Pop Up / Pop Top / Additions in New Orleans

[Justin Cook]

Does anyone have experience adding a second story onto New Orleans properties? I'm not sure what the terminology is down there, up here in DC we call them "pop-ups". We're looking at a shotgun double right now that already has a camelback at the very back. We would love to keep the two units downstairs and extend the camelback all the way to the front of the house, adding another appx 2000 sqft, and owner occupy that space. Looking at the HDLC map we would fall just outside the Garden District areas regulations, which would hopefully make the process go more smoothly.

I've seen price estimates anywhere from $150 to $300 per sqft, but it's not really region specific, and this would be our first purchase in that market so I'm not familiar enough with how much the construction costs vary with what we see here (astronomically high for labor in DC). Conveniently it looks like the house next to it has been popped up already, and there are several other taller homes on the street, so aesthetically we would still be in line with the surrounding area.