From: "Bill" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house misc.invest.real-estate
Subject: Re: possible construction cost savings?
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 08:55:40 -0700

If it's an entire *new* house, that is one thing, but to add a new second
floor to an old house, I don't know about that.

There are *always* problems with older homes. Sometimes things are not
level, not perfect 90 degree square, etc. Due to settling, one side of the
house could be lower than another. The house could be lower around the
sides and higher in the middle.

It is possible that the new 2nd floor would not fit just right unless they
are good at measuring these things. Also I assume they will need to remove
the roof. When you remove things like walls and roofs, there are surprises
lurking!

As an example, I re-built my front porch. Well nothing was level or square.
Each piece of wood needed to be cut to fit in with the existing non-square
woodwork. It looks square and level to the eye, but it is not!

Another example is my fence where the yard gently slopes downhill. Not
much, just a bit. I built the fence to the grade and it follows the slope
of the land. It looks level, but it is not. Had I bought pre-manufactured
panels, it would have had un-even steps and would have looked terrible.

Anyway I would only go the pre-manufactured route; if there is a big
savings, they have added these to older homes in the past (have experience
doing this), and it is written in the contract that any problems which crop
up so far as the older house not being level, square, etc. will be the
responsibility of the manufacturer.

Otherwise you can remove the roof, then take a look at what you have to
work with, then resolve any problems and/or change things if needed at that
point.

In either case, plan to spend some extra money for problems which crop up.

"Robert Kim" wrote in message
> Hi, all.  I have a friend who owns a house in the San Francisco area and
> she is building a second floor to her house.  She knows this is not the
> best way to upgrade cost-wise but she really likes the location and the
> house so prefers to add a second floor rather than buy a new house with a
> second floor.  Anyway, my question:
>
> She is in the process of putting out for bids.  She recently spoke with a
> woman who sold her house in California and is moving to Oklahoma.  This
> woman is building a new house but instead of the usual contractors, she
> and her husband have specified the house which will be built in a shop,
> disassembled, and rebuilt on site by her and her husband.  This
supposedly
> will save a lot in labor costs.  My friend is thinking of applying this
> approach to the construction of her second floor, i.e., giving
> specifications to this prefab company, having the framing and all
> delivered to site, and then having it reassembled on site on top of her
> existing house.
>
> Does anyone see benefits and/or problems with this approach of
> reassembling a prefabricated second floor addition on my friend's house?
> TIA.
>
> Bob