How do additions & renovations differ from other types of projects, what can you expect and what are some items to look out for. This blog has useful information for the homeowner, the builder and the designer alike.

Additions & Renovations require a different kind of knowledge on top of the essentials of design for other types of projects.

Many types of projects fall under the umbrella of additions & renovations. If you’re planning on partaking in the task of adding to and/or updating your existing space, understanding some key points can be very helpful.

Some projects may be more complex and include both an addition and a renovation of the existing space. Other projects may be a little smaller such as turning an unfinished basement into a legal suite. No matter the size, a designer has to take specific items into account to provide adequate drawings.

In this blog we will be talking about some items that you should take into account even before you hire a designer and should definitely be taken into account during the design phase. This information will make you better equipped for all the different items that will be involved in your project.

Acquiring A Site Survey

If your project involves adding to the amount of space your structure takes up on the property – also known as lot coverage — then it’s a good idea to obtain a site survey. A site survey is a legal document of your property created by a registered British Columbia Land Surveyor (BCLS). The most important items included on the survey are your property lines, the existing structures on the property and geodetic datum as well as other important information and data. You can learn more about surveys and surveyors here.

A site survey is important because it ensures the designer is accurate when placing new structures or additions to existing structures on the property. This is especially true if the project is reaching the zoning regulation’s lot coverage limit. Without a proper survey, the site plan will not be fully accurate and if the plan is not fully accurate, how do you know the project meets the applicable regulations and will pass the building permit application phase?

It’s common for home owners to have a basic site survey commonly known as a mortgage survey and usually comes with the purchase of a house. The real estate agent shows the mortgage survey to give potential buyers a good look at the property. Sometimes this item can work for a project but most times they are outdated and lacking critical information required for the designer to be accurate. For example, mortgage surveys do not have geodetic datum points which the designer uses to calculate building height to ensure the project does not go over the height allowance.

Obtaining a site survey is quite easy. There are plenty of companies in town that provide this service. Give any of them a call and they would be more than happy to book a time to send a small crew out to survey your property. After the property is surveyed, the company then uses CAD software to draw up the property with the information obtained on site and the document is checked to ensure accuracy. When completed, the survey company will send the client a PDF and sometimes the DWG file of the survey. The designer usually uses the DWG file to work off when creating the site plan required for building permit plans.

Keep Servicing In Mind

It’s a wise idea to keep track of the services we can sometimes take for granted because we don’t see them or deal with them often. The items that are important yet go unseen are the items that should be established before any design begins. The big three service questions are how will the project be serviced with water, with sewer and how will storm water be managed. A designer should take these items into consideration at the beginning of the design process. These items can change the overall cost of the project and therefore it’s a good idea to establish these items so the client is aware of such costs.

If you are adding more fixtures that use water in your existing space, chances are you will need to upgrade your water service in some way. There are two upgrades that could take place. One is the water service pipe owned by you that runs from your property line to your home. The other is the water service pipe that runs from the street to the water box at your property line; these items are owned by the city. One or both may need to be upgraded and is determined by a calculation based on the proposed fixtures on your property. The idea is that your water service needs to be able to accommodate all fixtures on your property running at once. There should never be a time when your water service cannot handle what your fixtures are asking. The service pipe on your property is changed by your builder or plumber. The one at the city is handled by the city and is paid to the city directly. You can learn more about this at your municipality’s engineering department.

The sewer service takes care of sewage which contains black water and may contain grey water. Black water is non-reusable water containing what we usually refer to as sewage. Grey water is used water that does not contain sewage such as bath water, laundry water, etc. In urban and suburban areas, a sewer service is almost guaranteed to be connected at your property line and runs at a slight slope from your house to the sewer main in the street. In other cases, a septic tank and field are still commonly used. A septic system stores sewage in a tank where it allows the waste to separate. The dirty water is drained into a field while the main portions of the sewage are stored in the tank and is eventually cleaned out. Septic systems are most commonly used in rural areas where sewer infrastructure is not set up.

Storm water management is also an important system. Storm water is water from the weather that, if left unmanaged, can greatly affect the structural integrity of your house. An old saying is: “Water, if left long enough, will find a way in.” This is the essence of storm water management. We live in a wet climate. If water is left to sit on your foundation wall, it will eventually damage it. If we didn’t use gutters, the water droplets falling off your roof onto other areas of the house or even the concrete on the ground will eventually destroy what it is landing on. We manage storm water by running perforated PVC pipe at the foundation around the perimeter of the house at a slight slope as per the building code. This manages the water by allowing what would normally sit around the foundation to escape the area through a pipe that forces it to travel away from the house. Gutters are also connected to downspouts that connect to rain water leaders at the ground and connect finally into another PVC pipe down by the foundation and the same process continues. Over time, water carved out the Grand Canyon. Don’t underestimate the power of water or the necessity to manage it around any structure.

