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.
Fayetteville's older estate-grade homes sit at a price point where the gut-renovation math is fundamentally different from what you see in a 1500 square foot suburb ranch. We are talking about 3500 to 5500 square foot homes built between 1925 and 1968, with high-end finish potential, structural quirks, and the kind of mechanical systems that require coordination instead of replacement. A whole house renovation cost in Fayetteville is not a number you copy from an online calculator. It is a project-shaped answer.
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.
On the Lyndon Road side of DeWitt the lots are deep enough that an attached in-law suite pencils out as a rental, but the permit is where most investor projects stall. An attached suite is not a spare bedroom with a hot plate. Onondaga County reads it as a second dwelling unit the moment it has its own kitchen and bathroom, and that classification triggers a different review track. Knowing which track you are on before you draw the addition saves you a rejected application and a lost building season.
Auburn's historic district homes are too special to leave during a renovation, and most families do not want to. The home you love is exactly the home you want to wake up in, even mid-renovation. Whole house reno phasing for onsite families is its own discipline. Sequence right and the family adapts; sequence wrong and the family moves out by month three anyway.
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.
