‘‘Second floor additions"

Q.Does adding a Second Floor Addition make real
estate sense?

A.Second-floor additions can be a wonderful option for those
people with a house they love, but with no room to add out to
accommodate growing space needs. Even if you have the space
for a first-floor addition, adding up may still make sense if you're
looking to maximize views or perhaps provide some additional
privacy for a home office or and additional rental space.

Keeping it Legal
First and foremost, you need to figure out if a second-floor
addition is going to be allowed, and if the addition can be used
for the purpose you intend. Height restrictions are the first thing
to check. Certain areas may also be height-restricted due to their
scenic location and the impact a tall addition may have on
surrounding views.
Your final question while at the planning department is to verify if
the intended use of the addition will be allowed. If you have a
single-family dwelling and the addition will simply be an extension
of that use, there shouldn't be a problem. But if the addition will
be a separate rental space, that may not be allowed in certain
zones. There may also be some restrictions if the addition will be
used for commercial or home occupation purposes and you will
have clients or customers visiting you there.
Some Building Considerations
Second-floor room additions may seem fairly straightforward at
first glance, but in actuality they can often be far more tricky than
adding out. Ground-floor additions can be almost completely
constructed before the walls between the old rooms and the new
ones are knocked out, which greatly simplifies weather protection.
With an upper-floor addition, however, the roof needs to be
removed at some point fairly early in the construction process,
and the structure left open to the weather during the first framing
phases. For that reason, speed, good job planning and coordination,
temporary weather protection, and a close eye on the
weather are all critical considerations.
Another very important consideration is the size of your home's
existing foundation. One-story and two-story houses utilize
different sizes of foundations and footings because of the greater
amount of load that the foundation on a two-story house must
be able to bear. If the existing foundation is undersized for a
second story, it might be necessary to reinforce it.
Yet another important framing consideration is the size of the
existing ceiling joists. In a one-story house, the ceiling joists need
only be large enough to support the finish ceiling material that is
attached to them, and they're usually too small to handle the
additional load imposed on them if they must act as floor joists for
the second floor. Adding new floor joists of the proper size next to
the old ceiling joists usually solves this problem, but you'll want to
take a close look at the existing framing to make sure this is
possible.
All these issues probably sound like insurmountable tasks, but with
a little help from an experienced contractor, that new living space
can certainly become a reality.