Lining Up New to Old

In the additions & renovations world, lining up the new construction to the existing old structure can be an art in itself. Another old saying comes to mind: “If you can’t make it look like it’s always been there, make it look obviously different”. Essentially this means don’t try to pretend like the new construction matches the existing structure if it obviously looks like an addition. If that’s the case, make it a feature. In most cases though, constructing a seamless addition is possible, however, there are a couple things to keep an eye out for.

Determining how walls are going to line up where the addition meets the existing structure is important. In new construction, behind the siding on the house, there is a thing called rainscreening. Rainscreening is simply using wood straps to create a gap between the actual wall and the siding. This gap is used for proper venting in case water does get behind the siding but more importantly it creates a capillary break, stopping capillary action. Capillary action is the ability of water (or any liquid) to crawl up narrow spaces, defying the laws of gravity. Creating a capillary break is the way to ensure adequate waterproofing of the structure as per the building code. Capillary action is a very interesting phenomenon; you can learn more about it here. Older construction does not have this construction method and depending on the municipality, the addition must. Now let’s think about this for a second. If the existing structure wall doesn’t have wood strapping and the new wall must have wood strapping, that means without proper planning, the new addition’s siding will stick out slightly which creates the obvious addition look that we discussed. There are a few tricks and design methods that are possible to resolve this issue and with proper planning, the seamless addition can be reached.

Another item to look out for is how the roofs will line up at the eaves. Trusses did not exist when most older homes were built. Now-a-days using a truss is simply economically wise. The question is how will the new addition’s truss roof meet up with the existing stick framed roof; stick framed meaning built on site at the time, without a truss. There are a few strategies that resolve the issue of the roof not lining up. Trusses are very adaptable and can be created in a way that lines up with the existing stick framed roof. The trick is providing adequate venting for the roof space as per the building code.

What Not to Touch

A valuable piece of knowledge for additions & renovations is knowing what to touch and what not to touch and understanding why. The last thing you want to do is open a proverbial can of worms that you can’t put back in the battle – or jar? – sure lets go with jar. A projects budget can skyrocket because of touching something that shouldn’t have been touched. There is a classification of construction called legal non-conforming. If you’re planning on working on areas that are classified as such, it’s important to know what you’re getting into.

Legal non-conforming construction refers to older construction practices that are not up to current day code. The way it works is that the city will not make you bring non-conforming construction up to code unless you are touching it. This is very important to know and could save you from massive headaches with the city. Sometimes construction can create a domino effect in which an item that wasn’t originally part of the project will need to be updated. An example of this would be lowering a basement floor. By lowering a basement floor, steps will need to be added to stairs. Let’s say the stairs are not to present day code. By adding three steps, the stairs are being touched and will need to be brought up to code. There are many theoretical like this. It’s a good idea to keep things like that in mind when planning additions & renovations.

Sometimes items should be brought up to code for the purpose of the overall project and that’s fine. Other times, proper planning including knowingly avoiding touching an area can be the difference between coming in on budget and blowing the budget out of the water. A designer should understand this and always be looking out for points in which this pit fall could take place.

Homeowner Protection Office (HPO)

A large part of trades now-a-days is ensuring the work is done correctly. Also, if anything goes wrong, who is liable and who pays whom. The Homeowner Protection Office (HPO) is a provincial trades insurance entity from BC Housing that deals with substantial reconstruction and new structures. According to the Homeowner Protection Act and regulations, new homes and substantial reconstruction projects are to be constructed by licenced residential builders and must be covered by mandatory third-party home warranty insurance.

Essentially, the reasoning for HPO is to mandate that the quality of work in residential construction is adequate for consumers of housing. There must be a qualified and licenced individual in charge of the project. A few people travelling around North America building homes that have issues in a short amount of time while the builders have moved on does not cut it anymore — nor should it. HPO ensures that builders are competent by requiring that licenced builders take professional development courses and new builders demonstrate an adequate level of understanding of the building code, construction technology and a host of other items.

The licencing and warranty work hand-in-hand and ensures that builders meet minimum best practices during construction and the client is protected with a strong, third-party warranty if a construction defect occurs. You can learn more about this here.

Conclusion

And this ends our short list of items that the homeowner and designer should be thinking and planning about at the design stage. In no way are these items a complete list of what to expect with additions & renovations, however, I think it gives some helpful insight in some of the things you can expect. Additions & Renovations can be a whole different ball-game than custom and spec homes. They require attention to different aspects as with other projects and a designer needs to know a lot about construction for the project to run smoothly.