How To Add A Bedroom To Your House

Knowing all of the proper steps of how to add a bedroom to your house, or any room addition, can save you a tremendous amount of time and money.  Once you have come to the decision that you want to add a room to your home, here are a few steps to follow to make sure that you can add a room to your home, where you need it.

Can I add a bedroom to my house?

Depending on the existing size of your home, you may or may not be allowed, legally, to add a bedroom to your house.  Whether or not you can legally add a room to your house has to do with the City or County Zoning regulations for the Zoning District that you live in.  There are different setback and lot coverage requirements that you must stay within in order for an addition to be legal and be allowed.  You need to check with your local Zoning department to see if you would be able to add on where you want to add.

bedroom remodeling

Plans & Permits

If you are allowed to add on where you would like to, you are going to be required to submit some sort of plans for the City/County to review to determine if your addition meets all of the current building codes.  In some cases, it may be something as simple as a hand drawn sketch on a pices of paper or they may require a complete set of building plans, drawn by an architect.  If there are any structural modifications, then you will need to get a structural engineer involved as well.  This will take some time to put together and will cost some money.  The cost for a set of plans will vary, depending on the individual or company that is drawing them.

Once the plans are drawn, then you can submit for review to the City/County.  In some cases, they may do a counter review, and if everything is good, they can issue a permit over the counter.  In other cases, they will need to be submitted for review and can take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks for this review, sometimes longer.  It all is dependant on the particular City or County and their respective review system.

Once the plans are reviewed, if changes are required, they will be returned to the client with the notes and the “Redlines” (Red notes on the plans that need addressing).  Once the changes are completed, they can be returned to the City/County for another review.  Once the review is complete and everything is good, a Building Permit will be issued.  Once you have the Building Permit in hand, you are ready to start the work!

Cost to add a Bedroom to your House

In order to understand the costs to add a room to your house, please visit this page – where we explained the costs and what behind them.

Hiring a Contractor

If you don’t already have a Licensed, Bonded and insured Contractor, your next step is to invite some to take a look at the project and bid on it (provide an estimate).  Doing a room addition is a rather large undertaking and without the experience and knowledge, it is not recommended to be a DIY project.  Interview and hire a properly Licensed, Bonded and Insured Contractor that has the experience in this particular type of work.  Ask for references and check/verify those references.  Ask them for a written proposal/estimate to perform the work on your home.  Once you have decided on a Contractor and hired one, you are ready to begin the project.