If you are considering adding onto or renovating your home, you need to know how your project will be affected by the zoning and building codes. Whether building up or out, you need to know what restrictions are currently in place and what your options are if your project puts you in opposition to the zoning code.
It’s common in our historic neighborhoods to discover that a home is in a special overlay zone or design district. This always requires an extra research step to determine whether those overlays will affect your project.
Non-conforming issues are also incredibly common. Codes change over time. Homes are added onto or renovated without consideration for building code (sometimes in unsafe ways). The most typical issues we see are stairs which are not to code and ceiling heights which don’t meet the minimums. Depending on what you want to do, you may or may not need to address these issues.
Each property is unique and once we identify issues that need to be addressed we will create a custom estimate for the time to needed to research and/or create design sketches to help arrive at a solution. It’s the rare code issue that can’t be fixed or worked around but it often does drive the direction of the project.
First step is always an on-site consultation and analysis. Read more on our service page or get started by contacting us.