"BigLar" wrote

and thought I would toss this out. We want to hire someone to add
approximately 700 sq feet onto the back of our home. Our house is
modest size with the back exterior being 35' across. We would like to
extend 20 to 25' feet out and create two evenly proportioned rooms
with three windows total and a back sliding patio door. We want

done? I'm picturing a slab for a foundation and would like a fairly
seamless continuation of the siding and roof. We are going to get some
estimates and were hoping to come in at 20K or less. Does that sound
reasonable?

Hate to tell you but no. Will be more like 5x that. I base this on a back
room that was destroyed by renters (walls kicked in etc). Rebuilding the
damaged 12x13 room to a code spec bedroom started at 40,000$ and went up.
We opted for the sunroom and are quite happy with it.

What you may be able to do for near what you have however, is called an
'enclosed porch'. Depending on your climate, these can be quite suitable for
year round or near year round use. In my area, (Norfolk VA), it's a bit too
chilly to use that enclosed room in winter unless we leave the door to the
main house open and pay quite a bit extra in heating costs. Summer though,
a small portable AC is fine. They do what is called '3 season' sun rooms
here. There are 4 season ones as well but I don't know what sort of prices
pertain.

I did not go with the lowest bidder, but instead a somewhat pricier one of
excellent reputation locally. I had existing roof and slab and needed only
2 walls rebuilt plus a footer extension to new code specs. As I had a rip
out issue (which you do not apparently) there's some variation here in
pricing which you will not have. The rip out was about equal to laying a
slab had there not been one (mold damage, significant so special work and
disposal applied).

Lower bidder- 7,000$, High 12,500$ one used: 10,500$

12x13 room. Estimates to do the whole back porch (29ft left is still fully
screened and open to elements which we like), 17,500$ total but we didnt
have the extra 7,000$ (no rip out issues to rest of porch, only 1 wall and a
small corner part).

Based on this experience, it may be do-able at your price, but with a
sunroom enclosure. Privacy curtins grin.

A neighbor has a unique one. The house design is close to ours with an
extended roof. They made 3 interconnected rooms, with the center one being
a hot tub/bathroom. They used a smoked glass on that part. The corner is a
library/extended family room (same as us). The center is a hot tub
/bathroom, and the other end used as a bedroom. They did it a 8 years ago
and said other than the piping for the raised hot tub, it was not much more
than what we were told for the whole 17,500$ job.

From what I gathered, it's extending the roof that costs but that's not too
bad if it's a sunroom glass roof. There are support issues though with
taking the glass roof out too far. Consider 12 or 13 ft out. That still
makes reasonably sizable rooms.