost us if we just went out. Foundations aren't expensive at all. For a 20 x 20 addition it would be in the neighborhood of $3,000. https://www.barndominiumlife.com/how-much-does-a-20x20-concrete-slab-cost/

 

[Dan Murphy]

We've never done any additions, but know others who have. It always is more costly than originally planned for, always longer to complete than anticipated. Also, if adding a second story to a ranch, do a of design consulting so as to not wind up with a 'new' home looking like two boxes stacked on top of each other. I have seen many like that over the years.

Good luck, best wishes on your new venture.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When was your home built?

Probably 5+ years ago in-laws were looking to expand (not necessarily up but out) the grandmother's existing home but it was built in the 1940s. It was going to cost a lot more to update to current codes than it was to bulldoze the house completely and start from scratch.

Code-wise once they opened up any wall the entire house had to be updated. Some things had already been updated over the years like a switch from knob and tube wiring but as a whole things were well out of date by the time they were looking to add square footage.

I do agree on the load-bearing aspect.

As with a few other places in the U.S. our area has pockets in the last several years where people are purchasing older homes (built often in the 1960s-1990s) tearing them down and rebuilding new.

 

[mefordis]

I think first you have to make sure your ranch can support a second story. A friend of mine bought a ranch with that intention but found out afterward it couldn’t, so they had to move. We built on, not up, a couple of times, and it always ended up costing more than anticipated, lol. Good luck with it!

We will find out. At least if it doesn't it will put to rest this fantasy and I can stop thinking about it.

 

[mefordis]

When was your home built?

Probably 5+ years ago in-laws were looking to expand (not necessarily up but out) the grandmother's existing home but it was built in the 1940s. It was going to cost a lot more to update to current codes than it was to bulldoze the house completely and start from scratch.

Code-wise once they opened up any wall the entire house had to be updated. Some things had already been updated over the years like a switch from knob and tube wiring but as a whole things were well out of date by the time they were looking to add square footage.

I do agree on the load-bearing aspect.

As with a few other places in the U.S. our area has pockets in the last several years where people are purchasing older homes (built often in the 1960s-1990s) tearing them down and rebuilding new.

House built in 1960. We have several houses built at the same time, like ours, that have been remodeled with additions. One house did have to completely rebuild after it was discovered during the remodel it would be easier to tear down.

 

[moniqueand2]

Also factor in where you would live during the remodel and the cost.

 

[tvguy]

Also factor in where you would live during the remodel and the cost.

With good planning you may not have to leave your house. We did a top to bottom remodel 2013-14 in stages. Guest bathroom first. Master bathroom next. Kitchen next, moved the microwave on top of the washer in the laundry room and cooked there for 7 weeks. Did the doors next, no impact on our living in the house. Did all the flooring next room by room. We did have to sleep in the extra bedroom for a few nights. But we never had to leave.

 

[jdb in AZ]

You mentioned additions to other homes in the neighborhood, but has anyone added a 2nd story? Our neighborhood is all ranch style and when one of the neighbors wanted to add a 2nd story (as part of a reno after a fire) a hearing was held and so many neighbors objected that the owners rebuilt the house one story, rented it out, and are living elsewhere.

 

[mefordis]

You mentioned additions to other homes in the neighborhood, but has anyone added a 2nd story? Our neighborhood is all ranch style and when one of the neighbors wanted to add a 2nd story (as part of a reno after a fire) a hearing was held and so many neighbors objected that the owners rebuilt the house one story, rented it out, and are living elsewhere.

Yes, we do have some people in our town making their 1960's ranches two story. One added an addition on top of her garage, one split level on our street got gutted and added another story, and a few just tore down to the foundation and rebuilt.

 

[AgentMama]

Do you want to live on two floors? Will that age with you as you get older and stairs are harder to navigate?

 

[leebee]

Do you want to live on two floors? Will that age with you as you get older and stairs are harder to navigate?

This was my first thought! We have an old, 2 story house that is perfectly fine for us, although bigger than we now need. We'd love to stay here, but both bathrooms are on the second floor. We're starting to consider what that will mean in our later years- and ranch houses are becoming more and more attractive to us, hahaha! We're considering remodeling our downstairs, so the front living room (which we don't use) can become our bedroom, the dining room will be remodeled into a bathroom/laundry/storage closets, and we'll use some of the area of our family room as our eating area.

