To rebuild or refinish an addition?

[nawhite]

Our house has a 300sqft addition. It used to simply be a covered porch with a concrete slab floor. When enclosing the space the previous owners didn't really "finish" the job so it has a sloped floor, the ceiling is only about 6'8" at the shortest, and it is not really insulated so it is only a 3 season room (we close an insulated door to that area in the winter). We keep finding ourselves using the space more and more, most recently putting the clothes washer out there because the room had the only drain large enough to handle that much water. Well the washer means we can't let the pipes freeze, means we have to run the pellet stove to keep the room at >55 degrees means we need to really finish this room.

There are 2 paths to finishing this room.
Option 1: Refinish
Tear out all drywall, add electrical lines, spray foam insulation, replace 2 windows, replace 1 exterior door, maybe level the sloped floor with wood, then put it all back together.

Option 2: Rebuild
Tear the whole room down (while saving 3 really nice windows), level the floor (could do either wood or pour more concrete on top to be level with the rest of the house, re-frame the space including rebuilding the roof of this room at a reasonable height, run electrical, insulate, put the windows back in, new door in, finish


My parents and grandparents, who have way more construction experience than I do (they've built/rebuilt 4 houses while I've only helped with odd jobs on some of those projects as a kid) keep pushing me towards option 2 saying that the teardown and framing should be 2 weekends of work. This sounds like a massive underestimation to me. They've even been sending us books on wood frame construction trying to prove their point. My wife and I have been leaning towards option 1 because it doesn't require taking walls down, redoing all of the windows or changing/rebuilding the roof. While refinishing would make changing the floor more difficult and would make the roof pretty low, I don't know that I care. The space would be part laundry room, part bonus room or dining room if we leveled the floor.

Anyone have advice on whether to refinish the existing space or rebuilding a new room?

[kendallf]

IMO it depends primarily on how the room will add or subtract to the home's value eventually.  If it looks like an amateurish piece of crap, and the rest of the house looks good, tear it out and do a nice job rebuilding.  If it doesn't detract (i.e., it's in the back, it'll be a laundry room anyway, etc.) then give it a polish job.

Framing the walls really is easy, especially these days with a cheap nail gun or two.  If you're an amateur, probably one of the challenging things to do quickly will be to tear off the old roof and tie in with the new one.  You will need at least two adults working to do this in reasonable time.  It will help *immensely* if you have some experienced help occasionally (the 'rents?).

FWIW, given the tasks you outline in your "refinish" option, including tearing out drywall, windows, and doors, I personally would just knock it down and start over.

[nawhite]

Well the whole house looks like a 1950's home that has had amateur DIY'ers keep it up. The addition room currently just looks unfinished (and the finish work that was done was done poorly). So whatever we do will probably look the same or better than the rest of the house (finish work I'm pretty decent at). But it is in the back and will mostly be a laundry room.

I'll be honest to say that tearing off the old roof and tying in a new one is the part I'm most nervous about.

[Milspecstache]

Permits should play a big role in your decision.  Most jurisdictions will require permits to do a teardown and replace.  If you only work from the inside you would be able to work without pulling formal permits. 

[TomTX]

Are the parents and/or grandparents willing to come help out with permits and hands-on?

[zolotiyeruki]

As others have said, if you're ripping out drywall and insulation and doors and windows and such, it's a pretty small step to go the rest of the way and redo the framing and electrical.

I'm one of those "buy once, cry once" people.  Be willing to spend the extra time/money up front, so you don't have to do it again.

[Christiana]

Don't forget Option 3:  Put in a large enough drain somewhere else in the house so that the washer can move back inside.

Personally, I would choose to keep the addition more primitive, unfinished, and informal than the rest of the house.

[nawhite]

Don't forget Option 3:  Put in a large enough drain somewhere else in the house so that the washer can move back inside.

Personally, I would choose to keep the addition more primitive, unfinished, and informal than the rest of the house.

We thought about that. The problem was that we have a concrete slab foundation with no crawl space. So installing a drain would have involved a jackhammer. The quotes we got for that job were more than finishing this addition would be.

[paddedhat]

One often ignored issue with porch to living space conversions is how much structure is, or isn't under the existing slab. In our area the local code folks are happy to help homeowners with attempting to do the job, including a nice booklet of details they want to see, like how to properly land rafters on the existing house and how to flash the roof properly at the transition. The one biggie that can be a show stopper, however, is working with a slab poured on grade, with no frost protection, compared to a slab that has a foundation wall and footer underneath. In many cases, absent an obvious and visible block or poured wall under the porch, the code guys require a bit of excavating, with a shovel, to determine how, and if, there is anything but plain old dirt under the slab. The issue in frost country is that the slab will rise and fall with the frost, as will any "permanent" building on top of it, whist attaching it to a permanently anchored, frost protected home, this situation tends to really not end well. Cracked drywall, seasonal gaps in exterior and interior wall finishes,  and doors that cannot be used till the frost melts are pretty common in that scenario.

[soccerluvof4]

300 square feet and you can reuse the windows? Tear it down even if you cant. Don 't go by aesthetics you can rebuild it to look like it was built in the same time frame,  but build it right.