Reimagined Construction
Design-build renovation
What we do
An addition is judged on whether you can tell. The technical work is foundation, structure and weatherproofing; the thing that decides whether it was worth doing is proportion.
New structure meeting the original wall line
Feasibility against deed restrictions, setbacks and height limits.
Foundation assessment, and remediation or new foundation as required.
Structural design, framing and roof integration.
Extension of electrical, plumbing and mechanical to serve the new space.
Full finishing, and making good where new meets old.
Permitting and inspections throughout.
This is the part that decides whether an addition is straightforward or expensive, and it is settled before the design is worth developing.
A second storey puts load on a slab that was never designed for it. A rear addition puts a new foundation next to an old one, and the two will move differently unless the connection is detailed to allow it. Neither problem is exotic, but both are much cheaper to solve on paper than in the ground.
Where the new roof meets the old is where additions leak, and it is the detail most worth spending money on. On a Gulf Coast house it also has to survive wind-driven rain from a direction the original roof never faced.
Matching the existing roof geometry rather than stacking a box on top is usually what makes the difference between an addition and an extension you can spot from the street.
Houston has no zoning, which surprises people into assuming there are no constraints. There are: deed restrictions, platting, setbacks, height limits and, in a historic district, design review.
We establish all of it in discovery. It is the cheapest phase in which to find out that the addition you have drawn is four feet too tall.
How long it takes
Five to eleven months on site
Plus three to six months of design, permitting and preconstruction. Second storeys carry nine or more weeks of foundation work before anything appears above the roofline, which is the part clients find hardest.
Additions generally run $250 to $450 per square foot, with second storeys at the upper end because the foundation work comes before anything visible. A typical job we take on lands between $250,000 and $650,000.
New foundation for a ground-level addition, or reinforcement and underpinning for a second storey.
Driven by span, by storey height, and by how much of the existing roof has to be rebuilt.
Matching geometry costs more than abutting it, and is the difference between an addition and a bolt-on.
Often includes upgrading the existing service, because the original was sized for the original house.
Where new meets old. Consistently underestimated, and the reason additions look added.
Discovery
Feasibility, deed restrictions, and what the foundation can carry.
Design
Ten to eighteen weeks, with structural engineering from the start.
Preconstruction
Estimate, permits, and a schedule that assumes weather.
Construction
Five to eleven months, with the house open for part of it.
Handover
Punch list, warranty, and a return visit at one year.
For a rear or side addition, staying is normal. The work is largely outside the existing envelope until the connection is made, and that connection is the only genuinely disruptive week.
For a second storey, staying is possible but unpleasant. The roof comes off. However well it is sequenced and dried in, you will live under temporary cover through at least one storm.
We phase second-storey work so the house is dried in as fast as the sequence allows rather than as efficiently as it allows, which costs a little and is worth it.
Additions start with feasibility — what the restrictions allow and what the foundation can carry. Both are answered before you pay for a design.