Home Additions and Basement Finishing

Additions that match the house they join, and basements finished as real living space — planned, permitted and built by one team across North Gwinnett.

Home additions

A good addition is the one guests cannot find. That means matching the roof pitch and the eave line, the siding profile and the brick, the window heads and the trim, and carrying the floor level through without a step. It also means a foundation and framing designed for the house as it is, not as a drawing assumes.

A primary suite, a larger kitchen and family room, a screened porch or sunroom, a second storey over the garage: we plan the addition from the existing structure outward, handle the permit, and build it so the house reads as one.

Basement finishing

An unfinished basement is usually the best room the house does not have yet. Finishing it as living space means dealing with what is down there first — moisture, the ceiling height under ducts and beams, an egress window for any bedroom, the HVAC and plumbing runs — and then building a bedroom, bathroom, media room, home office or bar to the same standard as upstairs. Finished living space is permitted work, and permitting is one of our services.

Basement bar faced in reclaimed barn wood with a stone accent wall and a sliding barn door, still mid-build.
A basement bar faced in reclaimed barn wood, with a stone accent wall and a sliding barn door — photographed mid-build, from Clay’s own project photos.

How the work runs

How an addition or a basement finish runs with Ironwood:

  1. Walkthrough and planning — We look at the structure you have — foundation, framing, roof, the slab and the ceiling height below — then plan from it, with options from a full-service design team to simple drafting depending on the scope of work.
  2. Budgeting — Budgeting is a crucial part of any building project. We will guide you through the process, presenting every option to bring you to informed decisions that you can count on.
  3. Permitting — Ironwood is licensed by the state for Residential and Light Commercial Construction and fully insured. An addition and a finished basement are both permitted work; we handle it.
  4. Demolition and construction — With a foundation of knowledge in the trades, this is where Ironwood Construction Group is head and shoulders above the competition.
  5. Interior design and finishes — We have multiple designers we work with routinely, so we can choose someone who understands your design aesthetic and will work to bring your vision to life.

Questions we are asked about this

Will the addition actually match the existing house?

That is the job. Roof pitch, eave line, siding profile, brick, window heads, trim and floor level are matched on purpose, and where the original material is no longer made we tell you before we order the nearest thing to it.

Do I need a permit to finish a basement?

Yes — finished living space is permitted work, and permitting is one of our services. Ironwood is licensed by the state for Residential and Light Commercial Construction (GA RLCO003511) and fully insured.

Can you put a bathroom or a bedroom in the basement?

Yes. A bathroom needs drainage, which can mean an ejector pit when the sewer line sits above the slab; a bedroom needs an egress window or door. Both are normal basement work and both are checked at the walkthrough before we price it.

Is the basement bar in the photo one of yours?

Yes. It is a basement bar faced in reclaimed barn wood with a stone accent wall and a sliding barn door, photographed mid-build, from Clay’s own project photos. The porches and patios on this page are parts of new homes we built, shown for the standard of finish.

Which is better value — an addition, or finishing the basement?

If the basement has the ceiling height and a dry slab, finishing it is almost always the less expensive way to add rooms, because the foundation, roof and walls already exist. An addition is the answer when you need space on the main level or a room the basement cannot be. We will tell you which one your house favours at the consultation.

Porches, patios and the rooms people add

Screened porches, covered patios and decks on new custom homes we built — the rooms an addition most often adds, shown for the standard of finish. See our completed work.

Other things we build and remodel

Need more room?

Tell us what the house is short of and we will tell you whether an addition or the basement answers it — and what each one really involves.