Room Additions in Palms
Room additions in Palms built in a fixed order by Aspenwell Construction: new footings and walls first, shoring next, then the opening and the header.
Shoring goes in before the saw on a Palms addition. The new room's footings, floor and walls are built first and stand on their own beside the house. Temporary posts and a beam are then set inside the old exterior wall to carry the roof and ceiling joists. With that support snug against the framing, the wall between old and new can be cut open safely.
Opening the wall and setting the header
Once the shoring holds the roof, the crew cuts the opening to the size on the plans. The header goes in next, along with the posts that carry each end of it, and those posts have to land on a footing or on solid blocking that reaches the foundation. The engineer specifies the header size and its connections. The inspector checks the header, posts and hardware while they are still exposed. After that sign-off the temporary posts are released, and the roof load moves from the shoring onto the new header.
Living in the house during the cut
The day the wall opens is planned as a hold point on the schedule. A sealed plastic wall with a zippered door goes up inside the house before cutting, and floors are covered along the route to the opening. Power in that wall is traced and shut off at the panel, and any pipe or duct inside it is rerouted ahead of the cut. LADBS reviews a Palms addition, and its inspectors see each stage before it is covered. Interior finish work starts once the roof junction is flashed and dry.
Room Additions in Palms: questions
The engineer runs the numbers on the footing and on the walls that would carry an upper floor. Light framing can sit on a footing that checks out. Where it does not, reinforcement is built ahead of time, and the shoring plan is drawn around any new footing so the two do not clash.
After the header is in and inspected, new wall framing is nailed and bolted to the old studs and plate as detailed. The new floor framing lines up with the old floor on joist hangers, and flashing laps the roof junction before roofing covers it.
Open walls and an open crawlspace make it a convenient time to look. Sill bolting and plywood on the short walls under the original rooms can be added to the same LADBS set, and each item shows up as its own priced line, so the addition and the retrofit can be weighed apart.
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