Home Additions in Fairfax, VA

What a home addition in Fairfax actually involves

Mid-century ramblers and split-levels around the city core, 1970s and 1980s colonials and townhomes through Kings Park West and Fair Oaks, and older properties in and around Old Town Fairfax.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to most of Fairfax

If the house went up before 1978, the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies to any work that disturbs painted surfaces: the firm doing it has to be certified, the work area has to be contained, and the cleanup has to be verified. Most of Fairfax's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We hold the certification and we price the containment into the job rather than discovering it later. A bid that never mentions lead on a house of this age is a bid that has not been thought through.

What drives the cost on a Fairfax home addition

You will notice we do not publish a price range. That is deliberate: the number depends on things nobody can see from the street. Here is what genuinely moves it, so you can interrogate every estimate you receive, including ours.

• How the roof ties in. A simple gable extension is straightforward; a tie-in into an existing hip or a low-slope intersection is engineering and flashing detail.
• 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.
• Second-story additions, which require verifying that the existing foundation and framing can carry the new load — sometimes they can, sometimes they need reinforcement.

The mistakes we get called in to fix

• Designing before checking setbacks and lot coverage. It is the single most common way people spend money on drawings that cannot be built.
• 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.

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.

We would rather over-disclose than be asked. Maryland: MHIC #111971, issued by the Home Improvement Commission and searchable in the state licensing database. General liability and workers' compensation in force, with certificates sent by our carrier on request and before signing, not after. The licensed trades on your project hold their own licenses and their own policies and pull their own trade permits, which is the legal requirement rather than a preference. Your contract is with us, and so is the responsibility.

Where we work in Fairfax

• 22030
• 22031
• 22032
• 22033
• Old Town Fairfax
• Mosby Woods
• Fairfax Villa
• Country Club Hills
• Kings Park West
• Fair Oaks

How a Fairfax 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 Fairfax rules, before design. We establish what the City of Fairfax, or Fairfax 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 Fairfax

We work throughout Old Town Fairfax, Mosby Woods, Fairfax Villa, Country Club Hills, Kings Park West and Fair Oaks, covering 22030, 22031, 22032, 22033. Fairfax is a value market relative to inside the Beltway, which means owners here are more likely to renovate and stay. Projects tend to be larger in scope and longer-horizon than in Arlington or Alexandria. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is kitchen and family room combined, a real primary bath, finished lower levels with proper egress, and outdoor space that works — 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 Fairfax: whole-home renovation in Fairfax, kitchen remodeling in Fairfax, basement finishing in Fairfax, deck building in Fairfax.

We came to general contracting from the outside of the house in, which is the part most remodelers subcontract and hope for the best on. That means the same company handling your interior can also handle roof replacement, siding, aluminum siding, gutters, soffit and fascia and window replacement — under one contract, with one warranty conversation instead of three companies pointing at each other about where the water came from.

Fairfax home additions questions