Home Additions in Gaithersburg, MD

What a home addition in Gaithersburg actually involves

The 1990s builder floor plan gives you a two-story family room, an isolated kitchen and an unfinished basement with the mechanicals dead center. Finishing that basement well is largely a question of how intelligently you plan around the equipment. In Kentlands, Lakelands and Montgomery Village, exterior materials, colors and even railing profiles are governed by published standards. We design to the standard first and submit once.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

What we typically find on a Gaithersburg house of this era (1975 to 2008). Gaithersburg's builder stock is consistent, which means the finds are consistent: builder-grade plumbing fittings at end of life, undersized returns in the HVAC, and basement mechanical layouts that were located for the builder's convenience rather than for anyone who would later finish the space.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to older Gaithersburg homes

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. A meaningful share of Gaithersburg homes predate 1978, and the older neighborhoods here almost certainly do. We hold that certification and we set up for it from day one instead of discovering it halfway through. It is a fair question to put to every contractor bidding your job, along with a request to see the certificate.

What drives the cost on a Gaithersburg home addition

There is no honest price on a web page for work like this, and a contractor who publishes one is either guessing or fishing. What is useful is knowing what actually drives the number, so that when three bids come back at three different prices you can tell which one understood the job.

• Foundation type and site conditions. Grade, soil, access for equipment and how far the excavator has to reach all move the number.
• 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.

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.
• 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 Gaithersburg

• 20877
• 20878
• 20879
• 20882
• Kentlands
• Olde Towne
• Washingtonian
• Quince Orchard
• Montgomery Village
• Lakelands

How a Gaithersburg project runs

1. On-site consultation, measurements, and a scope you can read. We start by understanding the house and what you want from it. Measurements, photographs, a look at the systems, and an honest conversation about which parts of your wish list the building will actually support.
2. Feasibility against Gaithersburg rules, before design. We establish what the City of Gaithersburg 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. A scope you approve before anything is filed. Line items, stated allowances, and a written change-order process, because the disputes in this industry all live in the space between what was assumed and what was written. Once you approve it, we prepare the permit submission and carry it through review.
4. One supervisor, one schedule, one handover. MHIC #111971, The same person runs your job start to finish, we meet every inspection, and at the end you get a punch walk under working light plus the closed permits and warranty documentation as a package.

Home Additions across Gaithersburg and Montgomery County

Regular working area here: Kentlands, Olde Towne, Washingtonian, Quince Orchard, Montgomery Village and Lakelands, plus 20877, 20878, 20879, 20882. Gaithersburg's builder stock is structurally sound and cosmetically tired, which makes it the most straightforward remodel market in the upper county. The constraint is almost always the association, not the house.

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

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.

Gaithersburg home additions questions