Has anyone built an addition to a Ranch style home

[remagenman]

Were thinking of expanding our home and I'm spitballing ideas.

-Thinking of expanding living room area out so it meets the edge of the current roof.
-we have an attached double garage, turn that into a media room and build another garage nearby.
-build another room attached to the house.
-build a second floor.

All of these have question marks next to them but wondering if anyone has done any of these and have either liked or regretted the ideas.

Thanks.

 

[mike93lx]

Lots of people have added onto ranches... A colonial is basically a ranch with a second floor

Pictures of your house would help. Also, look at your plot plan and understand any setback issues as they may rule out certain additions

 

[JohnX14]

Just a few pictures would make a big impact here. And a google street view or satellite would help. Pretty easy to add an addition to a ranch.

 

[loganb]

If you have the space, expanding outward on the first level is about as easy as can be done. As mentioned with a foundation expansion proper planning with setbacks, utility locations, any private water or power lines etc all need to come into play.

If planned properly shouldn't have much of a problem living in it while doing the work. Adding a 2nd floor onto an existing 1 story is harder to execute while occupied....

 

[remagenman]

Thanks, these are the answers I like to hear. More positive than negative. Ill see if I can get some pics, being a paranoid veteran and all I like to keep my privacy, lol.

 

[mike93lx]

Thanks, these are the answers I like to hear. More positive than negative. Ill see if I can get some pics, being a paranoid veteran and all I like to keep my privacy, lol.

Don't use a Pic from a real estate listing or anything else that has been posted online already

 

[PoorUB]

Matching the original roof line might be an issue as many areas require "energy trusses" which are higher at the wall than standard trusses.

Our neighbors did it and have a step in the roof where new meets the old.

 

[DGersic]

Were thinking of expanding our home and I'm spitballing ideas.

-Thinking of expanding living room area out so it meets the edge of the current roof.
-we have an attached double garage, turn that into a media room and build another garage nearby.
-build another room attached to the house.
-build a second floor.

All of these have question marks next to them but wondering if anyone has done any of these and have either liked or regretted the ideas.

Thanks.

My house was originally a rectangle, ranch house. Somebody in the 1970s added on to the back, making it an L shape.

My neighbor took his roof off, added a second story.

 

[remagenman]

looks similar to this except the left hand side after the front windows has a attached 2 car garage.

 

[regguy1]

Here is a ranch we owned sold it and new owners did a remodel / expansion. (what do you think (good or bad)

 

[regguy1]

Now I'm living here:

 

[dgreen1069]

I did not do the additions to my house, but it was originally a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch with a basement that looked like a basic rectangle. Over time, the carport was enclosed to create a family room (now a dining room), a large master bedroom was added to one side while the original master was converted to a hallway and large full bath, an in-law suite with it's own kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and laundry was added to the other side of the house, and finally, a screened in porch was added off the back. The house looks like an H now. I'd like to add a great room where my screened in porch is now and build another porch, but that will be a retirement project. Long story short, adding to a ranch style home is pretty straightforward. Good luck!

 

[Steve W.]

Minimal changes here, most done by the previous owner.

Basic 3 bed, 2 bath ranch with attached 2-car garage. Previous owners extended the front of the garage, then put a wall across what used to be the middle of the garage (new wall parallel to overhead door), knocked out the wall that enclosed the laundry room to make a family room. That gave them two 'entertainment' areas to handle their three high-schoolers. The laundry machines were moved to the near corner of the garage. We thought nothing of it, having come here from California. Conditioned rooms on the other side of both walls in the corner, we have had no problems in the 30+ years we have been here;

Our only change was not an addition, but a subtraction. We took out the wall that used to divide the dining room and laundry room (now part of the family room). We now have a "great room" that is long and narrow, it includes the kitchen, dining room and family room.

.

 

[mike93lx]

Here is a ranch we owned sold it and new owners did a remodel / expansion. (what do you think (good or bad)

I used to think I didn't like shutters at all, but it's really the obviously fake ones that aren't even big enough to cover the window, even if they were operable.

