What steps should I take if I am planning a home addition?
Whether you are thinking of adding a sunroom, a formal dining-room, home office or any other type of home extension, taking the time for careful planning is essential. Doing so will save you money and frustration in the long run. It can also help make you aware of any possible problems you might run into along the way and help you to plan contingencies.
While you will find that there are many decisions that will have to be made, we can divide the planning process into three large and important steps.
Step One: Determine your property lines
Before a single chuck of dirt can be dug from the ground – or even before you spend time creating a floor plan, it is important to determine where your property lines are. It is important to make sure you know exactly what property belongs to you, your neighbours and the municipality. This will let you know how much space you have to work with when designing a floor plan.
How do you know where your property line is? When you purchased your home, you should have received a site plan from your lawyer. If you cannot locate this document, you may get one from the city. The site plan will also include other important information such as where utilities are buried.
Step Two: Designing your floor plan
Now that you know how much space you have to work with, you can begin planning your home addition’s floor plan. Not only do you want to make sure that you work within the existing space, but you’ll want to plan something that works well with your existing home’s floorplan.
While you are certainly not expected to come up with a design yourself (one of our designers will help you), you should consider how you will be using the space. What areas of your home will people have to walk through to get to the space and will it need its own entrance from the outside? Consider how you will want the addition will look both from inside and from the exterior.
Step Three: Draft the plans
The last step in planning a home addition is to actually draft plans and decide on materials. It is a good idea to consider second and third choices for materials as well as sometimes your first choice may be too expensive or be unavailable.
Determine what your must-have design choices are and what areas you’d be willing to compromise on if you had to. Use your home renovator and designer as resources as they can provide valuable insight for you.
If you are looking for assistance with any of the steps involved in planning a home addition, The Reno Pros would be happy to help you out. Call us today to schedule a consultation.