Building a 2nd story

[Rhino]

I've been wondering about adding a 2nd level to our 1950s weatherboard house. Obviously I'll need to call in the experts to take a look, but I was hoping someone here with a bit of knowledge could offer some advice.
Are there any deal-breakers that would make this house unsuitable that I should be aware of before I go down this path? Someone (hear-say) mentioned to me that the existing framing might need to be redone with a double-stud, the expense of which must surely be a deal breaker!

[WGN ex-property manager]

Might be easier to raise the existing building up to the 2nd story, and create a new bottom story specifically designed for the load. You'll also be as risk of needing to regib some or all of the building with braceline gib to meet modern bracing standards.

[Rhino]

Interesting suggestion! Is that common?

We're actually in a position where the house needs to be lifted, re-piled and a new foundation ring poured. Possibly re-roofed if the tiles are too heavy to lift as-is. Some lathe & plaster removed and re-gibbed inside.

It seems prudent to consider the 2nd level now, rather than later down the track.

[TheLiberalLeft]

If applicable, watch height-to-boundary reqms.

[One]

you're lifting the whole house? Is it well-aligned to the sun? Might be a chance to fix that!

[WGN ex-property manager]

Double stud isn;t actually that much more expensive than single. Stud timber for a wall isn't so expensive, and the extra labour / time is really low, as most of the work involved in a stud wall is getting the top / bottom plates and lintels right. Whacking up the studs with a nail gun and drop was is quick, and you still need the same number of dwangs as you would in a a single stud wall.

You may well have to re-gib using braceline gib, which if you take into account the gib stopping, trims fixing and repainting represents much more of a cost than double stud walls.

[Rhino]

Good idea One, I don't think we'll need to realign though.

OK... so to do this I'd likely need to remove the lining from one side of every (internal and external?) wall of the house, have another stud put in to create double studs, fit dwangs, reline with gib braceline, plaster, paint, trims, etc. Sounds like more expense than it's worth, so that might indeed be the deal breaker.

[Perry]

Go High or Spread Out?

Is space such a constraint that you
can only consider going upwards?
I.e. can you not spread out?

A family member did the raise-up-
the-existing-house and put in a new
foundation storey. T'was a while ago
and bureaucracy costs may now be
a significant deterrent.

But that brings me back to space.
In the case I mentioned, there was
enough room to build the new lower
storey beside the existing house,
then very large cranes were used
to lift the existing house up, swing
left, and lower atop the new bit.

A beach and sea view made it worth
all the effort. What's the attraction
in your case?

It's almost always more costly to go
up, rather than out.

[Vai-man]

Interesting suggestion! Is that common?

We're actually in a position where the house needs to be lifted, re-piled and a new foundation ring poured. Possibly re-roofed if the tiles are too heavy to lift as-is. Some lathe & plaster removed and re-gibbed inside.

It seems prudent to consider the 2nd level now, rather than later down the track.

May be better off starting from scratch haha.

But imo raising the house and building under it will be more cost effective its a little more complex then a few double studs around the place it will involve re-piling possibly uprated joists or bearers in certain areas more than likely flitch/steel beams for larger spanning areas, your frameing centres will most likely be greater than than the max 400mm etc.

Not to mention you wont have a roof on will the second story is being built.

Its not hard to lift the house and build under but it would be best to talk to an engineer to get an idea of whats involved

[revdev]

Might be easier to raise the existing building up to the 2nd story

A beach and sea view made it worth all the effort. What's the attraction in your case?

What's your view/outlook like? A friend of the family did this in Taupo and went from having a very average house to one with decent lake views from the 2nd floor. Added 100%+ to the value of the house

[Rhino]

Going higher would give us a view over the Heathcote river and an unobstructed view of the Port hills (not a residential area) and the greenland in between.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about any of this, but I did read that if your 2nd story is within 4.5m of the boundary you can't have windows there.... that would be the case with our 2 'side' boundaries. So I don't know that raising the house and building underneath would work? That and the fact that we don't really have room on the section for building side-by-side.

Our section size is pretty small (~505 m2) so I don't want to eat into too much of it by spreading out. One other option is to rebuild the (currently detached) garage with a room on top, and possibly fill in the area between the garage and house with another room, creating internal access at the same time.

May be better off starting from scratch? You're probably right!

[One]

are you living 1 zone? 4m setback should be ok with a window.

http://ccc.govt.nz/homeliving/buildingplanning/boundariespropertyfencing.aspx

Talk to an architect. They may have a creative solution.

[WGN ex-property manager]

Going higher would give us a view over the Heathcote river and an unobstructed view of the Port hills (not a residential area) and the greenland in between.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about any of this, but I did read that if your 2nd story is within 4.5m of the boundary you can't have windows there.... that would be the case with our 2 'side' boundaries. So I don't know that raising the house and building underneath would work? That and the fact that we don't really have room on the section for building side-by-side.

Our section size is pretty small (~505 m2) so I don't want to eat into too much of it by spreading out. One other option is to rebuild the (currently detached) garage with a room on top, and possibly fill in the area between the garage and house with another room, creating internal access at the same time.

May be better off starting from scratch? You're probably right!

All this stuff you "can't" do, you probably can, just you'll need a resource consent including permission from the neighbours. Some neighbours are lovely people, some need bribing.

[nzfrazer]

We did a house lift/build new storey underneath for a client just on 2 years ago, took from Aug to Dec and cost around $200k all up, the size was 100m per storey so worked out to be quite a high sq metre rate. Client was very happy with the result and now has nice sea views.

[WGN ex-property manager]

Was the high cost due to tricky structural stuff? or high spec fitout? Or just "it costs that much these days"?