The housing market in Arizona right now is one of the hottest in the united states. According to ABC 15 “nearly 200 people arrive in greater phoenix on a daily basis”. It’s becoming very arduous to sell your home and buy a new one. A lot of people resort to adding a home addition to their house rather than moving. Below I’m going to discuss what you need to know about home additions in Gilbert Arizona.
First part of a Home addition is knowing who will be doing the work. If you are pretty hands on and have tackled a lot of DIY projects around your house than you might be able to save some money and take on some of the tasks in a home addition. If you aren’t so much of the manual labor/ managing type than its best to leave this projects to the professionals. If you’re in search of a reliable contractor with experience and good reviews than check us out. Everything Residential is a licensed electrical and building contractor with over 100 5 star reviews. So, once you’ve decided on how you’re going to tackle the project than your ready for step 2.
The next step in a home addition is design and architecture. First you will need to know if you have the correct zoning for a home addition. You can go to the Maricopa county assessor website and look up your home and figure out what type of zoning you have and to see how far your home addition can extend to. You know that your house has enough land to add some square footage so now its design. You can accomplish a simple home addition by enclosing your back-yard patio that pretty much everybody has in mesa Arizona. Or you can spend some more money and start tying a new gable roof into your existing hip roof. A lot of cost and design will depend on what type of house you have and what your trying to accomplish. Once you have an idea of what direction you’re going for, then you will need to reach out to an architect who can make your dreams come true on a piece of paper with a lot of boring math calculations and load specs from engineers. It’s very important to have an architect because he or she knows what the city needs so you can get a permit. Now that you have a plan in your hands you will need to apply for a Permit through the city of Gilbert. Once you apply for the permit you can expect to wait between 1-3 weeks for approval. Boom now you have your approved permit and you’re ready to break ground. BUT WAIT! You have to run these plans by your HOA (if you have one) that wants to know everything about what you got going on. Before you pay the big fees to the city, submit your plans to your HOA to make sure they accept the design and color scheme for the Home addition. When I have to deal with the HOA I always go in person and establish a relationship with the front office secretary. Although they aren’t the ones to approve the design it’s nice to maybe have someone on your side when you call in and ask for a status of the application. I’ve had HOAs take up to 5 weeks to make up their mind if its approved or not. Ridiculous, right? Finally, you have the approval of your HOA and you purchased your Permit from, the city now you are ready to break ground.
Switching gears from all the boring stuff now it’s time to build something. If you are a DIY type of person and wanting to help out I would leave this part of the project to the pros. First up is grading and site preparation and CONCRETE. From my experience, this can take 1-2 weeks in Gilbert Arizona. Typically, they will remove dirt, and add structural dirt or ABC rock and compact it to the correct density. After that is Foundation construction. This can take no time at all or it can take a while depending on the slope of your grade or just the size. Frequently, for slab on grade concrete pours, contactors will dig out a large footing around the perimeter of the home addition. This is where the load of the entire building will go. Next, they will add rebar throughout to reinforce that concrete. Now that concrete is ready to pour you will have to schedule a footing/concrete inspection. Upon passing or correcting mistakes your good to go on your concrete pour. Make sure to film the trucks showing up because it sure is exciting. And one final tip from a professional to you; once the concrete is being poured it’s too late, so make sure you double check everything before concrete gets there.
Okay now you have a big beautiful concrete slab and you’re ready for the fun stuff. FRAMING! Framing is my favorite because it’s fun and you can save money if you’re doing this project yourself. Framing usually take between 2-5 weeks. If you’re going to do this project yourself, then get the basic tools. Speed square, tape measure, saw, nail gun and a few other items. After framing you can install your windows and doors and continue on with rough electrical and plumbing. Your next big inspection is after all rough ins and framing is done. The inspector will be looking at all the electrical, plumbing, venting, fire blocking and ultimately to make sure that whatever your building matches the architecture drawing. So now we have a solid foundation. Framing and roofing is complete. On top of that we have our rough ins complete and we are ready to move on to the final chapters.
Depending on the type of building your architect designed, most houses in gilbert Arizona that are either home additions or new construction don’t have sheathing or any kind of plywood as shear strength. They achieve shear strength by using diagonal metal bracing. And installing foam to gain R-value. So typically, most home additions will be built with stucco as the siding to match the existing siding. However, a lot of older houses in Mesa, or Chandler and even Gilbert Arizona use t1-11 as a siding or even a fiber cement siding like James Hardie. Next up on the list to complete is insulation. Insulation is very important especially with temperatures reaching as high as 120 degrees. To reach code, the walls will need to be a minimum of R-19 and your ceiling with a minimum of R30. Generally, after insulation is complete by either you or the contractor the city will require an energy inspection to make sure insulation is up to par.
In due time, drywall goes up. For most homeowners and builders this is a huge milestone in the build. Your ity might require a drywall inspection (to make sure there are enough screws) when drywall goes up that’s when every room has dimension, and people without a vision can really see what their house looks like. After the main part of the structure is built your almost to the end because everything else doesn’t really need inspected. For example, painting, cabinets, trim work flooring, countertops. All the good-looking stuff isn’t required to be inspected. The inspector is there to make sure that the building wont collapse and cause death, they don’t care about what color you paint your walls Upon the final inspection of the building that’s when you can expect the inspector to analyze the whole build and make sure the switches are installed, plumbing fixtures aren’t leaking and anything like that.
As shown above, tackling a home addition in Gilbert Arizona can be a daunting task. Coupled with multiple sub-contractors that you rely on and hope to maintain a schedule and budget while you weather is unpredictable. As a licensed Electrician and a Licensed builder, I can say that, hardly does everything go as planned. Things take more time and cost more than you can think. Communication is key when tackling a large project. Always be ahead of the curve and think what’s next. The great thing about building in Gilbert Arizona is that the weather is generally always perfect for building something. I always advise customers to have everything written down when communicating with contractors or sub-contractors, and here at Everything Residential we emphasize on communicating through email or text so everybody is on the same page. Generally home additions can take up to 8 months to a year depending if you’re doing a home addition for Larry Fitzgerald or for an older mesa home.
