Bedroom Additions for Growing Families

Why add a bedroom instead of moving

Needing another bedroom is one of the most common reasons families consider moving. It is also one of the easier needs to solve with an addition, because a bedroom is a relatively simple room: no cabinets, modest electrical, and often no plumbing. If you like the neighborhood and the rest of the house works, adding a room is worth comparing carefully. Our guide to adding on versus moving walks through that comparison.

Where the bedroom goes matters most

The same room can be a great addition or a frustrating one depending on its location. A few questions settle it:

Who is it for? A nursery belongs near the parents. A teenager, a guest or a returning adult child may want distance.
How do you reach it? A new bedroom should not be reached through another bedroom or across the living room.
Which bathroom does it use? A long walk to a shared bathroom gets old quickly.
Up or out? On a tight lot, a bedroom may need to go over the garage or on a second story.

What a bedroom needs

Bedrooms have specific requirements that shape the design:

Escape windowAn emergency escape and rescue opening, sized and placed so someone can get out and a firefighter can get in.
Room sizeMinimum floor area, room dimensions and ceiling height set by the residential code.
Smoke alarmsInterconnected alarms in and outside sleeping rooms, which can mean updates elsewhere in the house.
Heat and comfortA bedroom at the far end of a house can run cold or hot without a proper duct run or its own zone.

These are reviewed in the permit process. See Utah building codes for additions for more.

Closets, sound and light

Details make a bedroom pleasant to live in. A reach-in closet sized for real use, a window that gives light without putting the bed in a draft, and insulation in interior walls so sound from the family room does not carry all help. If the room is for a child, think ahead to when it becomes a teenager's room or an office.

More than one bedroom

If you need two or three bedrooms, the math often changes. Several rooms and a bathroom can make a second story worth considering, and grouping bedrooms together is usually more efficient than adding them one at a time. If the rooms are for a parent or another household, look at in-law suites or multigenerational additions.

What shapes the cost

For a single ground-floor bedroom, cost mostly follows size, foundation, roof tie-in, windows, the connection to the house and heating. Adding a bathroom or closet system raises it. Building the bedroom upstairs brings structural and stair costs. The room addition cost guide explains the details.

Bedroom additions are a type of room addition. We plan them for homes in Bountiful and across Davis County.

Bedroom addition questions

What does a bedroom legally need?

Under the residential code, a sleeping room needs an emergency escape opening, usually a window of a minimum size and sill height, along with minimum room dimensions, ceiling height, smoke alarms and proper heating. Cities apply these through permit review. Designing to them from the start avoids surprises, especially in basements and small additions.

Does adding a bedroom add a bathroom too?

Not necessarily, but it is worth asking. Adding a bedroom increases pressure on the existing bathrooms. Sometimes a bedroom addition with a small bathroom, or a bedroom placed near existing plumbing so a bath can be added later, serves the household far better.

Should we add a bedroom or finish the basement?

If the basement is already there, has enough ceiling height and can meet egress rules, finishing it may be cheaper. But basement bedrooms do not suit everyone, especially young children or older family members, and not every basement can take one. We look at both honestly.

Bedroom Additions for Households That Need One More Room