Home / Services / Home additions / Orem
Home additions · Orem, UT
Orem is a built-out city, which is exactly why so many families here add on instead of trying to buy their way into more space. A primary suite, a second story, or a bump-out keeps the neighborhood, the schools, and the yard you already love. Danny Bird has been building in Utah County since 2001.
Adding on in Orem
Orem is effectively full. There is very little raw ground left to build a new house on, and the homes that are here rarely come up for sale in the neighborhood you actually want. So the family that has outgrown the house has a simpler answer than a bidding war: add the space to the house they already own.
The Orem homes we work on are solid family houses from the decades when the city filled in, on lots big enough to work with but built for smaller families. A primary suite the house never had, a real second story, or a kitchen and dining room pushed out into the yard turns a house that felt tight into the one you meant to buy. You keep the school, the neighbors, the trees, and the mortgage rate.
The catch is that adding on well is harder than building new, because you are joining new work to an old house. Blackbird draws the addition and builds it, prices the surprises up front, and matches the new to the old so nobody can tell where one ends.
Approvals
Orem publishes more of its process than most Utah County cities, which is good news for a homeowner. A published process is one you can build a real schedule against.
Permits and plan review run through Orem's Community Development Department at 56 North State Street, which keeps Building Safety, Engineering, and Planning and Zoning under one roof. Residential submittals go in online through CityInspect. We build the set, file it, and clear the reviewer's corrections for you.
Orem says minor permits are often handled within about one business day. An addition is not a minor permit, but the culture of a city that turns paperwork around quickly usually shows up in the whole process. We still plan the schedule around the real review, not a hope.
Before a line is drawn we check your lot against Orem's setback and lot-coverage rules. On an established Orem lot those two numbers usually settle whether a single-story addition fits or whether the space has to go up. Knowing on day one beats paying for a design that cannot be built.
An older Orem home may need a bigger electrical panel, updated wiring, or more heating and cooling before it can carry an addition. None of that shows in a photo, and it often costs more than the finishes. We price it up front instead of finding it at inspection.
The parts you cannot see
An addition is priced by what holds it up and how it joins the house, not by the paint. Here is where the number really comes from on an Orem home.
Build out into the yard and you need new footings that reach below frost depth, roughly 30 inches here, so the addition does not heave in winter. That is excavation and concrete before a wall goes up. Going up skips most of it, which is why a second story can pencil out closer to a ground-level addition than people expect.
The join between the new roof and the old is where additions leak. It has to be framed and flashed so water always sheds off the seam. This is the single item that separates a builder who does additions from a framer who does not.
A second story adds weight the walls and footings below have to hold, which an engineer checks. More square feet also means more demand on the furnace, the air conditioner, and the panel. We size all of that at the estimate.
Siding, roofing, windows, and trim have to blend with a house that has weathered for decades. Done right, the addition disappears into the original. Done cheap, it looks like a box parked on the back of the house.
Scope
The most requested Orem addition. A real bedroom, bathroom, and closet added to a house that raised a family without one, and one that reliably helps the home sell later.
When the lot is full and the yard is worth keeping, up is the space. We confirm the structure below can carry it, then build a second floor that matches the house it sits on.
A bigger kitchen, a dining room, a family room, or a mudroom pushed out into the yard where the lot allows. Even a few extra feet can fix a room that was always too tight.
A bigger garage with a bonus room, office, or suite over the top, framed while the structure is already up. We price the stairs and the heat for that upstairs room from the start.
A full second living space for family or rent, upstairs or down, under Utah's ADU rules and Orem's own. See basement apartments and ADUs.
Larger projects where the addition and a remodel of the existing house happen together. See home remodeling for that side of the work.
Choosing a builder
That is why plenty of good remodelers and good framers still get additions wrong at the seam. Before you sign with anyone in Orem, ask who has done the roof tie-in before, what a cheap bid left out, and who actually answers the phone when a decision is needed on site.
We wrote the full checklist for how to compare addition contractors, from the point of view of the person bidding against them.
Questions
Related
The full picture on additions across Utah County: types, what drives the cost, and how to choose a builder.
Reworking the house you already have. Most additions come with a remodel of the rooms they open into.
We draw the addition and build it, under one contract, with the builder in the room while it is designed.
Permits, ground conditions, neighborhoods, and the rest of what Blackbird does in Orem.
Nearby
Older river-bottom homes and tight university-area lots, where going up is often the only room left.
Home additions in Provo →Newer homes on smaller lots, where an HOA and the city both have a say in an addition.
Home additions in Lehi →A historic core with older homes, where matching an addition to the original really matters.
Home additions in American Fork →Where we build
A suite, a second story, a bigger kitchen, or a garage with a bonus above it. Bring a sketch or just the number you have. The first conversation is free and it is with Danny.
Or call or text (385) 334-5658