Adding To Your House

Here are points to consider when attic or basement won't yield needed extra space

Many homes built after the war have neither expansive attics nor expansive basements. The only way that owners of such homes can add to their living space is by adding to the house itself—expanding on either the side or back.

Before you add to your house, be sure that you have enough room on your lot. Almost all towns and villages have zoning regulations which specify that houses may not be built closer than a certain number of feet from the front, side or back of the lot. A typical rule is that a house may not be nearer the edge of the lot than six or eight feet, nor less than thirty feet from the rear of the property line. The purpose of rules like this is to make sure that every house has enough light and ventilation.

Porch, patio or carport can often be economically enclosed for year-round living or sleeping space. Framing is almost completed on this addition. Note line of roof will conform to the roof of the house.

Several basic pointers will help make your expansion satisfactory. First, make your planned addition easily accessible from hall, living room, dining room or kitchen. For instance, a new recreation room should be built so that it would be near your living room. You would not want to have to cross a bedroom when entering or leaving it. The ideal—which may be out of the question for most homeowners—is to build the new addition so that you can reach it from your hall.

New rooms should not take light away from an existing room. If you have to compromise by blocking off one window in a room, see if you can't put another window on another wall through which to obtain light. It's particularly undesirable to build an addition that denies the kitchen natural daylight.

You will need a new foundation for your new rooms. Remember that these cost a great deal of money, and that if you locate your new rooms where a high foundation is required, your costs will rise proportionately. If your house is on a hillside—at ground level at one end but high above ground on the other—you will find it is more costly to build on the latter side.

The addition shown on these pages was made under almost ideal conditions. There was plenty of room in the rear of the house; the new family room could be hooked on where it would not take light away from any existing structure, and the lot was completely level. No problem was involved in getting material-supply trucks in or out.

Before view shows garage-top sun deck of pleasant suburban home that pro-Tided base for addition. Though enjoyable and decorative, it was actually useful during summer only.

Photos courtesy

Sumner Rider & Associates

Alter photo shows light, spacious room added. It has proven ideal for dining, informal entertaining. Offbeat ceiling is noteworthy. Ponderosa pine was utilized extensively.

Starting from scratch

Different colors of siding in completion photo above indicate the addition made to this house. Level ground, plentiful space made conditions ideal for the job.

Insulite photos

Interior of the room that was added. Durolite plank walls, acoustical tile ceiling, and flooring of vinyl tile finish cheery, easily-cleaned year-round room.

First step in making the addition was to stake out the boundaries. No light was cut off existing structure. Trucks could deliver to the site.

Shingles were removed from house and foundation poured—8-inch concrete block on solid concrete. Dirt is added to raise level for a concrete slab.

Framing for the new room consisted of 2x4 base plates. 2x4 studs and double 2x4 for the top plate. Braces let in diagonally add to strength.

Sheathing of tough wood fibers went up quickly. The material is easily cut with a hand or power saw and contributes to strength and insulation.

After stakes were set up to indicate the boundaries of the new addition, shingles from the exterior wall were removed at the prescribed position, leaving the sheathing exposed. The foundation was then poured—8-inch concrete block on a solid concrete footing. This new room was to be built on a concrete slab, so it was necessary to add dirt to bring its floor level up to that of the house proper.

When adding dirt for a slab floor, always get the dirt in as early as possible. If it rains thoroughly, the dirt will settle. If you live in a dry climate, water the dirt down thoroughly so that it will settle and give you a more stable surface upon which to pour your concrete floor. By leveling off the dirt before you begin to frame for the room, you will also tamp it down as you move around doing carpentry.

Frame for the new room as you would for any partition. Use 2x4 base plates, 2x4 studs, and a double 2x4 for the top plate. Double the studs at all window and door openings. For extra strength, let in 1x4 braces diagonally, as pictured on page 115.

The sheathing used in the example was Insulite Bildrite, a durable insulation board made from tough Northern wood fibers. This sheathing comes in 25/32-inch thickness and is available in 2-foot and 4-foot widths and a wide variety of lengths. It goes up quickly, and is easy to cut with either a handsaw or power saw. It provides bracing strength and also insulates against heat loss.

