More Room to Grow

When your family grows larger, a child returns home from college or if you just want to enjoy some additional amenities, it may be time for a room addition.

At Xquisite Installations, Inc, we understand how to build a wide variety of room addition types, whether on the ground level or an upper story. We also know how to keep you compliant with all zoning and permitting laws. Additionally, we have covered the full spectrum of trades involved into putting on an addition to your home. This includes plumbing and electrical work and we are careful to fully integrate your addition to the structure and style of the original building.

Is an Addition My Best Option?

We are fully equipped with the tools and expertise to construct any new room you would like, whether a bathroom, above-garage bedroom, guest house and more. However, it is always worth exploring your other options first, since a room addition can cost twice as much as remodeling or renovating an existing room.

For example, finishing an unfinished basement or attic, re-purposing a little-used spare bedroom, or removing walls are ways to make fuller use of your existing floor space. However, when there just isn’t enough space available, a room addition of some kind is the only option.

Building Your Room Addition

Once you decide to have an addition and which room you are looking to add, the next major consideration is the location. At Xquisite Installations, we have deep experience with additions and can help you weigh the pros and cons of locating your addition.

The design phase can then begin and we will make a blueprint and a 3D model so you can envision what the completed addition will look like. Your home will also be safe during the demolition stage and we will handle all aspects of new construction, from framing and drywall to insulation and paint.

We take special care in making sure that the new and old roof lines blend into one another. Secondly, we will make sure that both the exterior and interior of the addition complement your original house. Lastly, its important that your HVAC systems, wiring and plumbing pipes all properly interconnect. Xquisite Installations also makes sure that we minimize any disruption to your daily activities the construction project might bring with it so you can continue to comfortably live at home while the addition is underway.

Building Out vs Building Up

One of the most critical decisions to be made when putting on a new addition is whether to expand horizontally or vertically. Ground-level additions are by far the most common, but this is largely because there are so many one-story homes. Also, certain rooms (like a kitchen) virtually have to be built on ground level.

Building Out

If adding one or more rooms at ground level, the first task is to backhoe the area of your yard where the new room(s) will lay. Your foundations/slab must then be extended, unless it is a small enough addition to do a “bump out” (which needs no foundation work).

Next, the walls and roof are installed so that the new room is now connected to the original building but with the old exterior wall still between them. At that point, the old wall is removed. Leaving it up until later in the process prevents your home’s interior from getting exposed to the weather and minimizes any possible disruptions. At that point, we can finish both the interior and exterior.

Building out is often the best option, but it also eats up your yard space, and its location may be restricted by zoning “setback” laws. Usually, your building must be 7.5 feet from the sides of your property limits, 15 feet from its back, and 20 feet from the front, but this varies from locality to locality. Also, there may be limits on what percentage of your lot can be covered (home and pavements) and how close you can build to wetlands.

Building Up

Building up, on the other hand, saves lots of space but often requires strengthening of the foundation/underlying walls to increase weight-bearing capacity. The ceiling below an upper-story addition may also have to be temporarily torn up to bolster the addition’s floor and to feed in wiring and pipes. Building up can also run into zoning restrictions that limit the height of houses, but this is not usually a problem. Finally, if you add a second story to a one-story house, don’t forget that a new stairwell will be needed, which will take up some of your lower-story living space.

Contact us today for all your room addition and renovation needs!