Home Additions in Annapolis, MD

What a home addition in Annapolis actually involves

Downtown Annapolis houses are old, structurally idiosyncratic and often shared-wall. Interior work has to account for what happens on the other side of that wall, and for the fact that the floor framing was not designed for a modern kitchen's point loads. Critical Area impervious-surface limits are the single most common reason an Annapolis deck or addition has to be redesigned. We establish where you stand against those limits before drawing anything.

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century brick and frame houses downtown, Eastport's watermen's cottages and infill, and mid-century to 1990s subdivisions along the peninsulas.

• Design and engineering. Architectural drawings, a structural design for the new framing and for wherever the addition ties into the existing house, and the foundation design appropriate to the soil and grade.
• Excavation and foundation. Footings below the local frost depth, foundation walls or piers, waterproofing and drainage, and a slab or crawlspace detail that will not become the source of a moisture problem later.
• Framing, roof tie-in and envelope. Framing to the engineered design, and then the part that separates good additions from obvious ones: the roof tie-in, the flashing at the intersection, and matching the existing roofing, siding and trim so the addition does not announce itself.
• Interior finish and the seam. Floor levels reconciled, drywall and trim matched, flooring run continuously where possible, and the transition detailed so the house reads as one house.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to most of Annapolis

Federal law — the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule — requires that work disturbing painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 be performed by a certified firm using contained work practices, with specific cleanup afterward. Most of Annapolis's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We are certified for this work and it is built into how we set up, not bolted on. Worth asking every other contractor bidding your job whether they are, and asking to see it.

What drives the cost on a Annapolis home addition

Anyone can publish a range. Almost nobody can publish one that survives contact with an actual house, which is why we do not. The list below is the honest version: the specific things that decide whether your project lands at the bottom or the top of whatever range you have in your head.

• Foundation type and site conditions. Grade, soil, access for equipment and how far the excavator has to reach all move the number.
• Whether the existing HVAC, electrical service and, on septic properties, the septic system can absorb the added load, or whether they have to be upgraded.
• Whether the addition includes plumbing. A bathroom or kitchen in the new space means supply, drain and vent to the addition.

The mistakes we get called in to fix

• Assuming the existing HVAC will handle the new space. Adding conditioned area to an already marginal system means the whole house is uncomfortable instead of just the addition.
• A roof tie-in that was not detailed, which is where additions leak. Flashing at the intersection of new and old roof planes is not a field decision.
• Not verifying the septic system's capacity on a septic-served property before adding bedrooms.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

An addition is the only remodeling project that is also a land-use question. Before anyone talks about what you want, somebody has to establish what the lot and the zoning ordinance will allow — setbacks, lot coverage, height, and how the existing house already counts against those limits.

Our position is simple and it is checkable. We hold MHIC #111971 in Maryland. We carry general liability and workers' compensation coverage, and we will send you the certificates before you sign rather than after you ask twice. Our subcontracted trades carry their own coverage and their own trade licenses, and the trade permits are pulled under those licenses, as they are required to be. You sign one contract with one company, and that company is the one answering the phone when something needs answering.

Where we work in Annapolis

• 21401
• 21403
• 21409
• Historic District
• Eastport
• Murray Hill
• Wardour
• Hillsmere Shores
• Annapolis Roads

How a Annapolis project runs

1. We walk the property and put the scope in writing. An unhurried visit, real measurements, and a look behind finishes wherever we responsibly can. You end up with a document describing the project rather than a number scribbled on a business card.
2. Feasibility against Annapolis rules, before design. We establish what the City of Annapolis, or Anne Arundel County outside city limits will require for home addition at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow. Where historic review and association architectural approval applies, that submission is prepared and filed first, because the building permit is not useful until it clears.
3. Scope agreed first, permits second. Nothing gets submitted until you have approved a line-item scope with the allowances written out in plain terms and a change-order process both sides have signed off on. Then we assemble and file the permit package and answer the reviewer's comments ourselves.
4. One team on site, one closeout file. MHIC #111971, We supervise our own trades, we schedule against the inspection calendar so nobody sits idle, and we hand you a closeout file at the end that you can give to a buyer years from now.

Home Additions across Annapolis and Anne Arundel County

We work throughout Historic District, Eastport, Murray Hill, Wardour, Hillsmere Shores and Annapolis Roads, covering 21401, 21403, 21409. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is waterside outdoor living, kitchens that open toward the view, and downtown interiors modernized without touching the protected exterior — worth knowing whether you are renovating to stay or renovating to sell.

Homeowners here usually reach us for more than one thing at a time. Related work in Annapolis: whole-home renovation in Annapolis, kitchen remodeling in Annapolis, basement finishing in Annapolis, deck building in Annapolis.

There is a specific failure mode we exist to prevent: the interior contractor who opens a wall, finds water damage, and hands you a roofer's phone number. Because roofing, siding, aluminum siding, windows and gutters, soffit and fascia are trades we perform ourselves, the envelope is inside your contract rather than outside it, and there is no second company to schedule, vet and argue with.

Annapolis home additions questions