Home Additions
Home Additions in Atlanta
Maybe your family is growing. Maybe you need a primary suite, or a real guest room, or one more bathroom than the house was built with. You do not have to leave the neighborhood you love to get there. Additions are the most complex work we do, and they are the work we are best at.
What we do
An addition is a structural project with a renovation attached to it. The new space has to be framed, roofed, wired, and conditioned, and then it has to meet the existing house in a way that does not look like a bolt-on. The second part is what separates a good addition from an obvious one.
Before we talk about square footage, we talk about three constraints: your lot, your structure, and your budget. Setbacks and lot coverage limits decide whether you can build out. Your existing foundation and framing decide whether you can build up affordably. And the honest number decides which of the two you should do. We work through all three with you before any drawings get made, because the wrong answer here is expensive.
We have completed additions across Decatur, Buckhead, Morningside, Virginia-Highland, and the rest of the intown neighborhoods, including two-story tear-offs completed with the owners still living in the house.
Second-Story Additions
Adding a full second floor is the biggest way to gain space without giving up a square foot of yard. It is also the most involved project on this list, because it means removing your roof, reinforcing what is underneath, and building a new floor of house on top.
For a lot of intown homeowners, especially owners of ranches, it is the right answer. A 1,400-square-foot ranch on a good lot can become a 2,600-square-foot house with four bedrooms without changing its footprint. Our Modern Transformation project in Decatur did exactly that, and the owners never moved out.
Can you stay in the house? Sometimes, and more often than people expect. It depends on the roof-off sequence and how long the dry-in phase takes. We will give you a straight answer during design, not after you have committed.
What a second story typically involves:
- A structural evaluation of the existing foundation, framing, and load paths, done before design, not after
- Removing the roof and dry-in, which is the phase we plan the schedule around because weather matters
- A new stair, which usually costs you space on the main floor and needs to be designed carefully
- HVAC that is sized for the whole house, not just the new floor, and often a second system
- Electrical service capacity, which frequently needs an upgrade
- Exterior work to make the whole house read as one house rather than two
Rear Additions
Building out the back is usually the least disruptive way to add space, and it is the most common addition we build. It suits how intown lots are shaped: narrow at the street, deeper than they look, with the useful yard behind the house.
Rear additions are how we solve the two most common complaints we hear. The kitchen is too small and closed off, and there is nowhere to sit together as a family. Push the back of the house out fifteen or twenty feet and you get both, plus a much better connection to the yard.
Rear additions are also where kitchens and additions merge. Many of ours are really one project: a bigger kitchen, an eating area, and a family room, all in a new footprint.
What a rear addition typically involves:
- New foundation, either crawl space or slab, and sometimes a basement if you are excavating anyway
- Removing part of the existing rear wall, which is almost always load-bearing
- Reworking the roofline so the addition ties in cleanly instead of stepping awkwardly
- Extending HVAC, plumbing, and electrical to the new area
- Matching siding, trim, and windows to the original house, or making a deliberate contemporary contrast if that is the goal
- Setback and lot coverage review, which we handle during Planning & Permitting
In-Law Suites
Multi-generational living is not a trend anymore. Parents move in, adult children come back, and guests stay longer than a weekend. An in-law suite gives everyone somewhere to close a door.
The design question is always the same balance: how connected, and how independent? Some families want a shared kitchen and one interior door. Others want a private entrance, a kitchenette, laundry, and the ability to not cross paths on a Tuesday morning. Both are right. They are just different projects.
Ways we build them:
- Converted existing space. A basement, an attic, or an over-garage space finished out as a suite. Usually the most economical route.
- Attached addition. A ground-floor suite added to the side or rear, often with its own entrance and patio.
- Above a detached garage. A fully separate structure with a suite on the second level. That is an accessory dwelling unit rather than an in-law suite, and we cover it on our detached ADUs and accessory structures page.
What we plan for
Accessibility
Zero-entry showers, wider doorways, comfort-height fixtures, and blocking for grab bars, planned in from the start rather than retrofitted
A private entrance
That reads as part of the house instead of a side door
Kitchenette or full kitchen
Which affects permitting, so we sort this out early
In-suite laundry
Which is the detail people forget and then wish they had
Sound separation
Between the suite and the main house, which matters more than anyone expects
In-law suite vs. ADU: which are you building?
An in-law suite is typically attached to or integrated into the main house. An accessory dwelling unit is usually detached, with its own kitchen, bath, and entrance, and it has its own zoning and permitting path in the City of Atlanta and in DeKalb County. Attached is generally faster, cheaper, and simpler to permit. Detached gives you genuine separation and, depending on the rules for your property, may be rentable.
