Adding on to your home can help make a small home feel less cramped, and add significant value to your house. It can also mean weeks of living in a construction zone, and it will generally cost you several thousand dollars at minimum to add on just one room. Deciding whether or not adding on to your home is a smart idea usually means taking a look at the specific circumstances surrounding the scope of the project, and the price tag.
Are Home Additions Worth the Money?
If you are only looking at resale value, most home additions will not pay for themselves 100% when you sell your house. You can expect a return of around 60-65% for most types of additions and possibly a little more if your home is located in a seller’s market. Homeowners looking to stay in their house for a long time would benefit most from a home addition, especially if it is going to be a larger family residence.
How Long Does Construction Take?
Most rooms will take between 60-120 days to build, assuming the ground is already suitable for building. Something small like an extra bathroom may take slightly less time, though plumbing usually accounts for a few days’ worth of work. A kitchen expansion may take more than 2 months, especially if the weather does not cooperate, The amount of time your home is actually opened up to the elements is usually only a few days, and even then there will be wrapping on it to cover up the wall-sized hole.
You can expect contractors to be going in and out of your house regularly for a few weeks, but towards the end schedules tend to drag out a bit, and you should have plenty of time in between contractor visits.
Adding on to a Home vs. Buying a New Home
Most people look at home additions as unnecessary because they can just buy a new home and not have to worry about putting up with the hassle of construction crews. This is usually not the case, because additions are usually going to be cheaper than the 6% of your home’s value you will lose to real estate agent fees, in addition to the closing costs for buying a new home, and costs associated with moving.
One of the few times when adding on to a home is not the best option is if space is limited. Expanding a home at the expense of most of your yard can actually hurt your home’s resale value, which means you would recoup even less of the construction costs when you sell your house.
Home additions are the better choice in most cases as opposed to purchasing a new home, or allowing overcrowding to be a problem. However, every situation is different, which makes it helpful to talk it over with a contractor who can give you an estimate covering what can be done, and how much it would cost.