Family room addition help

[Jeff Heil]

We are finalizing the design of a family room addition to the back of our 5 year old home. With son #1 here and son/daughter #2 also in the plans we are looking for a little more room and don't want to move.

We are speaking to several contractors about our proposed 24' x14' one story family room addition with a full basement beneath. (My new basement shop space!) We plan on making my current smaller shop space basement storage.

In my perfect world I would do all the work myself and have a fun project and keep costs down. In reality, I don't have the time and we will have a contractor finish the space to drywall and I will do the interior trim and built ins next to the gas fireplace.

Any contractors or home owners that have suggestions or a good way to estimate a cost? We are doing our best to make it affordable, no plumbing, not a 2 story addition that would require a complicated tie in to the exisiting roof, an exisiting sliding glass door space would be the access to the new space and reuse the door and windows on the addition.

I attached a floorplan. Anybody that has been through a home addition and has tips/ ideas that would be apprecitated. Any input as to estimated costs per square foot for the rough construction?

HEIL-fp main (2).pdf

[Jim Becker]

Best way for a rough estimate would be to find out what the average per square foot cost is in your particular area. A "good" real estate agent might be able to provide that figure or ask someone who works with contractors at the local full service lumber supply. An architect could likely also provide you with such a figure. Or maybe even Google...which from what I can see is up to about $150 per square foot in Madison WI for a single story structure, give or take...and don't trust that number! LOL For an addition with no major mechanicals, it should be a bit less.

FYI, our estimates for the addition here (2 story) were closer to $225-250 per. (Includes HVAC and other mechanicals due to size, etc) This area is like that. The actual number is going to be scary in the end...

[Jeff Heil]

We are hoping to do it for much less than your project, but it doesn't sound like we have as ambitious of an undertaking! We need to add some HVAC runs, but don't need any major upgrades and have plenty of room in the 200 amp panel to add the necessary circuits. We are still discussing hardwood vs carpet now and hardwood down the road when the kids are bigger and so are our incomes.

[Rob Russell]

Jeff,

Can you redo your floorplan with darker colors? It's REALLY difficult to read with things like the yellow and they don't print well either.

We added 1000 sq ft to our house. It's a 32x24 footprint off the back and blew up the roof over our family room for the rest of it. We easily hit $200/sq ft and probably ended up higher than that, but that included adding a bathroom and I basically let my wife pick whatever she wanted. We also resided the whole house, reroofed the whole house, etc.

Rob

[Jim Becker]

But, Rob, you could practically park a truck in that addition without it sagging even a quarter of an inch!!
-------

Jeff, going right to the hardwood might be a better choice in the long run. It's easier to keep clean for one thing. The cost differential between it and "excellent" carpet and padding including installation isn't huge...a few dollars per square foot...and doing it later an be a messy job. You also want that flooring under any built-ins you are planning. DAMHIKT! (it wasn't under the cabinets in our great room and that's going to cost me both money and a lot of hard work to match the flooring as things change) Always consider the future.

[Joe Pelonio]

My experience on even small remodel jobs is do the estimate then add 50%.
Many things, especially lumber can go up in price overnight.

[Rob Russell]

But, Rob, you could practically park a truck in that addition without it sagging even a quarter of an inch!!

Hey - you want a stiff floor when you're doing tile!

[Jim Becker]

Yea, the 30 cu yards of concrete under our addition could probably support a skyscraper...

Jeff, unless those doors and windows are very late model, consider getting new ones anyway. Getting them out may be difficult without damage, too. But your contractors will be able to tell you if they can reasonably expect efficient re-use as part of their due-diligence in creating your quote. If you make your addition as energy efficient as you can, it will help keep down your increases in "operating expenses".