When making an addition, also retain the roof lines of the original structure. Architects claim that additions to a house sometimes detract from its appearance because the basic lines of the original are tampered with. In the case of the job illustrated here, the original roof was of hip construction. The new family room also was given a hip roof, and blended perfectly into the existing roof line.

The same style of exterior wall shingles and windows should also be used. Everything possible should be done to blend the extra room into the original structure. Since shingles and clapboard fade with exposure to the elements, the new wall surface materials will look new at first. After a short time, however, they will blend in with the original material. In any event, all your shingles and trim will have the same "new look" the first time you paint.

Starting from scratch (cont'd)

When making an addition, be sure lines of roof conform to original. Hip roof of addition blends perfectly with that of this house, as evident in this view of framing.

Insulite photos

Same style of windows and exterior shingles as those in house itself should be used. Newness will vanish with elements; first painting will match them anyway.
The interior of this family room was finished off with Durolite plank—a ½-inch material also made from Northern wood fibers and applied vertically over furring strips with staples or nails. This plank also has insulating qualities, and its factory-applied flame-resistant surface may be cleaned or repainted. It comes in several different colors—ivory, yellow, green, wood tone—and once it is nailed to the wall, no papering or painting is necessary. The plank units have flanged tongue-and-groove joints for concealed fastening.

On the ceiling of our example Fiberlite acoustical tileboard was used. Also available with flanged tongue-and-groove joints, it serves to cut down the transmission of noise. Its tiny cells also help to prevent heat loss through the ceiling. This tile can be easily cleaned with a brush or vacuum cleaner, and its manufacturers say that you can repaint it several times without appreciably affecting its sound-absorbing efficiency.

Insulation represents last major step before interior wall paneling. Durolite used is shown, page 114; other suggestions are elsewhere in the book.

How to enclose a porch

Contented owner surveys his handiwork which added an 8x12 all-purpose year-round room to home. The enclosure is made with DeVac Glasswalls, which feature fiberglass screens and clear treated pine.

First step was removal of screens that rested directly on concrete floor. Job was anticipated in original construction; note ceiling, power outlets.

Sills are mitered and planed for slight downward slope away from house. It enables enclosures to fit snug on base, completely air and watertight.

The units employed for this enclosure are completely self-contained and can easily be nailed in place. Included is a regular-size baseboard that fits snugly against the sill.

After securing individual units in place, trim is added both inside and out, as shown below. All trim millwork is custom-made, so very little cutting and fitting is required.

Glasswalls' three sliding glass panels are evident in photo below, showing six installed, one to go. Units" screens, corrosion-proof aluminum, will be positioned from outside, held fast by self-locking device. Door, right, last step in enclosing porch, is self-contained, has two sliding panels.

Adding a whole new floor

Enclosing Your Porch or Patio

If you are looking for extra living space, it may be far closer than the addition begun from scratch. You can enclose your porch, patio or carport at surprisingly low cost, and use it to live or sleep in the entire year.

A solid floor anywhere outside the house —a breezeway, attached garage, open porch, terrace with concrete or flagstone floor—gives you the makings of another room. It does not take much effort or cost to build a framework around the sides to enclose it, and to run a roof overhead.

Before you start to turn this space into year-round living quarters, you should also check your building code. As noted, many towns require precise clearance between lot line and house proper. But these regulations usually don't cover terraces, patios and the like. So while you may be within the law with a patio that's close to the lot line, you may run into trouble if you try to enclose it. It's best to make sure that you won't be violating an ordinance.

Several other precautions also are necessary. You must make sure that the floor will support a roof. If a patio of concrete has been laid directly on the ground, it probably won't. At each comer, you'll probably have to dig down to the frost line, put in concrete footings about 18 inches square, and run concrete piers—10 inches by 10 inches—up to the floor line. There, they can support a lally column or wood posts which will hold up the main girder which in turn supports the roof.

Before and after photos above and at left show how a whole new story was added to a ranch house that seemed spacious until the family expanded.

Wall framing is constructed lying flat and then hoisted upright atop existing roof. Construction is begun with family continuing to live in house.

Old roof is removed only after the second story is watertight. Floor is then installed without disturbing ceiling of the first story. At times, it is even possible to hoist original insulation for use with the new roof.

