Cost of a second story addition

13 years ago

We are considering adding a 500 - 550 square foot master suite addition onto our house. The current master is too small, and bumping it out would be difficult due to the pool location. Adding on would allow us to have a decent sized bathroom and walk-in closet, and the second floor would have an amazing view of the water and downtown.

Can anyone give me a rough idea of the cost of adding a second story? We are in Southern California. I just want to get an idea whether we might be able to afford the project before calling contractors to come out and give us quotes.

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Comments (8)

rlthomas7
13 years ago
I can tell you what we're doing in Central Pennsylvania. We are removing one side of our home which is a single story and rebuilding it as a two-story. We're also replacing the whole house roof and siding and adding two windows. This is a three-room addition, with a family room on the first floor and a master bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. Our total cost will be around $90,000.

One thing that frustrated me was getting the estimates. It was SO hard to compare apples to apples because every company had different ideas about how to do things, what needed to be done and what they'd include. We went with the company that had the best word of mouth and where the contractor cared enough about details like our electric panel and our heating/cooling systems to look at them before making the estimate.
kaysd
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the info, rlthomas7. How many square feet is your addition?

If we could do this project in CA for $90,000, we might go for it. I'm trying to figure out where we could add a staircase to get to the new second floor. I am afraid we might have to lose the small bedroom next to the entry hall to create a staircase.
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My house had an existing sunroom, fully insulated and a full basement beneath. It is 8x13. The roof abutted our master bedroom. We added a bath room above it. Our existing roof was in good shape and our siding and roofing tiles were still available. No plumbing preexisted on this side of the house so trenches had to be dug in our front yard through walk way and driveway. Both of those cost close to $10 k to replace. Our costs without counting the architect, 5k, driveway and without having to reroof whole house and reside whole house( if we could not have matched roofing it would have added 7k) was $67,000. We provided and made our vanity out of an antique dresser thereby saving thousands and we painted walls, ceiling and wood work ourselves, estimated painting cost were $1900. We did no bath tub and very little frills. Here are pictures of before and after. We lost a lot of curb appeal bathroom is pretty basic but has great natural light.
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Thanks, @bry911! I took a screenshot of that Excel and saved it. Doing the big addition is sounding risky. I'm getting a couple contractors to come take a look at structural stuff and our space to see if they can give us a ballpark idea of what we'd have to spend. I think the contractors would have to be very confident they could keep the project under budget to make us go for it. At the same time, it's a really tough market to buy in. Most homes have gone up by 10's of thousands of dollars in just the last 2 years; so if we buy now, we basically know that we're overpaying. If the market takes a downturn, or even settles a little, it will be hard to sell for a much higher price down the road (just because things seem to be so inflated right now). @lyfia There are lots of homes in our neighborhood that have a second story addition on the back. And we have several homes that are 600 sq. ft. bigger than ours. They aren't on our street, but there are several on the street behind us. Unfortunately, not many of them have been on the market recently so we don't have many comps. One home with a second story recently sold for $300K, but it had a 2-car garage and large workshop. Although the actual house was small, with only one small living room and 2 standard baths. After our remodel, if our budget worked, we would have a lot more and a lot nicer space inside. Also, I've done rough designs of the addition, and we'd have to rebuild the back half of our roof to get the floor space, but it's there. Once again, waiting on estimates.
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Way Too cheap. 120K for materials is beyond ludicrous. The labor more do. You can’t live there while that’s going on. That’s 6-12 months of rent somewhere. You’ll have extensive foundation work and seismic retrofitting to even carry a second floor. That’s a huge can of worms. Tearing it down is easier. The house will be open to the elements and you can expect damage from that on the first floor, no matter how many tarps are draped. You’ll be losing space on the first floor, and that floor will have to be reconfigured and redone at the same time. And then there’s the location differential of one of the most expensive metro areas in the county. If this is very condensed area, with little parking, there’s horrible logistics issues that go with it. Every issue or problem adds expense.
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Hi TIffany, first let me say how sorry I am you had to go through the fire and then get Covid, not to mention the gypsy-life. I'm glad you came through it with so much drive and enthusiasm. A lot of people would have just given up. So, you will have a dining room in that room. One of the things you could do to bring in more light is to have some lovely built-ins constructed (don't know your style) facing the window with mirrored doors and maybe a mix of clear glass as well to house your dishes, trays and ornaments. I assume you will have a chandelier (light!) and possibly some down lighting or spot lighting. I saw an interesting dining room, though I doubt this is your style, but they painted the ceiling a metallic gold. It was fairly muted but it reflected whatever light was in the room in a subtle way. I saw another application where the designer created a coffered ceiling but instead of paint the little squares were mirrored. It was lovely because in daylight it picked up the green of the outdoors and cast it about the room. You could also hang pictures with picture lighting on top, paint the room a fairly deep rich color and have the pictures pop that way. You might be able to do all of the above if you're careful. Also, could you modify the window and have a glass canopy at a 90 degree angle extend out above it so that even more light will enter. Alternatively you could put in a small bay window there which might bring in more light. Not sure what you're going for in terms of style.
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rlthomas7
13 years ago
Total square footage is almost 800 sf; 395 up and 395 down. If you're really thinking of trying it, I'd ask around for some contractor recommendations from your friends. I asked my Facebook friends and found several good leads. And if you want more information about anything we're doing, just ask. I had a hard time finding people who had "survived" an addition and could share tips!
dainaadele
13 years ago
We added a 500sq ft second story addition in 2006 for $50,000-60,000, where the contractor stopped after the drywall was in (we did the painting, trim & doors, and installed the floors -I am a woodworker). Even in a small town in Nebraska it was a good deal. (The contractor was new in the town and needed the job.)

As far as advice for rlthomas7: You can survive, but plan on wishing you were dead while it is going on....
rlthomas7
13 years ago
Ha! Did I mention that we have a two-year old and that I stay home with him two days a week? Dealing with him through this process has been the biggest challenge. At least I can take him to daycare for his naps...
kaysd
Original Author
13 years ago
We lived through an addition on our last house back in 2003, but that was just converting a poorly done enclosed patio into a living room. It was on the first floor and at the opposite end of our house from the bedrooms. Still, all the drywell dust and noise was not pleasant. This time, we would literally have work going on above our heads.

We have a 21 month old daughter. She is in daycare from 9-6 while my husband and I work, but all the mess and changes will add upheaval to her life. I am not looking forward to the process, but I would so like to have a functional master suite.
dainaadele
13 years ago
No kids through ours. But we did have a drought... unitl the day the roof was torn off. Got 3 inches of rain that night. With gale force winds of up to 63 mph. Tarping wasn't an option with those winds. We had warter pouring through the gaps over our hardwood floors on the bottom level.

This is how we saved the floors, we used a wet/dry vac to suck up the water as it pooled into the bottom:

I guess when we talk about the cost of adding on, it also applied to the non-monetary payment of time/effort/survival....
TheFranLover
12 years ago
KAYSD!! This is the longest of long shots, but are you still there? It sounds like you were looking to do EXACTLY what we're currently looking to do with a house we just bought. Heck, you probably are in the roughly the same area. Our new house is in San Diego and we're looking to add approx 500 sq ft master bedroom suite. Did you ever move fwd with the project?

Cost of a second story addition

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Cost of a second story addition

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