They integrated the addition in well. Roof line, foundation, windows. It all matches up

 

[larry4406]

Additions are done all the time. Some better than others.

It takes some skill/talent to make sure that the addition blends with the architecture of the existing home. When done properly, you would never know it was not built that way originally. When done poorly, the addition stands out like a sore thumb leaving you with the WTF feeling and possibly compromising resale value.

The set backs mentioned define your sandbox which is the area you are allowed to play in.

Slab on grade vs basement will also affect your decisions.

Our house is a ranch on a basement foundation. We added a kitchen extension on a conditioned crawlspace. Currently working on a master bath extension that is elevated.

 

[firebirdparts]

This is pretty easy to do. The roof has to meet in such away that rain runs off, and that walls (not air) hold the rafters up. That's basic simpleton kind of construction. Understanding roof construction usually would answer 90% of the questions.

Then you'd like for the interior to make sense. Sometimes you'll have a boring detail, like you want to pour a footer where your water line is.

There essentially is no architecture to a ranch, and everybody always adds on the back side, so the appearance of the outside is not very difficult.

Extra Info: I've never really known anybody to build a second floor over an existing ranch house. That one is a real curiosity. I bet somebody has done that, but you'd be really surprised if you drove down the street and saw that happening.

 

[mike93lx]

Extra Info: I've never really known anybody to build a second floor over an existing ranch house. That one is a real curiosity. I bet somebody has done that, but you'd be really surprised if you drove down the street and saw that happening.

I've definitely seen it done. Where I lived in MA, we had a decent number of split entry ranches and there were several around me with a 2nd story added on.

Tearing the roof off and going up isn't hard. Assuming the foundation and 1st floor walls can handle the added weight, and if the house has a basement already, you have the perfect spot for the staircase to go

 

[DGersic]

Extra Info: I've never really known anybody to build a second floor over an existing ranch house. That one is a real curiosity. I bet somebody has done that, but you'd be really surprised if you drove down the street and saw that happening

I didn’t take pictures, but I watched my neighbor do it. Took five years of evenings and weekends.

First step was excavating a basement egress window, cutting the foundation, and checking the footers to see if the foundation could take the additional weight. It could. This step also involved moving and repairing the natural gas line, it ran through the space that was excavated for the window.

Second was building bedrooms in the basement. He had two young children, plus a third child that was there part time. Once the bedrooms were built, they moved in to the basement and gutted the first floor. They left enough to have a bathroom and functional kitchen.

Next, the roof was removed. He contracted having new walls and trusses delivered and installed by a crane. It took a day to lift every In to place and nail it all together, including the sheathing. Next day, a roof went on. Windows in, and house wrap, and he was basically waterproof again.

Siding went on, that was a bit challenging because the new second story wasn’t quite aligned with the old walls. Shimming required. But once the siding is on, you can’t see what’s under it.

Interior finishing sheetrock, paint, trim, flooring, hanging doors, plumbing, and etc. took a couple of years, then they were able to move in to the new upstairs bedrooms. Interior finishing the downstairs, building the new walls and kitchen and etc. took another couple of years.

It was a lot of work. It looks really good, he more than doubled the floor space on a small lot where there was nowhere to go but up.

 

[abfish]

Matching the original roof line might be an issue as many areas require "energy trusses" which are higher at the wall than standard trusses.

Our neighbors did it and have a step in the roof where new meets the old.

That's a good point. On the other hand, if you have to go higher, I'd go high enough to achieve 9' ceilings in the addition.

 

[sz0k30]

Were thinking of expanding our home and I'm spitballing ideas.

-Thinking of expanding living room area out so it meets the edge of the current roof.
-we have an attached double garage, turn that into a media room and build another garage nearby.
-build another room attached to the house.
-build a second floor.

All of these have question marks next to them but wondering if anyone has done any of these and have either liked or regretted the ideas.

Thanks.

Also keep in mind your age. As you get older, steps become more of a problem.

 

[remagenman]

This will be a contracted out project if we proceed. Thinking a another garage with the mancave on top would be awesome then turning the current garage into living space. Hmm.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looking at the picture you posted, I would say the hardest thing that you will deal with is figuring out how to match the roof line. Once you figure it out, it will probably dictate how the rest of your build is designed.

