Home Additions in Bethesda, MD

What a home addition in Bethesda actually involves

The closed floor plans in Bethesda's 1950s colonials mean almost every interior project here involves at least one wall, and in a colonial that wall is frequently carrying load from the second floor. Montgomery County protects mature trees, and a large addition, deck footing or equipment path inside the critical root zone of a protected tree can require its own review on top of the building permit.

• Feasibility and zoning before design. Pull the plat, establish the setbacks, calculate existing lot coverage, and confirm the height and bulk limits that apply. Roughly speaking, this determines the size and shape of what you can build before an architect draws a line.
• Permit submission and review. A complete package — site plan, architectural, structural, energy compliance — submitted to the reviewing jurisdiction, with responses to any comments handled by us rather than forwarded to you.
• Systems extension. HVAC capacity evaluated for the added load rather than assumed, electrical circuits and panel capacity, and plumbing runs if the addition includes a kitchen or bath.
• 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 Bethesda

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 Bethesda'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 Bethesda home addition

We will not put a price range on a web page, because a number quoted without seeing your house is either a guess or bait. What we can do is tell you honestly which variables move the number, so you can read the bids you get from anyone.

• Foundation type and site conditions. Grade, soil, access for equipment and how far the excavator has to reach all move the number.
• Whether the addition includes plumbing. A bathroom or kitchen in the new space means supply, drain and vent to the addition.
• Matching existing materials. Siding, roofing, brick and window profiles that are no longer made drive either sourcing effort or a design decision about where the new material starts and stops.

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.
• Not verifying the septic system's capacity on a septic-served property before adding bedrooms.
• Choosing a builder who cannot show you a license, a certificate of insurance, and the permit history on their own jobs.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

An addition touches excavation, foundations, framing, roofing, siding, windows, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and interior finish, and it has to marry a new structure to an old one so that the seam is invisible from both sides. There is no version of this that a homeowner can subcontract piecemeal and expect to go well. It is the definitional general contracting job.

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 Bethesda

• 20814
• 20816
• 20817
• Wyngate
• Sumner
• Bradley Hills
• Glen Echo Heights
• Westmoreland Hills
• Edgemoor

How a Bethesda project runs

1. A free visit that produces a document, not a pitch. No presentation, no same-day discount, no financing conversation before anyone has looked at the house. We measure, we photograph, we ask what is not working, and we leave you with something written you can compare against every other bid.
2. Feasibility against Bethesda rules, before design. We establish what the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services will require for home addition at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow.
3. Everything priced and agreed before a permit is filed. You see the scope broken into line items, the allowances stated as real numbers rather than vague placeholders, and the process for handling anything discovered mid-project. Only then does the permit package get assembled and submitted, with us answering the reviewer rather than forwarding comments to you.
4. One crew, one schedule, one closeout. MHIC #111971, Our own supervision on site, inspections met by us, and a documented punch walk with the permits closed out at the end.

Home Additions across Bethesda and Montgomery County

Wyngate, Sumner, Bradley Hills, Glen Echo Heights, Westmoreland Hills and Edgemoor are all inside our regular working area, along with 20814, 20816, 20817. Bethesda buyers compare your house against new construction two streets over, so unfinished or dated space costs you more here than it would almost anywhere else in the county. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is sightlines from the kitchen into the family room, a primary suite that does not feel like a converted bedroom, and a lower level that reads as living space rather than as a basement — 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 Bethesda: whole-home renovation in Bethesda, kitchen remodeling in Bethesda, basement finishing in Bethesda, deck building in Bethesda.

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.

Bethesda home additions questions