Find out what you need to know about Home Additions in the St. Louis Area
When you bought your St. Louis home, it was perfect. It had the space and features your family needed for your lifestyle.
However, years later, you find yourself second-guessing how well your house works for you. Perhaps the size of your household has increased, or you do more entertaining now, or home trends are changing and you like to keep up with the times.
If you are finding that your home no longer suits your needs, have you considered a home addition? Maybe that option sounds extreme to you, but there are many reasons why St. Louis homeowners add an addition to their house:
- Expand living space
- Create more bedrooms for children or guests
- Add a home office
- Create space for a hobby or entertainment
- Customize your home to fit specific needs
- Update a “fixer-upper”
- Avoid the stress and expenses of moving
If you love your house otherwise, but just need a little more elbow room or a new configuration, building a home or room addition is the perfect solution. This kind of project might sound overwhelming at first, but with the right contractor, it can be a very smooth process. Read this guide to learn more and know what kind of home addition will meet your needs best!
Moving vs. Getting a Home Addition
For some people, outgrowing a home means it’s time to move. But what if you love everything else about your house or hate the stress of moving?
Often it is better to renovate your existing home than waste time and money trying to sell it and purchase a larger house. When you choose to build a home addition, you can:
- Redesign your home to your exact preferences
- Stay in your beloved neighborhood
- Increase your property value
- Avoid the cost and hassle of moving
That last reason to renovate is a big one for many homeowners. Money is always a determining factor in these decisions.
When you move, you must spend money hiring a real estate agent, purchasing a home, paying fees, paying the moving company and making necessary improvements. A home or room addition, however, will cost less than buying a new home, and you only have to pay the contractor for materials and labor. You’ll save a lot of time too!
What Are the Value and Benefits of Adding Onto Your Home?
A new home addition can be an investment in your house. In most markets, adding space is an upgrade that improves home value. Such a renovation allows you to add a room and modern features that future homeowners will pay extra for when it is time to sell. Depending on the type of home addition you choose, you can see an excellent ROI.
There are immediate renovation benefits too. You’ll enjoy your home more with a home addition that allows you to:
- House extra family members
- Store more possessions
- Enjoy your family without feeling crowded
- Rent extra space for additional income
- Add a little luxury to a bathroom, walk-in closet or other space
With a home addition renovation, you can create the space of your dreams and enjoy it for years to come.
What Type of Room and Home Additions Are There?
What is your house lacking that would make life easier and more comfortable? The answer is different for every family, but it’s an important point to consider when exploring your home addition options.
There are a variety of room additions possible to meet your needs. Is your family outgrowing your home? Do you want to entertain and host more people? Do you need extra work or hobby space?
Whatever you need, here are the most popular types of home additions in St. Louis:
- Kitchen addition
- Bathroom addition
- Basement renovation
- Season room
- Sunroom
- Office space
- Family room addition
- Guest or in-law addition
Have something else in mind? Talk to your home additions contractor about a custom project.
How to Determine the Best Home or Room Addition for You
When deciding on a home addition, ask yourself:
- What are my pain points in my current home that would be solved with more space?
- What are the future needs of my home?
- What home additions wouldn’t benefit me?
The best room addition for you is one that answers these questions. Let’s look at them further.
Where do you lack space in your home? Most St. Louis homeowners find that they lack space for either storage, sleeping and bathrooms, entertaining, or relaxing. If any of those sounds like you, consider one of these home addition projects:
- Doing a kitchen renovation
- Adding a master suite or guest suite
- Expanding or adding a family room
- Adding a sunroom
You also should consider coming changes to your lifestyle. Are you hoping to expand your family? Or will your pre-teens soon necessitate another bathroom? Are your parents aging and may require an in-law suite? Maybe career changes will require a home office.
Whatever the future brings, you can prepare for it now with the right room addition.
Finally, don’t get a home addition that you don’t need just because it sounds nice. Upgraded kitchens and bathrooms supposedly sell homes, but consider a multi-room expansion to balance your real needs with your ROI. For instance, if you’re short on dining space, a bar with more seating between your kitchen and dining room makes more sense than creating a high-end kitchen.