 

[reader2580]

My ranch house had a large addition added. They didn’t get the roof at quite the same level so the first truss was obviously sticking up if you looked close enough. New metal shingles instead of asphalt shingle pretty well hides the hump now.

My point is to get a good contractor that has done this before. Mine was too cheap to remove the sheathing from the old exterior wall so doors have to have extensions added.

 

[remagenman]

My ranch house had a large addition added. They didn’t get the roof at quite the same level so the first truss was obviously sticking up if you looked close enough. New metal shingles instead of asphalt shingle pretty well hides the hump now.

My point is to get a good contractor that has done this before. Mine was too cheap to remove the sheathing from the old exterior wall so doors have to have extensions added.

Thanks, would you mind sharing what the cost was and if you would have done anything differently in hindsight?

 

[cpakalolo]

This is pretty easy to do. The roof has to meet in such away that rain runs off, and that walls (not air) hold the rafters up. That's basic simpleton kind of construction. Understanding roof construction usually would answer 90% of the questions.

Then you'd like for the interior to make sense. Sometimes you'll have a boring detail, like you want to pour a footer where your water line is.

There essentially is no architecture to a ranch, and everybody always adds on the back side, so the appearance of the outside is not very difficult.

Extra Info: I've never really known anybody to build a second floor over an existing ranch house. That one is a real curiosity. I bet somebody has done that, but you'd be really surprised if you drove down the street and saw that happening.

If my dad was still alive I'd have him talk to you. We added a 2nd story to an old single story farm house. It was a 2 bed one bath and is now 7 bed 3 bath with a greenhouse and a turret. He sold it last year, though my mother died working on it and is buried in the stone wall. No, I would never recommend what he did. They lost everything they had memories wise, because they had a plastic roof that leaked for years. We would tear a bit of the old house's roof off and then build on top. There is not much of the old house left exposed. Something was added to every side at least. It's not a very good house at all, but the land is beautiful. I built a high tech triple function ground source heatpump so they could afford the utilities. I wish I still had my gshp. I didn't realize one like mine cost 18,000 dollars.

 

[mepstein]

I wanted more space. I already had a colonial but the roof had a shallow slope so the attic wasn’t usable as a living space. I removed the roof, reinforced the floor/ceiling and built a 12/12 pitch roof. This gave me 8’ ceilings for most of the room, a slope at the sides down to 5’ knee walls and storage behind them. Dormers in front, sky lights in back and windows on the end. I added an independent heat pump to condition the space.
I had thought about a traditional addition but that required the usual permits, foundation and heavy machinery.
I was able to add about 800sq/ft to a 2400sq/ft house for a third of what it would have cost me to build anything with a foundation. I never even pulled a permit. Called it a roof replacement and since I didn’t add to the footprint of the house, nothing shows up on satellite pics.

 

[finn]

Friend at work converted his ranch to a two story, some time ago. He borrowed a semi trailer from work and emptied the house while the work was being done.

We added a 16’ x 20’ kitchen to our story and a half cottage. It included a daylight TV room for my wife. Wish we had done a walkout.

We’re planning a master suite, new entrance, and first floor laundry now. Lakefront property is too expensive to consider moving.

 

[racecougar]

He sold it last year, though my mother died working on it and is buried in the stone wall. No, I would never recommend what he did. They lost everything they had memories wise, because they had a plastic roof that leaked for years. We would tear a bit of the old house's roof off and then build on top. There is not much of the old house left exposed. Something was added to every side at least. It's not a very good house at all, but the land is beautiful. I built a high tech triple function ground source heatpump so they could afford the utilities. I wish I still had my gshp. I didn't realize one like mine cost 18,000 dollars.

 

[shoot summ]

Here is a ranch we owned sold it and new owners did a remodel / expansion. (what do you think (good or bad)

I think it is too bad they didn't bury the electrical service. Might be better once landscape matures, but it was a missed opportunity to make the front of the house look a lot better.