Here's a picture of a house I'm looking at buying: The only drawback to the house is it does not have a gameroom. Is it feasible to add to the second floor above this living room? See the balcony there? That is halfway up the stairs to the second floor. I envision go straight and up a couple of steps to the game room or take a left and go up to the bedrooms. Here is the backside of that wall: What price range would work like that be?
You're going to tear off half the roof (at least the part we can see in this photo) and raise all of the walls, in addition to constructing a new floor. Then, above that you're going to frame out a new room, add electrical, repair all the damage to the room below, insulate/drywall/paint/texture everything in both rooms, and add a new roof. You also probably stand a decent chance of ******* up those nice floors. This is $75K if it's a penny, and likely more than that... Do you have room in the backyard behind the wall where the fireplace is to add on a gameroom? It would be much, much less money, plus you don't put the 'TV room' on the same level as the bedrooms, which is a plus if you have kids or will be selling this house at some point to someone who does...
I do think it's 'possible' but then you have to make a distinction between the ability to do so, vs. the finished look of both the upstairs & down plus overall useability of either space. Structurally (ability to do so) this is an easy build. The problem I see is that you are altering the downstairs into a possibly underserved or unuseable space & the new room above won't give you the square footage you would hope for. As soon as this stupid new Photobucket uploading tool works, I'll post a an edit to your photo that shows my concerns. As for price, I will guess it will come in around $ 15,000.00. & Of course you should balance this cost against the overall marketability of the neighborhood & the potential new price point you might ask. *Note: My price point has zero to do with the roof & if the Photobucket pic pops, you'll see what I'm talking about. It also doesn't include any changes to the "downstairs" other than having a support beam on the floating corner.
NCAA, if that wasn't workable and you had to preserve (say) 8 feet of floor-to-ceiling space in the existing room, what would your top-of-the-head guess be?
Iggy, What would my guess be as to cost or what would my guess be... ? The design I'm suggesting does preserve about 8' in the "downstairs" (i.e. splitting the room into a top & bottom half)... the only hesitation in how far towards the windows you get a useable room is in what floor to ceiling height you get on the new space you've just created.
I think the ceiling of the downstairs room is too low or the ceiling of the upstairs room is too low if you don't raise the roof. Remember that floor/ceiling will probably be at least a foot thick.
That's why, without the interior space # 's I wouldn't be able to make a good guess as to what your useable space in the new room might be like. As it is, I don't really think you'll get much of a room unless you follow the suggestion on the first price guess. The beam that is in there (with the fan) is an important component. You've got a long span going on there & it has to have some sort of an engineered beam (probably has an OSB engineered truss of some sort). To go with a 3:12 or less on the new slope means your roof covering should be in metal or something like a CertainTeed FlintLastic S/A. Anything under 4:12 should NOT be a 3 Tab or Dimensional shingle, per BOCA / ICBA / NRCA guidelines. You're definitely looking @ no attic space of any kind in this room; look @ the back wall - there are two A/C vents & that's because you can't run any ducting where there is no space for the mechanicals.
I lifted ~ 980 sf and added a 2nd story for CHEAP. It was $140K, but some of that (maybe $30K) included remodelling downstairs. What you want to do is expensive.
JJ, did you add a second floor because of lot restrictions or yard size or you just wanted a second floor? I may one day add to the back bedroom of my house and the thought of a second floor never occurred to me. Then again, I don't want to add all that much square footage, not a second floor worth.
Loop, the general rule says "It's always cheaper to go UP than OUT..." concrete is expensive. An older home might need some kind of structural modifications to support a 2nd floor, however, so the consultation of an arky-tek or engineer (structural*) might be in order. * "Mechanical Engineers: We build weapons. Structural Engineers: They build targets."
You guys are great. This is what I needed to know. The house is still an option, but this gives me something to think about.
Hornfans just saved you a couple hundred bucks in consulting fees. You owe everyone on this thread a beer.