See your house with a second story

The feasibility read answers the questions a second story turns on, from the public record and your photos: the zone and the height limit above your roof; the setbacks an upper floor must hold; whether the City maps the lot as Hillside Area, which brings the slope-band floor area rules; whether it sits in a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, which adds a preservation review; and what the house's age and type usually mean for the structure under a new floor.

With it comes the massing sketch: the new floor drawn as a simple volume on a photo of your house, so you see the shape and the height, where the stair would land, and what a partial second story looks like next to a full one.

It is a sketch, drawn to the public record and your photos. It is not a design, not an engineer's calculation and not a permit. The structural answer comes from exposing the foundation and reading the framing on site, the next step when the read says the lot allows what you want; the first visit is free, and the exposing is a scoped step we agree on before anyone digs. The zoning read comes from ZIMAS and the City's published rules; where a rule needs the City's own determination, I say so instead of guessing.

Your address goes in the location field of the form below, with your timeline and where the plans stand. Then reply to my confirmation email with two or three photos: the front of the house from across the street, one side showing the roofline, and the roof as you see it from the sidewalk. Phone photos are fine. If you have a survey, an old plan set or a recent appraisal, attach it; none is required.

I read every request myself. We reply within one business day. The feasibility read follows once I have your photos and have pulled the lot's record, and that first reply tells you when to expect it. If you want the structural answer, we set the on-site look. If the read says the lot will not allow what you want, I tell you that too, and what it would allow instead.

The two questions that decide a second story, the lot and the structure, are the ones you need answered before you spend on design. A read that says no early saves you an architect's fee. A read that says yes gives your architect the envelope to design to. Either way you know what your house can do, whether or not you build with me.

The full picture of the work, from the structural look to the day the roof comes off, is on the second-story additions page.