Your Ultimate Guide to Second Floor Addition with Olympia Homes

27 September 2022

The addition of space to your home on the second or even the third story can allow you to take advantage of views, optimise the amount of square footage on a short property, and place all of the bedrooms on the same level. Nevertheless, before getting started on your project, there are a lot of things that need to be thought about first.

The Overall Effect

The layout and operation of a second-storey addition will have repercussions throughout the rest of your house, influencing aspects such as the appearance of the finishes, the work done on the mechanical systems, and the work done on the structure. Invest the time and effort required to ensure that the addition enhances your house’s visual attractiveness and how you use it. A well-designed second added storey will give the impression that it was always supposed to be there.

Structural Prerequisites

Because adding a second storey with occupied rooms will cause your existing roof system to bear a significant amount of additional weight, your building’s engineers will need to determine how much weight the main floor’s walls and foundation can support and devise a strategy for supporting that weight. To conform to the regulations, second storeys are required to have some structural support, which might take the form of adding plywood and steel connections to the walls of the main level and even farther into the foundation.

Siding, Windows, And Doors

When selecting windows, doors, and siding, the most crucial issue is whether you should match them. Start over? How about a 50/50 split? If you are doing structural work on the main level of the house, which requires you to remove half of the siding, you may be wondering whether you should replace the siding on the entire house. Should all the windows and doors on the main level be replaced if they are old, rotted, fail to satisfy energy code requirements, or are just out of style? Whatever your choice, making it early in the process is essential.

Keeping Insulation

When your home’s external old siding and sheathing are removed due to engineering requirements, you can also install new insulation if you take advantage of this. Homes constructed in the 1950s or earlier typically do not have any form of insulation in their walls, except the occasional newspaper. An excellent approach to increase your home’s energy efficiency is installing fibreglass batts or even rigid insulation in the studs. Both of these options are excellent ways to reduce heat loss.

Finishing

In many cases, the finishes of your current house, such as the door type, the trim size, the finish on the sheetrock, and the flooring, might determine the finishing of your addition. However, adding a fresh plot enables you to play through each conclusion again. For instance, if you already have textured walls, you might choose to replace all of the textured walls in the house with smooth walls or only the walls in addition.

Are you partaking in a second-floor addition? Let us help you!

Contact us today to know how.

Optimized by NetwizardSEO.com.au