General Remodel Question - Layout (Contractor/Architect)

xtremeski2001

13 years ago

Hi,

Received some great advice on the landscaping forum and thought I'd take our remodel questions here. We have a few changes we'd like to make to our house, but haven't a clue if these are $150k changes or $20k, $10k, etc.

Background: We live in a great location, large wooded 1 acre lot, great schools, good neighbors, and we're the cheapest house on the block (~$425k in a neighborhood of $550k homes). Our home is two stories with a unfinished basement and approx 2,700sqft.

We don't want to waste our time (or theirs) so should we have a contractor come by or an architect to give us a ballpark of the cost of a few of these changes? The #3 change below is likely unreasonable, but if the price is right we'd do it.

1 - Open living room into dinning room. Would require putting a hole in the wall, relocating HVAC return, some reinforcement of wall as we believe wall is load bearing.

2 - Raise sunken eat in kitchen to be level with rest of kitchen. Kitchen is over basement and eat in kitchen is on slab. Would require raising two doors (one to deck (french door) and other to garage) to be level with raised floor. Room is 13x12.

3 - Relocate mud room/laundry from center of house (sits between family room and kitchen). Would require adding on to the house near the slab mentioned above. Added room would be ~11x6 and have doors into the garage and out to the deck.

Thoughts?

Featured Answer

kirkhall

13 years ago

Start with a GC or 2 for a ball park. For some of this stuff, you may be able to do with just their designer and engineer and not have to pay for an architect.

You could also start with the city/municipality you live in to see what they require. If they require an architect's plans, then you might as well start with the architect. But, if not, I'd start (and did start) with a GC.

Now, do you have your houses blueprints/design documents, or are they maybe on file with the city/county? Those can be very helpful for a GC in determining if a wall is load-bearing or not. If you don't have them, your ball park will be less "tight" (and maybe quite low).

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Comments (6)

PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
13 years ago
BBdude:

Don't be offended when a potential contractor "qualifies" you. I would ask you your plans and your budget. If you are realistic, I would continue to invest time in possibly earning your business. Your contractor is as worried about wasting time as you are.
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weedyacres
13 years ago
Both #1 and #2 sound like pretty straightforward carpentry projects. I can't see them going over 4 figures.

#3 depends on lots of variables, as it's got plumbing, exterior finishing, and tie-in to existing building, which could entail complexities like roof connections. That's the one to get some ballparks before deciding to proceed. And then work with an architect first to design exactly what you want.

Not that you shouldn't get bids on the first 2. I just think you can pretty safely proceed with those without your budget inquiries first.
xtremeski2001
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks, all.

We received a quote for #1 for about $1,200. We lucked out as no HVAC/plumbing is in the way. This only covers the hole/framing, we're responsible for bringing the carpet through the new opening and painting.

While the GC was over he gave us his $.02 about 2&3. There would be a lot of relocating HVAC so we'd have to do split system to control heating/cooling upstairs versus down stairs. He ball parked the total cost of the upgrade at about $100k for everything, $50k of which would be for a whole new kitchen w/out appliances.

Considering we just moved in and have little equity (though we put down 20%), looks like this will have to go on the back burner as I don't know how else we could secure a loan with reasonable rates.
lavender_lass
13 years ago
If you can (or family can) do a quality DIY, then your kitchen upgrade would not be too expensive. Can existing cabinets and appliances be easily removed and reused? Do you 'need' a whole new kitchen...or just the floor raised?

Also, if you want to remove laundry from area between kitchen and family room...can you redesign kitchen space (during remodel) to accomodate the laundry and mudroom? Do you need an addition or can you reconfigure the existing space?
pangionedevelopers
13 years ago
Hello
I believe her question was to see if they should get estimates from architects or contractors.
Of coarse an architect can provide you an estimate but most of the time it is completely off in left field.
I can't tell you how many times we speak with homeowners and they show us their plans. The architect designs a $500k alteration when the homeowners budget is in the $300k range.

Contact some reputable contractors. Get as many bids as you feel are necessary but 3-5 should be suffice. Contractors like myself have in house architects and will include the plans as part of the package. You can also contact an architect. More times than not, his plans will cost more than it would if you went with the contractor.

You can read more on our blogs if you like:

Here is a link that might be useful: Bergen County Contractors