 

[firefly_ris]

Yes. We built a second story in 2013. Our home was built in 1963. The only thing we had to do in the basement was add an additional primary support wall right next to the existing one (we have a long support wall that runs down the center of the home), and that was just for extra peace of mind, didn't really require it. No steel beams or anything like that were needed. We gutted 2 first floor bedrooms and made that our master bedroom, then on the second story we made 3 bedrooms and a full bath, and so that is the kids' floor. The addition was 750sqft on top of the existing 1460sqft ranch, and one of our good friends was the contractor. He did the stairs, exterior structure, siding, windows and roof. We then completed the full interior on our own. The part he did for us cost us $42k and we paid an architect $250 for the drawings. We did the rest ourselves including the walls, HVAC, plumbing, electric and flooring but we did it over a period of about 7 months, and I guess if I had to do a really broad guesstimate we probably did all that for about $20k.

Of course materials are way up now, and we didn't do really expensive finish work up there (less expensive wall to wall carpeting, very basic bath vanities that I knew my 3 small kids would beat up anyway, etc). And costs are going to depend on where you live, who you hire, and all that stuff. This home is in semi-rural Western New York.

I don't regret it at all, all 3 of my kids have their own room and all of their things (except toys which go in basement play room) are on their own floor. The only thing I don't like about the addition is where we had to place the stairs -- stairwell is at the end of the hallway going towards the garage, there was no way to really do an open staircase or something near the primary living area of the house because we would have lost our home office on the first floor.

 

[jo-jo]

This was my first thought! We have an old, 2 story house that is perfectly fine for us, although bigger than we now need. We'd love to stay here, but both bathrooms are on the second floor. We're starting to consider what that will mean in our later years- and ranch houses are becoming more and more attractive to us, hahaha! We're considering remodeling our downstairs, so the front living room (which we don't use) can become our bedroom, the dining room will be remodeled into a bathroom/laundry/storage closets, and we'll use some of the area of our family room as our eating area.

We have a half bath on first floor by family room. Part thinking of seeing if we could add a shower to it and turn dining room into bedroom. Or leave house as it is and add one of those stair chair things. We'll probably decided 10 years after we really needed it, use it for a year and then move. We are slower than snails.

 

[mefordis]

Yes. We built a second story in 2013. Our home was built in 1963. The only thing we had to do in the basement was add an additional primary support wall right next to the existing one (we have a long support wall that runs down the center of the home), and that was just for extra peace of mind, didn't really require it. No steel beams or anything like that were needed. We gutted 2 first floor bedrooms and made that our master bedroom, then on the second story we made 3 bedrooms and a full bath, and so that is the kids' floor. The addition was 750sqft on top of the existing 1460sqft ranch, and one of our good friends was the contractor. He did the stairs, exterior structure, siding, windows and roof. We then completed the full interior on our own. The part he did for us cost us $42k and we paid an architect $250 for the drawings. We did the rest ourselves including the walls, HVAC, plumbing, electric and flooring but we did it over a period of about 7 months, and I guess if I had to do a really broad guesstimate we probably did all that for about $20k.

Of course materials are way up now, and we didn't do really expensive finish work up there (less expensive wall to wall carpeting, very basic bath vanities that I knew my 3 small kids would beat up anyway, etc). And costs are going to depend on where you live, who you hire, and all that stuff. This home is in semi-rural Western New York.

I don't regret it at all, all 3 of my kids have their own room and all of their things (except toys which go in basement play room) are on their own floor. The only thing I don't like about the addition is where we had to place the stairs -- stairwell is at the end of the hallway going towards the garage, there was no way to really do an open staircase or something near the primary living area of the house because we would have lost our home office on the first floor.

Thank you so much for your experience! I have no idea what to expect in terms of cost. I want to take out my dd's room that is at the end of the entrance hallway, put the stairs there. I'd like to open up the ceiling on the entrance so we have a nice high ceiling. I like the idea of making the 2 remaining downstairs bedrooms into a large master w/bathroom and walk in closet and putting 3 bedrooms upstairs along with 2 bathrooms. Now we are running into some serious money, I suppose.

 

[mefordis]

Got our first estimate from a contractor: 400k !!! About 100k more than we wanted to spend.

 

[firefly_ris]

Got our first estimate from a contractor: 400k !!! About 100k more than we wanted to spend.

I want to say I'm shocked, but I was just recently talking to my husband's cousin who was floating the idea of pushing out a wall on their 2nd story to slighly (I think by maybe 250sq ft) add some space that extended over their garage so they could make their kids bathroom a little bigger and they wanted just shy of $200k to do it; my jaw dropped. I know it's been a while since we did ours but, holy moly.