Your Trusted Choice for Quality Renovation & Remodeling Since 2016
Your Trusted Choice for Quality Renovation & Remodeling Since 2016
Concrete and block both carry load down to the footing, so an opening needs a lintel or a poured header sized to bridge the cut and a reinforced jamb on each side. We shore the wall above, saw the opening, set the header, then release the shoring. This is the same structural discipline behind any legal accessory dwelling unit: the permit reviewer wants to see the load path, not just the door. An attached in-law suite permit on a different property follows the same logic on a shared wall.
The mistake I see is someone saw-cutting a door in a foundation with no header and no shoring because the wall did not fall down that afternoon. It will crack above the opening within a year or two. You size the header for what is above it, every time.
– Elijah Mercer Boone, Lead Project Manager
The entrance, the egress, and the unit count get reviewed together. We submit the structural detail with the rest of the Onondaga ADU permit application so the opening is approved as part of a legal unit, not flagged later as unpermitted structural work. On a basement conversion that distinction is what keeps the rental income clean.
SAP Construction has been building accessory dwelling units across Skaneateles and the Finger Lakes suburbs since 2016. Schedule a consultation and your project manager will assess the slope and the wall, then deliver a transparent estimate within 24 hours.
Pompey's hillside lots produce some of the most beautiful homes in the region and some of the most challenging additions. When a homeowner wants to add a primary bedroom suite to the ground floor, often because the upstairs has become hard to navigate or because the long-term plan is to stay in the home, the topography itself becomes a design constraint. A first floor master addition done right on a Pompey lot solves the layout question and respects the slope. Done wrong, it ends up looking like a trailer parked next to a beautiful home.
Your Westvale cape was built in 1948 with two upstairs bedrooms tucked under the roofline, and your growing family has outgrown it. You have a yard you love and neighbors you do not want to leave. The math question on the table is simple: does it make sense to add a second story instead of selling and moving up? In Central New York the answer comes down to honest numbers, not the optimistic figure you saw in a TV remodel show.
Sometimes you do not need a full second-story addition or a rear extension. You need 100 square feet in exactly one spot: behind the kitchen for an eat-in nook, off the side of the family room for a sunroom, or extending the master bedroom to create a real walk-in closet. That is what a bump-out is. It is the smallest meaningful addition you can build, and on the right East Syracuse postwar ranch it solves the layout pain point without the cost or disruption of a full first floor master addition.
Not every Phoenix homeowner wants a finished basement. Many just want the one they have to stop ruining what they store in it. For an aging-in-place owner downsizing decades of belongings into bins, dry, reliable storage is the goal, and that goal has its own scope. Phase 1 wet basement remediation is about making the space dry and stable, not pretty. Get this phase right and the basement becomes usable storage; skip it and you are replacing cardboard and rusted shelving every spring.
Our experts are here to help. Contact us directly for a consultation or any specific questions about your project.
Our experts are here to help. Contact us directly for a consultation or any specific questions about your project.
