Home Additions in Kensington, MD

What a home addition in Kensington actually involves

A Kensington Victorian is balloon-framed in places, has plaster on lath, and often carries several generations of wiring in the same wall cavity. Interior work here is discovery work, and the way to control it is to open and inspect before pricing, not after. Assume that anything you change on the street-facing exterior inside the historic district is a review item. Window replacement in particular is scrutinized, because vinyl replacement units in an original opening are the single most common rejection.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Kensington

There is a federal rule most homeowners have never heard of and most bids never mention. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule covers pre-1978 housing and requires a certified firm, contained work areas and a specific cleanup protocol any time painted surfaces are disturbed. Most of Kensington's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We are an EPA lead-safe certified firm and we work that way as a matter of course. If you are getting bids and nobody else has raised this, that tells you something worth knowing about the bids.

What drives the cost on a Kensington 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You will notice we do not publish a price range.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 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.
• Deep, narrow town lots with the houses set close to the street and most of the usable yard behind. That is a Kensington-specific factor and it belongs in the conversation early.

Additions run on two clocks. The design, engineering and permit review clock happens before anything is built and is largely outside the builder's control. The construction clock starts at permit issuance and runs through foundation, framing, dry-in, rough-ins, inspections, insulation, drywall and finish. Anyone who gives you a total duration before knowing which jurisdiction is reviewing the plans is guessing.

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.
• 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

Everything we claim here can be verified by you in a few minutes. MHIC #111971 is on file with the Maryland Home Improvement Commission and is publicly searchable. We carry general liability and workers' compensation coverage and provide carrier-issued certificates before a contract is signed. The licensed trades working under us hold their own licenses and their own insurance, and they pull their own trade permits, which is how the law requires it. What you get is a single contract and a single company that cannot point at anyone else.

Where we work in Kensington

• 20895
• Old Town Kensington
• Rock Creek Hills
• Ken-Gar
• Kensington View
• Parkwood
• Chevy Chase View

How a Kensington 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 Kensington rules, before design. We establish what the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services, with town review will require for home addition at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow. Where historic review 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 Kensington and Montgomery County

We work throughout Old Town Kensington, Rock Creek Hills, Ken-Gar, Kensington View, Parkwood and Chevy Chase View, covering 20895. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is period detail kept intact on the outside and thoroughly modernized behind it, with kitchens and baths that do not fight the architecture — 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 Kensington: whole-home renovation in Kensington, kitchen remodeling in Kensington, basement finishing in Kensington, deck building in Kensington.

Most remodelers stop at the drywall. We started at the roof and worked inward, so the envelope is not a referral for us. Roof replacement, siding, aluminum siding, gutters, soffit and fascia and window replacement all sit under the same contract as the interior work, which matters most on the day somebody opens a wall and finds out why the paint kept failing.

Kensington home additions questions