Home Renovation

Had the first meet and greet with a contractor yesterday.  He said that they won’t build a shell since they have to see it through to the final inspection, which of course includes drywall.  We did look outside and he had a better idea for the roof line than I did.  He said we could take the wall out 12 feet in the back or 16, but not 14 since that would put us square on top of an old pine stump.

He also delivered some bad news.  He said that the brick could not be matched.  The whole roof would need to be re-shingled (we knew that) and that our existing air conditioner would not be sufficient for the additional 384 sq/ft.  He suggested just replacing the existing AC rather than trying to add another one.  If we have to do that, I told him we’d transition to just electric heat (we have natural gas now).

The rough estimate for the work came to $48,500 including the replacement HVAC and a new roof.  I’m not sure how much finish interior that included and I’m sure I couldn’t have pinned him down since it was in his words just a rough idea.  This is more than my wife and I wanted to spend on the whole project, but we hadn’t budgeted for a new HVAC unit.

One good thing was that when he found out where I work, he was able to give me names of people I work with he’d done work for recently.  If he’s handing out names, they must like the work he’s done.  I’ll be sure to follow up with them.

All things considered though, the price is a little steep for the neighborhood.  We want to be able to recoup most of our investment in a five year period.

Here are some pictures of my service closet and laundy room.  I’d like to annex the service closet as part of the laundry room.  I put a post on diychatroom, but I suppose I don’t have enough posts there to be allowed to post attachments.

The meter base, this is on the left of the carport:

The view of the carport.  The finished tile floor of the laundry room is 19.5 inches higher than the carport and sits above the crawl space.  The service closet is 8.5 inches above the carport and is poured concrete.

Here’s an inside picture of the service closet.  Just kind of curious, if I relocate the service panel to the outside wall so it is adjacent the meter base, is the water heater location a problem?

Lastly, here’s the existing service panel.  It currently sits on the wall between the service closet and the laundry room.  I can’t seem to find any definitive answer on whether or not I can just replace the panel in place with the dryer there.

In considering costs and options in the upcoming home addition, I need answers to the following questions (mostly from the city).

Electrical:

1. Where can I relocate the electrical service panel to? It need to be upgraded from a 60A to a 200A and is in the laundry room in an out of code location. I’ll be expanding the laundry room into a service closet, but locating the panel there takes away from available space options and complicates the transition from new to old (since I’ll likely run a feeder from the new to old panel to have most of the wiring in place before the cutover).

2. We’ll likely build off the back of the house and need to move the AC condenser. Do I need a separate electrical permit and inspection to do this?

3. How do I go about running power to the shed?

4. Related to the relocation, since the front of the house (the second likely meter location) is wood siding, can the meter be mounted on the wood siding?

Foundation:

1. For the new addition what are the requirements (depth of footings, etc) for the new foundation?

2. My house is currently supported by piers and a surrounding foundation. What is the maximum span for my addition without having to add support piers?

3. Crawl space and ventilation. Do the two crawl spaces have to converge or can they have separate access points? What are the ventilation requirements (vents every X feet)?

4. Since some of the foundation will be going in over a concrete patio, do I have to take all the concrete up or can I leave most of it and just break it up where needed?

Laundry Room:

Once the electrical panel in the laundry cubby is removed, I’d like to expand that space into the service closet that contains the water heater and create a small mud/laundry room area. There is no subfloor in the service closet. It looks to have had concrete poured floor which is lower than the finished floor in the laundry area.

1. Can I leave that concrete floor in place and just build up a finished floor?

2. Since both carport residence entrance and the service closet both have doors leading from the carport, how should I take care of blocking in one door?

3.  What needs to be done with the water heater?  Are there any special requirements for it since it will now be in the living spaces as opposed to a service closet?

Insulation:

1. How much insulation will I need in the new roofed spaces?

2. How much exterior wall insulation will I need?

3. How much flooring insulation do I need?