The house was right when you bought it. Now a parent may need to move closer, the kids have outgrown the family room, or the stairs are starting to matter. Our carpenters measure the lot against Penn Township's yard rules, then build the room the family needs onto the house you already have.
Harrison City Additions
Seventy percent of the 15636's homes date from the eighties, nineties and 2000s, and four in five stand alone on a lot of their own. Owners who bought them young are now planning for parents, teenagers and their own later years.
About half the homeowners in the 15636 are between 45 and 64. In a house where all the bedrooms are upstairs, many start asking about a bedroom, bath and closet on the main floor while they're still years from needing it.
We add the suite off a quiet side of the house with a curbless shower, wide doorways and a short, level path from the kitchen. Blocking goes in the bathroom walls now, so grab bars can be mounted later without opening tile.
Primary suite additionsClose to 30% of households in the 15636 count someone 65 or up. Bringing a parent home often means a bedroom, bath and small living room of their own, with a door they can close and the family a few steps away.
A suite built into the house's own plan, joined by a hall or shared entry, with a step-free bath and space for a chair and a TV. We go over any kitchenette with the township before design, since that's where zoning questions start.
In-law suitesMore than one 15636 home in three has four bedrooms, and nearly 30% of households have kids, and a family room sized for a smaller household can feel tight. Owners want a bigger room where everyone can be together after dinner.
We push out the back wall beside the kitchen, carry the floor level straight through, and match the roof pitch and siding outside. A wide opening joins the rooms, with a beam sized to take the load the old wall carried.
Room additionsSome Harrison City families run out of garage before they run out of yard: two cars, bikes, a mower and the holiday bins. Some ask for a bonus room or office over a new garage while the framing is up.
An attached garage is designed with the house's yard setbacks in mind; a detached one has its own, at least 10 feet from side and rear lines. The floor above is framed for living space, insulated over the bay and reached by a full stair.
Garage buildsOwners with a deep back yard and a deck that gets used three months a year ask for a room with glass on three sides that works in March and November too, not a porch that sits closed for the winter.
We set footings below frost on ground that's often clay here, frame insulated walls and a real roof, and run heat in from the house. Windows are flashed into the walls, and the grade outside is shaped to carry spring water away.
SunroomsOn a quarter-acre lot in Penn Township's denser residential district, the required side and rear yards may not leave space for a wing. Owners there ask whether the house can take a second floor over a garage or a one-story wing.
An engineer checks whether the walls and footings below can carry a new floor. If they can, we frame it, roof it for a western Pennsylvania winter's snow, and tie the new siding and trim into the old so the house reads as one.
Second-story additionsHomes and households: ACS 2020–2024 (U.S. Census Bureau) for the 15636, rounded. Yard rules: Penn Township Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 190.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main additions & adus page.
Adding On in Penn Township
An addition here is shaped by three things: the township's permit office, the yard and coverage limits for your zoning district, and how the code treats a suite with its own kitchen.
1 officePermits, zoning and inspections
Penn Township's own permit office handles additions, its staff inspect each stage, and crews can't work overnight. Our Harrison City kitchen remodeling page has the details. Drawings and forms are ours to prepare and submit.
Penn Township rules, explained40 ftRear yard, both home districts
Both residential districts keep a 40-foot rear yard. Rural Resource lots need 20 feet at each side and cap coverage at 30%; Mixed Density lots need 15 feet and allow 35%. Bay windows and eaves may reach up to 24 inches into a yard. Your lot's district comes off the map before we sketch.
Penn Township zoning map (PDF) (opens in a new tab)CC · ICDistricts that list conversion units
The zoning code calls a separate unit inside a house a conversion apartment and lists it only in the commercial and industrial districts, not the two residential ones. The code treats a unit as one with separate places to sleep, cook and wash, so we design in-law suites into the main house and confirm the kitchen with the zoning officer.
Penn Township Code (opens in a new tab)Addition Questions
What owners here ask before we put a shovel in the yard. For the full process, see our additions and ADUs page.
Ask a QuestionSize, foundation and the roof tie-in decide most of the number. A one-room addition on a flat lot is the simpler case; a second story, a suite with its own bath or a hillside foundation adds to it. Your price comes in writing after a visit to the lot.
Addition price rangesIn Penn Township's residential districts, probably not as a separate unit: the zoning code lists conversion apartments only in its commercial and industrial districts. A family suite that's part of the house is a different plan. We ask the zoning officer before you pay for drawings.
Penn Township Code (opens in a new tab)It's worth checking. Confirmed mining runs beneath the village on DEP's map, and a regular policy excludes ground that sinks from old workings. Search your address while the plans are still drafts, and weigh the state's separate subsidence policy, which can cover the addition along with the house.
Mined ground near Harrison CityUsually, with the right footings and drainage. Soils around Harrison City hold water high from January to April, and seeps are common on the slopes. We dig test holes, set footing drains, and grade the new corner so water runs past the addition, not into it.
What we check firstAlmost always. Footings, framing and the roof go up outside your walls, and nobody's sawing at night under township rules. The disruptive stretch is opening the old wall into the new room, so we build and close in the addition first and keep that step short.
How an addition comes togetherOther Services
Our Harrison City work also covers kitchens and baths in nineties houses, attics turned into rooms and basements finished on clay. Pick a service below.
Kitchen RemodelingNew layouts, new cabinets, new counters: framed, built, and installed by the same crew.View Service
Bathroom RemodelingFull gut renovations with proper waterproofing, new framing, and tile set by hand.View Service
Attic FinishingUnused attics framed into bedrooms and offices: subfloor, insulation, drywall, and a proper stair.View Service
Basement FinishingUnfinished basements turned into real rooms: framed, insulated, drywalled, and finished by our crew.View Service
Windows & Exterior DoorsWindows and exterior doors set, flashed, and trimmed so water stays out of the wall.View Service
Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsRotted trim and siding, sagging joists, failed sills: opened up and repaired to solid wood.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified Google Reviews
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Get in Touch
Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
