Cost of pop-top renovation

[Anonymous]

We are in an old cape cod and the renovation that probably makes the most sense for us is to pop the top and give us normal sized ceilings on the second floor and then an attic above. Footprint of the house is about 900 SF. Anyone done something like this lately and could ballpark the cost? I'm sure it's more than $100K, but is it closer to 175 or 400?

[Anonymous]

Completely depends on Architect and Builder. Also, did I miss it? Where is this house located?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it’s possible to do this for $100k.

[Anonymous]

LOL $100k. Not even close. Honestty, it would probably make more sense to tear down and build new.

[Anonymous]

We just got quoted $250k.

[Anonymous]

We were quote $300K to pop-up a cape cod in arlington.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised at thr 250-300k quotes. I looked into this in 2019 before Covid and was getting the 200-300k range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised at thr 250-300k quotes. I looked into this in 2019 before Covid and was getting the 200-300k range.

I would have bought a new house before COVID, but new builds are crazy expensive now. Prices aren’t the same anymore for anything you buy including contractors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got quoted $250k.

Honestly this doesn’t seem that bad. Transaction costs for moving are about $50K and as long as you bought that cape in 2020 or earlier it’s probably appreciated $200k - and other bigger houses have appreciated proportionally too. So the pop up addition actually makes decent financial sense.

[Anonymous]

These numbers seem low. We were quoted in 2020 between $475k-550k. For a pop top with low ceilings to start, they have to remove the entire 2nd floor and rebuild. It’s a significant amount of work.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be a better investment to tear down and build new. That house has got to be old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These numbers seem low. We were quoted in 2020 between $475k-550k. For a pop top with low ceilings to start, they have to remove the entire 2nd floor and rebuild. It’s a significant amount of work.

It does depend on the existing footprint too. Ours is only 900 sq ft like the OP.

[Anonymous]

I would expect $400 to $500/sf and that would only be basic finishes, nothing fancy.

It might really be cheaper to bulldoze and build new, because new construction with same finishes likely is only $250/sf. We renovated and did a small addition, but (had we only known) we should have bulldozed and built new.

[Anonymous]

Different math between popping a ranch/rambler vs. expanding a cape cod.

[Anonymous]

we popped up on a rambler just before covid and that was 375. Now I would expect closer to 400 at least. We did redo the main level and new kitchen but did not change ceilings on main level