Home Addition Cost Calculators

Home additions can change the look and feel of a home, add needed space and potentially fix floor plan problems.  Additions often include kitchens – when the old floor plan did not allow for a good sized kitchen with an island or other desired features.  Master bedroom suites are also a common home addition.  Instead of trying to rearrange walls to make room for a master bedroom in an existing floor plans a master suite in an addition allows the sleeping area, closet and bathroom to be optimized.  Family rooms are another category of home additions that are very popular and have the big advantage of having a lower cost to build than kitchens or master suites.  The lowest cost home addition is a garage, either adding a stall to an existing garage, or building an entirely new garage. 

In preparing to build a home addition the first 3 steps are to get design ideas, decide how much of the work you will do yourself and get a budget to ensure you can afford the cost.  Design ideas are available readily these days with websites like Houzz and Pinterest and image search engines on Google and Bing.  Collect photos of features, rooms and design you like and you will be ready to go.  Deciding on how much work you will do yourself is easy for the 40% of homeowners who wont do any of the work.  For the rest of homeowners who will do a little or a lot you should decide at the beginning what you want to do.  One tip – do not DIY just to save money – while you can save money DIY if it isn’t something you enjoy or something you are skilled at doing it is better to hire someone to do the work.  Finally with a design and a decision on what work you will do you can now create a budget.

Creating a budget for the cost of a home addition is a bit tricky at the early stage of the project but it is very important to ensure you have the financial means to pay for the project, so you can arrange financing and to consider how much, if any, your home will appreciate because of a home addition.  Some home additions cost nothing for the homeowner because the value of their home can increase as much or more than the cost of the home addition.  Then there are situations when the home will not increase at all or even decrease if it is unsightly – poorly designed addition.  To create a budget for your home addition start with home addition cost calculator like the one at www.remodelormove.com. The calculator is a great tool for setting an initial budget for a home addition.   A good home addition cost estimatorwill use your homes location, the type and size of rooms, the quality of materials and finishes and the amount of work – if any- a homeowner will do themselves or hire done to create an estimate of the costs.  At this point no calculator can give a 100% accurate estimate because so many decisions have yet to be made on exactly what materials and the design of the addition but with a preliminary cost estimate, and design ideas and a decision on what work a homeowner will do themselves the project can start off on the right foot and can have great results when finally completed.