The Question

Move, or make the house bigger

Most people arrive at an addition after doing the arithmetic on moving. The house is short by a room or two, but the street is right, the schools are right, and the thought of starting again somewhere less familiar is worse than the thought of construction.

An addition is the answer when the space genuinely cannot be found inside the existing walls. Before we agree that, we look for it anyway. Reworking a poor layout, developing a lower level or opening up a main floor is cheaper than building new structure, and if one of those gets you what you need, that is the advice you should be given.

Where the house really does have to grow, the design question is not how to add rooms. It is how to add them without the result reading as two buildings stuck together. Roof lines have to resolve. Floor levels have to meet. Window proportions, siding, trim and the rhythm of the openings all have to carry across the join. Done well, a visitor cannot tell you where the original house ends.

Then there is the join itself, which is where additions succeed or fail structurally. New foundation meets old, new framing ties into existing walls, and the building envelope has to be continuous across the seam. That work is invisible when it is right and expensive when it is not. Design-Build under one roof. is how the detail drawn at that junction is the detail actually built there.

Beamed ceiling meeting a wall of windows in an added living space

What Is Included

Additions we design and build

What is possible depends on your lot and your house. These are the forms an addition usually takes.

Rear and side extensionsGround level space added where the lot allows, usually to enlarge the kitchen or the main living area.
Second storey additionsBuilding upward where the footprint cannot grow, with the existing structure assessed for what it can carry.
Primary suite additionsA bedroom, ensuite and closet added as one wing rather than carved out of existing rooms.
Bump-outs and infillSmall structural additions that fix a room which is short by a metre rather than short by a wing.
Foundation and structural workNew footings, beams and tie-ins engineered for the join rather than approximated on site.
Exterior integrationRoof, siding, trim and windows matched or deliberately contrasted so the addition reads as intended.

How It Runs

From feasibility to a seamless join

Test

We check what your lot and your existing structure will actually allow before anyone gets attached to a plan.

Design

The addition drawn with the existing house, including how the two meet inside and out.

Approve

Engineering and permit drawings prepared and submitted, with the approvals tracked through to issue.

Construct

Foundation through to finishes, with the house kept weather tight and secure while the two halves are joined.

Open living area with exposed beams looking through to the kitchen

Why It Matters

The seam is the whole job

Additions are the project type where the design and the construction are least separable. Every significant decision, from where the new roof meets the old to how the floor levels are reconciled, is simultaneously a drawing question and a building question.

Split those across two companies and the seam is where the arguments live. The drawing shows an intent, the site finds the existing framing is not where the drawing assumed, and somebody has to decide quickly with both the design and the structure in mind.

With one team the decision happens on site, in front of the actual condition, by people who own both halves of the answer. That is also what keeps the addition from looking added: the exterior details are held to as the work proceeds rather than simplified whenever the site gets difficult.

Where We Work

Growing homes across Calgary

We design and build additions in Calgary and the surrounding communities of Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks and Chestermere. Travel outside the city is settled at the start of the project.

What is possible varies a lot by neighbourhood here. Established inner city lots come with setbacks, height limits and coverage rules that often decide the shape of an addition before the design starts, and neighbours close enough that access and staging matter. Larger lots further out give more freedom, though the existing house is usually newer and its roof and cladding have to be matched carefully to avoid an obvious patch. Either way, the first honest conversation is about what the rules and the structure permit, not about what would be nice.

Questions

Additions, answered

Is an addition cheaper than moving?

It depends entirely on the addition and on what moving would cost you in your market. What we can do is give you a real scope and a real price for the addition, so you are comparing two actual numbers rather than one number and an assumption.

Can my house carry a second storey?

That is a structural question answered by looking at the existing foundation and framing, with engineering where required. It is one of the first things we establish, because the answer changes the whole approach.

Will the addition look like an addition?

Not if the exterior is designed properly. Roof line, window proportion, siding and trim are what give it away, so those are resolved on the drawings rather than decided by whatever material is easiest to source at the time.

Do we have to move out during construction?

Often not for the early stages, since much of the new structure goes up outside the existing walls. The disruption concentrates around the period when the two are joined, and we will tell you what to expect for your specific project.

Custom BasementsThe cheaper square footage to check first, since you already own it.View service Full Home RenovationsSometimes the space exists and the layout is what is standing in the way.View service Custom Home BuildsWhen the honest answer is that the house cannot become what you need.View service

Home Additions in Calgary