convert 1 1/2 story to full two?

BlueBSH

We are looking at options to add space to our house... right now its a one and a half stroy house... very simple rectangle design with a shed roof in the back to give room for the second story in the back...

option 1 was to build outwards (we have the room thats for sure)... but that would require a whole basement, digging, building up a story and a half... etc... seems very expensive just to add one room upstairs...


option two was to take the half second story and convert it into a full two story right now the front is vaulted ceiling, that would go and turn into a floor for additional rooms... we could add another 600+ sq ft doing this at least 3 12x12 rooms plus a good big of extra space....

which sounds more expensive to you without getting into the specifics of it? just imagin a house that is about 33 ft wide and 55 ft long rectangle... that's about what it would look like... it seems like all it would be since its already designed for the load of two stories would be to take off the existing roof... reframe the outside walls where it's not 2 story already, lay the decking for the floor where it is vaulted now and put a new roof on the top (plus all the finishing and siding work)...

so am I crazy for thinking conversion two a full two stories is the better way?

windowguy

adding 2nd floor is always cheaper than adding footprint. digging foundation is expensive.. i was once told you get 2X more footage for the same price of adding footprint/foundation.

BlueBSH

That's what I was thinking... because our foundation was made for a full two stories by the spec for it... they just didn't build it a full two stories so its pretty much finish the other half and put a new roof on

flyboy2610

Plus, when you add the second story, you can recreate your present "second story" layout on the "third story" and have even MORE room!

BlueBSH

That might be too much space for me *lol* right now our "half" story is 1,105 sq ft... all I need is another bedroom and an office space