Most people start this conversation without knowing which one they want, which is fine. We will help you figure out which one your lot and your situation actually call for. If it turns out to be the detached version, everything about it is on our detached ADUs and accessory structures page.
Typical investment: converting existing space runs $60K to $90K. A partial addition runs $100K to $150K. A full custom addition runs $160K to $250K+.
Attic Build-Outs
Your attic may be the most underused square footage you own. It is already inside the roof, already inside the footprint, and already paid for. Whether it can become a room is a question of four things: headroom, roof pitch, floor structure, and access.
We evaluate all four before we design anything. Most attics in intown Atlanta can be converted. Some need dormers to get usable headroom. Some need the floor joists sistered or replaced because they were sized to hold Christmas decorations, not people and furniture. And nearly all need a real stair, which has to come out of the floor below.
Most common uses: guest suite, home office, playroom or teen space, and occasionally a full primary suite with a vaulted ceiling.
Typical investment: a basic conversion runs $40K to $65K. A bedroom or office build-out runs $70K to $100K. A full attic suite with a bathroom runs $110K to $175K+.
What an attic build-out typically involves:
- Structural reinforcement of the floor system to meet live load requirements
- Dormers or skylights, added for headroom and daylight, which change the exterior of the house
- A code-compliant permanent stair, and egress if the space becomes a bedroom
- Serious insulation and air sealing, because an unconditioned Atlanta attic reaches temperatures that will make a finished room unusable if you get this wrong
- Dedicated HVAC, often a mini-split, sized for a space with a lot of roof surface
- Knee-wall storage, built in rather than left as dead space
Building detached instead
Not everything has to attach to the house. A detached garage with a suite above it, a backyard cottage, a pool house, or a studio can give you more independence than an addition will, and on some lots it is the only place left to build. That work has its own zoning path and its own set of site and utility questions, so it lives on its own page.
How it works
Additions run through the same six steps as everything else we build, but two of them carry more weight. Discovery & Design is longer, because we are working through structure, zoning, and layout at the same time. And Planning & Permitting is genuinely a phase rather than a formality: permits for structural work take real time, and we build the schedule around them rather than hoping.
Pricing starts early. As the design takes shape you get a ballpark built from cost data on additions like yours, so you can adjust scope while changes are still cheap. When you are ready, our trade partners walk the house with us and price it in detail, and that becomes a fixed-price proposal.
Why homeowners hire us for additions
We have done the hard ones.
Two-story tear-offs, ten-foot ceiling conversions, and basement excavations under existing houses. Additions and large-scale renovations are our primary focus, not a sideline.
Fixed price before we break ground.
On a project this size, an open-ended number is not a budget. It is a hope. You get a line-item fixed price you approve before construction starts.
It looks like it belongs.
The compliment we want is that a visitor cannot tell which part is new. That comes from roofline, siding, window proportion, trim detail, and floor height, all decided during design.
Three-year workmanship warranty.
Structural work should be backed for longer than a year. Ours is.
Home addition FAQ
How long does a home addition take?
Most additions run 5 to 9 months of construction, plus design and permitting beforehand. Our recent second-story additions in Decatur and Buckhead each ran about 9 months. A small rear bump-out can be considerably shorter.
Will I have to move out?
It depends on the scope and the sequence. Homeowners often move out for the largest projects, but our Decatur second-story addition was completed with the family still living in the house. We will tell you honestly during design which category yours is in, and we will plan the disruptive phases around your life where we can.
Should I build up or build out?
Building out is usually simpler and less disruptive but costs you yard and is limited by setbacks and lot coverage. Building up preserves the yard and often gains more space, but requires a structural evaluation of what is already there and a roof-off phase. We work through both options with you, with real numbers attached, before you commit.
Do I need an architect?
Not always. For many additions, our in-house design support plus a structural engineer is enough. For complex structural work, historic district review, or unusual sites, an architect is worth every dollar and we will tell you so. We work with architects regularly and can recommend ones we trust.
Can you excavate a basement under my existing house?
Yes. We have extensive experience excavating crawl spaces to create full basements. It is not as economical per square foot as a second story or a rear addition, but for houses with no other room to grow it is often the right answer, and it produces genuinely good space with proper ceiling height.
Will an addition increase my property value?
In most cases, yes, particularly additions that add bedrooms and bathrooms in intown neighborhoods where inventory is tight. We are builders and not appraisers, so we will not quote you a return percentage.
Thinking about adding on?
The earliest conversation is the most valuable one. Before drawings, before an architect, before you have a number in your head. Twenty minutes, no cost, no obligation.