Home addition?

[jessmarimba]

Sorry. I didn't mean to sound mad. There are financial reasons that permitting this work probably isn't a good idea. First off, no electrical or plumbing will be touched - that's already in the walls that aren't going to be rebuilt. To permit the room I would have to treat it as a new addition, which would mean bringing the 2 90-year-old walls with plumbing/electric that aren't going to be touched up to current code, which might not be possible without further demolition or may require a small fortune without adding any value to my house. Plus it's a pandora's box - I can't decide to permit it, then find out it would be next to impossible, and decide to do the work anyway without permits. The contractor is aware of the technicalities here and will allow me to choose, and I've chosen not to pay more than 10% of the cost of my house just to re-finish a 5x12 ft laundry room.

The cost of fixing the room - right now quoted at $7,500 - is less than an addition would cost b/c the roof, plumbing, electric are already in place - however, I felt it was a little high considering we're looking at two plain walls, a poured concrete floor, and recycling the windows/doors currently on the house. BUT, I have no experience with these sorts of costs and no one in my neighborhood pays for others to do work on their houses. My realtor doesn't even have any ideas (she thinks, after seeing the room, that I could do all of the repair work myself). I know costs will vary by location but it's hard to get a guess of what the going rate is around here.

[GLC1968]

$7500 does sound like a lot. Your realtor really has no one to suggest? That's weird. They usually have a list of preferred contractors because when things come up in inspections, it's helpful to have people you trust to fix the work. Do you know anyone who maybe used to flip houses for money? They usually have a list of preferred contractors as well (for emergencies).

Speaking of which - do you know any inspectors? They may know of a general contractor that they would trust. We used a plumber recommended by our home inspector when we moved in. We found our BEST contractor so far by hiring a company to do our siding. The contractor worked for them but was so knowledgeable and easy to work with that we hired him separately to do some other work.

You could also pick a name out of the yellow pages and then Google them to see what others are saying. Sometimes that works out well.

I found Angie's list to be useless for us. We are too far from a major city to get anyone to travel out to us and very few businesses local to us were listed. It was really disappointing.

[withm]

Mike Holmes

[jessmarimba]

My realtor is a sweetheart but she's a little...umm...out of touch with reality sometimes (I believe she has several cats named "fuzzy-wuzzy-monkey-butt"). But inspector - great idea - I really liked the guy who did my home inspection, he might know someone to help! I've just been stumped, I barely know people out here.

And thanks, withm, had never heard of him but now I have new shows to look for on netflix

[bmccasland]

Mike Holmes likes permits....

[Mr. Bloom]

Mike Holmes

. Shame you're not in Canada Jess

FWIW: I'm about to build a prefab storage building that is 10x12 (the size that doesn't require permits here ), no electric or plumbing...prefab material cost is 1,700 (which I thought was high)...installed adds about 700. Now, this doesn't involve insulation, demolition, etc., but it's very similar in profile. This implies to me that the contractor is trying to make about 5,000 for time/labor etc.

So, the question becomes "is it worth 5,000 to you and is this contractor bonafide and trustworthy?". If not, can you find bonafide and trustworthy for less? The problem is finding good contractors for small projects...and they usually want to make a minimum amount/job.

Having said that, you might try offering the contractor a "cost+ x% not to exceed $y" deal where you pay the materials direct and pay the contractor a 15% to 20% surcharge based on the material cost at completion. If the material cost are actually about 2,000+/- and he's not thinking through this very much, you may get it for ~half his original bid...although you really need to hold him accountable by going to the store and paying for materials directly

[sundial]

Jess, wanted to share another idea. Can you ask a clerk at the local building supply store for recommendations? Or through your plumber? I like to go to the guys who work alongside the builders for recommendations because they will tell you who to use, who to avoid, and whether they are available for remodeling projects.

[jessmarimba]

Thanks. I did some thinking on a run last night and decided that I will not likely do $7,500 worth of laundry in my foreseeable lifetime. At that price, I'd be better off paying someone to do my laundry and demolishing the room entirely (NOT having the room will subtract almost no value from my home - it isn't counted towards the square footage anyway, since it's not heated living space and was never permitted to begin with).

I think I'm going to find a foundation specialist and see if it's possible to fix this without taking the walls down. Otherwise, I'm not going to worry about it until it warms up a bit.

(ETA - sundial, I got a chuckle out of the plumber suggestion - I've done all of that work myself!)

[pie2mats]

well, that's a goods way to put it... actually the law is retroactive only in terms of criminal cases and not civil and administrative purposes so the law applies to all, otherwise none at all... yep, the coverage isn't far out of date but doesn't mean the person in it is not. getting a permit is a bilateral concept with a uniform goal.
congrats anyway on your new additions. Studies show that adding a room to your home can yield a 66% return on investment, depending on the type of room you add. That means that the value a room addition adds to your home pays for over half of the project's cost.



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