Tips for Homeowners During Home and Room Addition Projects
Once you have decided what kind of home addition you want, you are ready to begin the process of making your dream a reality. However, a project like this doesn’t happen without some hiccups. Luckily, there are things you and your contractor can do to mitigate these.
Some common issues you may encounter include:
- Outdated electric, plumbing and HVAC systems that need to be rearranged
- Going over budget
- Limited space to expand
- Disruption to your usual living conditions
The best way to keep these issues from occurring is to work with an experienced, qualified contractor who can prevent or handle them as they arise.
There are also things you can do to keep a home remodel from interrupting your family’s life unnecessarily. Follow these home renovation process tips to deal with the chaos of living in a construction zone:
- Consider moving out of your home for extensive renovations.
- Discuss the changes to your home with your children so they understand there will be strangers on your property and things will look different afterward.
- Warn neighbors about any disruptive noise, mess or traffic.
- Take steps to protect fragile and valuable property.
- Clear rooms of furniture or at least cover them to protect from dust.
- Establish zones for family and zones for workers. Communicate who can go where in your home.
- Budget for unexpected issues and expenses.
Why Hiring a Professional Home Addition Contractor Is Crucial to Your Remodeling Project
The best way to ensure a successful home addition is to work with experienced design-build contractors. When you have the same company designing and building your addition, there is less likely to be miscommunication, discrepancies and last-minute changes.
Furthermore, always work with a professional addition contractor vs. the wrong contractor. With someone who specializes in major home renovations, you’ll enjoy the benefits of:
- Keeping things simple by working with just one contractor
- A clear vision of what the final result should be
- Insured professionals
- Faster timeline
- Safety is a priority
Sometimes it’s tempting to choose an amateur contractor or one who doesn’t have extensive experience with home remodeling because they are cheaper. But if you do that, the only benefit you’ll get is a smaller bill upfront. You may face a higher cost later when you find mistakes that need to be fixed.
How can you avoid choosing the wrong contractor for your room addition project? Contact multiple design-build contractors and watch for these red flags:
- Poor communication
- Ignoring the homeowner’s requests and opinions
- Using subcontractors
- Lack of experience
- Lack of reviews
- Requesting full payment up front
- Promises that sound too good to be true
Don’t risk a poor renovation by going with the cheapest contractor or the first one you find. Look for one who can prove they know what they’re doing so that your remodel goes smoothly!
How to Find the Right Home and Room Addition Contractor
Finding professional addition contractors might sound intimidating if you haven’t done it before. Not to worry. Follow these steps to help you find the right St. Louis home additions contractor for you:
- Look for recommendations from friends and online reviews.
- Compare contractors’ portfolios and look for examples of the kind of addition you want.
- Make a list of six to eight contractors who seem promising and ask them about their licensing and certification.
- Request references and contact a few for each contractor. Ask if the contractor stayed on schedule, kept the job site neat, charged fairly and other questions about working with them.
- Visit at least one finished project for contractors you’re still considering. Look for issues and ask the homeowner if they needed repairs after the work was done.
- Collect bids from the remaining contractors on your list and choose the one who offers the level of quality you’re looking for at a reasonable price.
In St. Louis, Lakeside Renovation & Design is the preferred design-build home addition contractor.
We have the licensing and certification to prove our skill and the experience to prove our high standards. We specialize in all kinds of home addition and remodeling projects. If you have something in mind for your home, schedule an in-home consultation for a free quote, and we’ll be happy to help you begin the home addition building process.
Transform the Home You Have Into the Home You Want With a Professional Home Addition
It’s frustrating when the St. Louis home you love so much no longer meets your family’s needs. If you’re tired of cramped quarters, maybe it’s time to consider a home addition by Lakeside Renovation & Design.
As your local design-build home addition home contractor, we work with you from the first step of the design process to the final cleanup to ensure you get the home renovations you want.
Since 1997, we’ve helped thousands of homeowners in the St. Louis area transform their homes into places they love again. We combine the design and build processes into one streamlined experience that keeps things uncomplicated for you. You get the final say in our plans before we begin building, and we keep you up to date on progress and changes so that you always know what we are doing in your home.
Lakeside Renovation & Design believes every St. Louis homeowner deserves a home that fits their lifestyle. To find out more about how we can solve your living space woes, request a design consultation and free quote today.
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