A primary suite added over the garage
A primary suite and bath added above an existing attached garage.
- Room
- Additions
- Work involved
- Completed
- 2025
- Investment
- The four ranges we work in
What we did here
Adding over an existing garage is the most common addition question we get and the one with the most structure hiding under it. A garage slab and a garage foundation are designed to carry a garage. Putting a bedroom, a bath and a roof on top of them is a load question before it is a design question.
The engineer's answer here was a new footing at two points and a beam carrying the new floor across the garage door opening, which is what allowed the suite to run the full width rather than stepping in and reading as an afterthought.
The roof tie-in is the thing to look at in these photographs. The new ridge runs parallel to the existing one at a lower height, which is the version that reads as original — the alternative, a perpendicular gable, is easier to frame and looks like what it is.
A garage foundation is designed to carry a garage. Everything else here follows from that.
Services in this project
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