Herbert Richheimer, Inc.

Usually, when a porch has posts of its own, it has been built to support a roof. The main weight the roof must carry is a snow load and when you cover the porch, you're requiring the roof to carry a load which the porch floor would have carried.

Another question to ask yourself is whether your new room will be easily accessible from the rest of the house. If you plan it as a bedroom, you should be able to reach it from a hall. At the very least, you should not have to turn another bedroom into a corridor through which you must pass to reach the new one. If the enclosed area is to be a family room, dining room, etc., its location should be off a hall or you should be able to reach it from living room, dining room, or kitchen.

Heating a new room should not be difficult. Your best bet probably is to tap the existing heating line. You probably won't overburden your existing heating setup: Almost all houses have furnaces which can provide more heat than is usually demanded.

If you intend to use the new room only occasionally, you might save on your fuel bills by using space heaters—those run by electricity or gas which can be turned on and off as the need arises. Of course, a room to be heated should be insulated in walls, ceiling, and, if possible, floor.

An enclosed porch or terrace can be finished off with the same wall surface material used in the rest of the house. If the existing floor surface is concrete, you can tile it easily. You can also put down wood flooring over the concrete. Two by fours are first cemented to the concrete. Then the finished wood flooring is nailed to them.

A quickly-erected porch enclosure

The porch of John Detjen's new home near Minneapolis, pictured here, was left open for future screening. The contractor who built the house finished interior walls and also installed heating ducts.

Instead of screening, Detjen elected to enclose porch completely. Used were Andersen Strut walls; window is tightly joined to framing at factory.

Owner and neighbor slide unit into position. On the exterior, units are joined by long finishing nails, angled; inside by corrugated fasteners.

Andersen Corporation photos

It is important that the components be plumb and square before final fastening. Comer of modular wall unit is being shimmed into position here.

Checking actual height from porch slab to header. Factory joining of windows, framing, is said to give tightest window-wall joint ever available.

Only two cuts are required—a few seconds— to adjust the individual components to fit. No ornate power tools are required for the project.

Post-improvement view. The new room, which measures some 8 by 18 feet, has a pleasant view and serves many purposes 12 months per year.

Interior finishing for the addition

Besides products pictured elsewhere in this book that warrant consideration for interior finishing of the house addition is this scored hardboard. Marlite.

Marsh Wall Products photos

Clips and nails secure tongue-and-groove planks to furring strips. They can be applied to solid backing. Starter strip supports them during installation.

Remove starter strip, apply base molding to complete installation. Only tools needed are hammer, saw, level. Material has permanent plastic surface.

Final step in finishing the enclosed porch or other addition is often this easily-maintained, plastic-finish ceiling block. Hardboard, it is available in plain color or an attractive wood-grain pattern.

Speedy Way to Enclose Porch

A speedy way to enclose a porch was used by John Detjen of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Detjen's home was completed late in the summer and the builder left the porch open for completion the next spring. He wisely installed heat ducts, because Detjen planned eventually to make it into a year-around family room.

Detjen had intended to install screens and leave the enclosure to an indefinite future date. Then he learned about a new window-and-wall component made by the Andersen Corporation.

By coincidence, the 4-foot modular width of the windows fit almost perfectly into the dimensions of the open porch. Moreover, the windows and all wall framing members were already joined by gluing and nailing at the factory.

The work involved careful measurement to cut the side struts of the Strutwall units to the proper length to fit under the existing header.

Detjen and a neighbor tilted the units up one by one, nailing them to the cement slab with masonry nails, to the header by toenailing, and to each other by a combination of corrugated fasteners on the inside and nailing on the outside. They completed framing, which in this case was almost entirely the factory-installed windows, in a morning. Application of the inside and outside skins plus moldings and trim took considerably longer. Asphalt tile on the floor completed the job. Total cost came to just over $625 for materials, including double-insulating glass in all windows.

The window-wall unit features factory-joining of the windows with framing members necessary to make a complete wall section. Seven sizes are available, all fitting into the regular 16-inch stud system that is typical of frame construction. Window sizes range from picture windows 6 feet high to privacy windows 30 inches high. ·

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