You’ve decluttered, reorganized, and possibly even rearranged some furnishings, however there’s no getting round the truth that you’ve outgrown your single-story residence. Perhaps your loved ones has expanded, or maybe you’re now working completely from residence. Regardless of the scenario, you want more room — and also you’d relatively not undergo the effort or sacrifice of promoting a home you in any other case love. As a substitute, you’re significantly contemplating the choice of build up.
To place collectively this price information for householders such as you, we mixed respected pricing data from our on-line analysis with insights from contractors and builders who’ve spearheaded most of these huge initiatives previously.
Earlier than we dive in, be warned: This determination is drastic and doubtless much more costly and disruptive than you understand. Take the time to digest all the data, crunch the numbers, and go in eyes-open to find out whether or not build up is admittedly higher than shifting on.
Nationwide averages for second-story additions
Justin Bride, principal at Ascent Contracting in Denver, Colorado, has labored with many residential expansions. Over the previous few years, he’s seen some fairly important pricing will increase for any such challenge. These worth will increase could also be attributed to the lingering results of the pandemic on the provision chain and the economic system, inflation, “or whether they are the result of continued increased demand,” he says.
Costs for this challenge will fluctuate throughout states and markets, however beneath are some normal averages for including a second story within the U.S.
Supply: Angi
Common price per sq. foot: $100-$300
High and low-end price vary: You’ll pay someplace between $100,000 to $250,000 for an 800-square-feet addition.
Methodology: Angi faucets into its database of 1000’s of initiatives, then verifies prices with respected sources.
Supply: Fixr
Common price per sq. foot: $100-$300
High and low-end price vary: Count on to pay $100,000-$300,000 for a house 1,000 sq. toes or bigger. Homeowners of small properties (~600 sq. toes) might full the challenge for $60,000-$180,000.
Methodology: Fixr pulls its price information from a number of sources, together with “specialized publications, websites, cost studies, U.S. associations, reports from the U.S. government, contractors and subcontractors, material suppliers, material price services, and other vendor websites.”
Supply: HomeGuide
Common price per sq. foot: $200-$500+
High and low-end price vary: Relying on the scale of the area and high quality of the supplies, HomeGuide estimates a worth vary of $200,000-$500,000 for a 1,000-square-foot residence.
Methodology: HomeGuide receives thousands and thousands of requests for residence enchancment price estimates yearly. The positioning then tracks price estimates customers get from native corporations and shares pricing data.
Kinds of second-story additions
Not all second-story additions have the identical scope. Relying on how a lot area you want and the scale of your finances, you’ll be able to select from the next choices:
Full-story addition
In case you want plenty of additional area, you’ll be able to choose so as to add a full second story that’s roughly the identical dimension as the primary story. Within the beneath instance, a full second story was added to this Denver, Colorado residence:

Partial addition
In case you solely want so as to add a small quantity of additional area — maybe an additional bed room and toilet — and are engaged on a smaller finances, including a partial second-story addition is perhaps the best way to go.
Architect Jeff Pelletier factors out in a weblog submit that whether or not you add only one main suite or three extra bedrooms and a rest room, most of the related prices (to not point out the disruption to your day-to-day life) will probably be largely the identical. “I usually advocate to aim for the three-bed/two-bath second floor,” he recommends. “It is a solid investment as it is so desirable, and helps ensure the value of your investment.”
Beneath is an instance of a partial second-story addition in California:


Bonus room addition
One other technique to enhance your dwelling or cupboard space with out increasing your own home’s footprint is so as to add a bonus room over the storage. It could possibly be used as a house workplace, in-law suite, man cave, playroom, craft room, storage room… the chances are countless. One of many predominant advantages of going this route is that since you’re constructing on high of an unfinished storage, you don’t have to fret as a lot about damaging present drywall, flooring, or different parts throughout development, which suggests there will probably be much less want to rework the area after the addition is full.
Not all garages are candidates for supporting bonus rooms with out important structural rework to the present basis, significantly within the case of indifferent garages. “Sometimes it makes more sense to demolish the existing garage if the goal is to build a new garage with an ‘accessory dwelling unit’ (or ADU) on top,” says Bride, the Colorado contractor.