How Much Does it Cost...

Question

To add a new bedroom and bathroom? This house I found is a little over 1,800 sqft. and only has 2bed/1bath. Which is crazy to me. Is it as simple as erecting another wall inside the house for the bed and another wall for the bath. Then get the plumbers inside for the bath? This house has plenty of room to just add them on in the inside. So with that, is there a general, "safe" price I could put down for adding a room and bath (material/labor)? Cause honestly, I don't know how to estimate this.

Thanks,
-Manuel

Randy F. · Answer

Manuel, while I understand what your saying, dont be too intimidated by code issues. Thats where permitting and a good contractor come into play. Its hard to find properies that DONT have code issue of some kind.

J Scott · Answer

Yup this is why you'll generally find that two-story houses have bathrooms on top of each other or back-to-back...

The costs you need to think about:

- Framing the new wall
- Sheetrock
- Paint
- New flooring
- Plumbing
- Electrical
- Venting
- Carpentry (New Doors, Trim, Vanity, etc)
- Permits

Manuel A. · Answer

Forgive me if that's so but just in my mind I'm thinking, "code" = permits = I don't know how much they cost = delays = me going crazy. Haha. But perhaps I suppose it could also go, "code" = have the contractor deal with it = peace of mind. One of those roads right? :)

But I must say, I did find some great small-ish rehab deals. The only thing that pushes me out of my comfort zone thus far is permits/working with the city, and foundation problems. Plumbing, electrical, and roofing I'm fine with. But those other two just scare me haha. If I just keep thinking of the scenario over, and over in my head and how to handle I'm sure I can get over it though.

Thanks for the encouragement :D

-Manuel

Dyna J. · Answer

You are waaaay overthinking this. You are doing yourself a disservice by underestimating your abilities. You have everything you need right now to pull something like this off. PM a few of the people here who routinely do flips. These are folks who, at one time or another, have gutted structures right down to the studs and can tell you how NONscary it actually is. (Yes I made up a word, so what :-p)

Jesse Tsai · Answer

For us, bedrooms are really easy.  As long as there is a reasonably easy way to add a closet, and a window to the outside world, we just throw up some studs, drywall, texture, paint, and install a door, and we have a new bedroom.

Putting up walls and doors typically run us about $500-800 total.

Bathrooms are a different story.  Those require moving some plumbing, and some permitting.

Those are hard to throw numbers around on.

Manuel A. · Answer

Steve Babiak Yeah, when you say the word, "code" it just scares the heck out of me haha. I think I'll skip on working with a house that is not up to code and needs major renovation until I'm more experienced. I think it's what's best. Thanks.

-Manuel

Manuel A. · Answer

Randy F. Thanks! It's no where near stating the obvious for me and I'm sure other alike. Really, thank you very much!

-Manuel

Steve Babiak · Answer

Randy F. makes a good point.  You have to be able to get the plumbing supply lines in, the plumbing waste out, and there has to be venting of the waste stack.  Locating the extra bath near the existing plumbing makes all that easier to accomplish.

As far as bedrooms go, you will be putting up a wall, a closet, and a door at minimum.  To make it a bedroom, you will also need a window (for ventilation and egress), and you will need to provide heat to that bedroom.  Latest electric code requires AFCI in the bedrooms receptacles; your new bedroom will be required to do that on any new receptacles, and maybe even the already existing receptacles; and the local building code might even expect that to happen in the other part of the room being split into that bedroom (I am assuming that one huge bedroom is being split into two to do this).  And the other half of the one big bedroom will have to keep a window; some people will also say that it can't be used as a pass-through - that makes the bedroom not a bedroom any longer, but a hallway.

Sounds like you have enough square footage within the building to do this, but the layout and allocation of space still might not make this feasible to do.

Randy F. · Answer

The first and most important thing to look at is plumbing. Does the layout allow the new bath to be situated above or adjacent to the existing bath or kitchen? If not, is there a crawlspace or unfinished basement where new bath suppy and waste can readily be tied into existing plumbing? If its on slab or finished basement and away from existing plumbing it wont likely be cost effective to do.

Sorry if Im stating the obvious here! Figured it was worth saying as sometimes its the simpler things that get overlooked and time wasted.

Prashant P. · Answer

Emily's response above is correct.

You may want to consider the size of all three bedrooms and baths.  I would check comparable homes and see what the average size of those rooms are.

You would hate to put in all that money into adding a bedroom and bath and end up having the smallest bedrooms on the block.

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