Where Do We Find A House That Is A Good Candidate For A Pop Top?

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Can Old Glory Property Construction help me find a home that is a good candidate for a Pop Top?

In the last blog post we wrote about some of the things that may help a homeowner decide if pursuing a Pop Top is the right move for their home. In this post we will offer how Old Glory Property Construction can help steer you towards some homes that you might want to consider purchasing and doing your own custom build out with.

Starting in 2020 many of us were forced to perform our 9 to 5 job from homes. A lot of people also had their spouses/partners working from home and kids doing virtual schooling from home. The common theme starting in late Spring 2020 were requests for more space in homes. In the densely populated City of Alexandria our building lots do not always allow for the footprint of a home to be enlarged to the extent that many people wish for. We have our local zoning ordinances to thank for that. Going up vs. out might be a viable option that can be pursued.

We do several speculative projects each calendar year. That means that we search for, purchase, design, build, and sell homes using our own money. We are looking at properties to purchase on a daily basis. Because we have limited funds we cannot purchase all of them. If you have the desire to have a newly built home and are dismayed with the lack of inventory and you are tired of the competitive process of buying a home in Alexandria we might be able to help you solve this problem. Shoot us an email and let’s start a discussion about looking at your search with a different lens. Instead of looking for the perfect home let us instead look together for a home that can be built into the perfect home for you.

Old Glory Property Construction and its owner are not Realtors. We are happy to work with your Realtor or to refer you to a local Realtor if you do not already have one.

Considerations With Pop Tops

Is a Pop Top The Right Thing For Your Home?

In our last post we opened up about the subject of a Pop Top renovation. In this post we will dive deeper into considerations that you might want to make if you are to consider if this is an option for your existing home or a home that you want to buy.

Is it always possible to add a second floor (or third) to an existing home?

The answer is: “it depends”

We have found that a lot of the existing homes in Alexandria built after 1940 have both footings and foundation walls sufficient to carry the weight of having an additional story added to the existing structure.

Another thing to consider is the zoning ordinances that govern the lot where the home resides. This includes (but is not limited to) limits on height, proximity to property lines, total amount of square footage allowed to be under roof, and lot coverage. Having a builder and architect that know Alexandria’s ordinances is key to designing a home that can actually be permitted for construction.

Is it cheaper to build up vs. build out?

This answer will depend on what you design. For example: building a ground floor addition for a new living room might be cheaper than building a new second floor addition that includes a primary suite with large bathroom. This is, of course, if you have the space (and zoning ordinance allows you) to enlarge the footprint of the home.

Can a higher ceiling height on the first floor be achieved through a Pop Top renovation?

When we pop the top of a home we almost always deconstruct the exiting roof structure which includes the rafters and ceiling joists. In these cases we often increase the height of the ceiling for the first floor. Many homeowners in the current market want ceilings of between 9 and 10 feet.

Should we keep the existing MEP systems (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) or update/upgrade?

A lot of the mechanical (i.e. HVAC), electrical, and plumbing systems in homes built 50+ years ago were not engineered to accommodate modern day demands. And, very often, the systems are beyond their useful life. Because of these reasons we suggest having an engineer that we work with design news systems that will last for another 50+ years. This is just like we would do if we were building a new home from scratch.

Can Old Glory Property Construction help me understand if a particular property is a good candidate for a Pop Top?

Yes! In our next blog post we will go into more detail as to how to work with us.

Build Up vs. Build New

Why Pop Top Additions Can Save You Money And Feel Like A Brand New Home

Alexandria ranks as the most densely populated municipality in the Commonwealth of Virginia with a reported population density of 9,466.6 people per square mile. The number of buildable lots is very low. Some buyers are able to buy an existing home and tear it down in preparation to build a new home in its place.

Alexandria has a significant number of homes built between 1940 - 1970. The conditions of this inventory runs the full range from very well kept all the way to condemnable. One common theme is that the layout of the rooms reflects on demands of buyers from the decade when a home was built. There was also significantly less electronic items being used in homes built between 50 - 80 years ago so access to plug in our devices that we take for granted today may not exist in the spaces we now expect them to be. Some older homes may only have one or two electrical outlets per bedroom. Some bathrooms have none. Many of these homes also do not have recessed lights or any lights on the ceiling whatsoever. When you dive deeper into this subject you will also find wiring in the walls that is not capable of safely handling the demands of our modern day electronic items.

There are some really neat benefits to these same homes: many are in nice and established neighborhoods with mature trees and an existing community of wonderful neighbors. And many of these homes literally have strong foundations.

Old Glory Property Construction LLC enjoys developing homes through infill development and adaptive reuse of the residential inventory found throughout Alexandria. We often do this by doing “pop top” renovations.

What is a Pop Top?

Generally speaking a “pop top” involves removing the roof of a home and building a second story addition on top of the first floor walls. Or it go as far as removing all the exterior walls by deconstructing the home back to its foundation.

Are there benefits with doing a Pop Top vs. a completely tear down?

Three benefits stand out to us:

1) Cost: because a combination of foundation, wall framing, floor framing, and exterior facade (such as brick) are re-used there is, generally speaking, a cost savings vs. tearing everything out down to the bare earth.

2) Time: depending on the scope of work the time from the first design meeting until the move-in date could be significantly reduced vs. building a new home (that requires an existing home to be torn down).

3) If you go to the extent of renovating all of the existing space of the original home the finished product can easily feel like a brand new home.

What else should you know?

In the next blog post we will go more into detail about some nuances of pop top construction.