What Happens During a Roof Redesign Project with RoofSmart?

Are you thinking about expanding your home but worried your roof structure might not support the changes you want to make? Have you already talked to an architect or engineer but been told that your roof design might not be possible or too complicated to figure out?

Roof expansions and redesigns can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re getting conflicting answers or hitting roadblocks in the planning phase.

At RoofSmart, our primary service is roofing, but we have a team of in-house carpenters. So we also do other things like siding, framing, attic ventilation, insulation, and window installation. We do more than just roofing on hundreds of homes across the Seattle area every year.

In this case study, we’ll walk you through how one Seattle-area homeowner went through a fully completed 2nd-story addition with us, including what challenges came up, how they were solved, and what the project actually cost. That way, you can better understand what’s possible for your own home.

How Does a Roof Expansion Project Work?

Recently, we had a customer call us up for help because she was frustrated that she wasn’t getting the support she needed from her original team.

She wanted to expand the upper floor on one section of her roof to give herself more room in the master bedroom. So, she hired an architect to create a design, and then they showed it to a structural engineer, who told her that he couldn’t figure out how to make it work.

This customer also wanted a roof replacement, so she called us up. My fellow co-owners of RoofSmart, John and Nestor, went out to inspect her roof. Nestor heard what her architect had planned and let her know that we could do the roof expansion.

First, we replaced most of the roof until we got to the section of the house that needed to be redesigned. At that point, we paused the roof replacement work to begin the redesign.

After tearing off the roof on that section, it was ready for the new walls to go up. Here are some shots of the first one:

The tricky part was framing the roof on top of it because the structural engineer that this customer originally consulted couldn’t figure it out.

This house is located in an area that gets a lot of snow, so we had to figure out how to make sure that the roof would be able to safely bear the weight of all the snow. Luckily, our master installer, Nestor, was able to come up with a plan while inspecting the roof, so all the crew had to do was follow his design.

This is what it looked like once the new floor and roof framing were installed. The next step was to begin installing the plywood roof decking:

After the roof decking was installed, we installed shingles over the rest of the roof.

What Does a Roof Expansion or Redesign Cost?

The price of an expansion project like this can vary a lot from project to project. In this case, the total job cost was more than $150,000. This includes the 2nd-story addition and roof replacement.

For some, it might cost tens of thousands, for others, it will be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some factors that can impact the job cost include:

• How much you want to expand
• Hiring multiple contractors vs. one that does it all
• Additional needs like electrical or plumbing work
• Framing needs
• Slope of the roof
• How accessible your roof and house are

No matter what, expanding your house or redesigning the roof are going to be expensive projects. But they can be a great investment if you’re looking to sell your home. Adding square footage to your home is a solid way to increase its value in Seattle and the surrounding areas.

For this homeowner, it was a great investment because she ended up deciding to sell her house and made an extra $500,000 on the property from the added square footage and master suite.

What Problems Can Be Discovered During a Roof Replacement or Redesign?

In addition to the roof expansion project, we also made some other improvements along the way while replacing the rest of the roof, including

• Replacing moldy, rotting wood: There were some spots where the roof or siding had leaked, causing the plywood in those spots to rot and grow mold. We replaced these boards with new plywood to make sure the roof deck was strong and stable.
• Adding new insulation: This roof was low on insulation, so we made sure to add more to help regulate the temperature in the house.
• Updating attic ventilation: Another big change we made was to update the attic ventilation and improve airflow throughout the attic. The soffit vents were partially painted over, and the insulation was blocking a lot of it, meaning that the intake ventilation was essentially useless. We unblocked the soffit vents and then installed baffles to make sure that air could actually flow into the roof properly without being blocked by insulation.

Is RoofSmart the Right Choice for Your Roof Expansion Project?

At RoofSmart, we can help with a ton of different services beyond just roofing. We also do things like siding, windows, framing, and insulation. We can help with almost anything that you need, which helps to eliminate your struggle of finding a bunch of different contractors.

We are a good fit for:

• Implementing designs created by engineers (or other professionals)
• Helping troubleshoot tough framing or ventilation problems
• Projects that require experience with framing, siding, or other skills beyond roofing

We can help with just about any roof project that you’re dreaming up. We don’t design new-build homes or roofs from scratch, but we can collaborate with your architect or engineer to install a design they’ve created.

How do you know if a roofing contractor is qualified to handle a complex roof expansion?

As you’ve seen in this project, a roof expansion isn’t just about replacing shingles; it involves structural problem-solving, coordination with engineers, and the ability to adapt when the original plan doesn’t work. In this case, the homeowner was initially told their design couldn’t be built, only to find a team that could actually bring it to life.

That’s the difference a truly qualified contractor makes.

When you’re taking on a complex project like a roof redesign or expansion, choosing the right contractor is everything. The wrong team might miss critical structural details or cause costly issues that don’t appear until years later.

Read our article “Is Your Seattle Roofer Actually Good? Here’s How to Tell Before It’s Too Late” to learn exactly what to look for in a roofing contractor so you can confidently choose a team that has the experience and expertise to handle your project the right way.