Dormers

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

Has anyone every put or attempted to put a dormer on their house and what was the city's reaction to the plans?   Was it easy to get approved?   We've got some sloping ceilings on the top floor.

Comments

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

medford had no problems with ours

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I know Cambridge has a restriction on the size of the dormers but is generally amenable to it. This is something where I'd check first with an architect familiar with Somerville Zoning regs: it's a common-enough thing that there's probably a specific procedure to follow, and if you follow that procedure, you'll have good results.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Yeah pretty much this--every town, neighborhood, and in some cases street will have different factors, but it's such a common thing that any local GC will be able to let you know your options.

[missdimple.livejournal.com]

In my experience, builders that deal in small scale projects often don't want to deal with the hassles that come with building departments. It's easier to just say "You'll be fiiiiiiiine. No need for permits." You're much better off if you personally go talk with the building department.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

A new dormer is a mid-sized project for a typical GC and if they say you don't need a permit for that they are actually closer to a hack at best, and con artist at worse.

Building departments are usually not a great first resource since they are more apt to point out obstacles to a project rather than creative solutions. At least in my experience.

[elements.livejournal.com]

Seconded (or I guess fourthed). I have friends in Cambridge who recently went through the process of getting permits for dormers. Definitely you need to understand the zoning regs, and you will need to work with an architect, so you may as well have a consultation with one who knows Somerville's regs.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Also worth pointing out: are you located in a "historic district"? If you are, it might be more challenging; whether it is or not depends largely on whether the dormer in question would be visible from the public right-of-way, and on whether it's done in a style in keeping with the general architecture of the house or is clearly a modern addition. (You'd most likely know if you are in a designated historic property.)

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

In Lowell, we refer to this group as the "hysterical board". ;-)

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

They are particularly... active... in certain parts of Lowell. Not my part, since we're on a decidedly non-historical block of (dormerless) 50s Capes. My understanding is that they care more about the outside of the building than the inside. Some of the work on the mill building condo conversions is alarmingly shoddy, depending on the building/complex, but you can forget about window treatments that are anything but white! Not historical!

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

I considered adding dormers a couple of years back. Found this company with an interesting technology that basically cuts your roof and lifts it up:

http://hightechdormer.com/

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool and they're local, Medford.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Do some research - probably start at the department where building permits get issued to find out the rules.

When I put dormers on my house in Cambridge I had to go to the Mid-Cambridge Conservation District Commission for a hearing - in my case a non-binding recommendation. I had to get a variance since my house is non-conforming because it is too close to the lot line. Before the hearing I went to each neighbor to show them the plan; if anyone objects the Zoning board might not grant the variance. It turns out that there was a dormer setback guideline that no-one had told me about and at the Zoning hearing this was unveiled; I had to revise the plan a bit and go back for another hearing where the variance was approved.

[missdimple.livejournal.com]

This.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

We didn't have any problems. One factor not mentioned yet is that if you are adding windows, they need to be a certain distance from your neighbor's house...(current windows are grandfathered in...they wouldn't have met the space requirement) Ask at the Building Dept. They have been quite helpful when we have had questions.

[somervilleguy.livejournal.com]

Start with an architect. You almost certainly will have to go ZBA so I hope you are on good terms with your neighbors as they can make life difficult with this.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I'm sure a few donations to Mayor Joe by you and 20 of your closest family members would probably help out a lot.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

We looked into it. We're between Davis/Porter/Ball squares. The first problem was that to do a dormer the way we wanted, we were quoted $60K, so that was pretty much dead in the water for us.

We wanted to do about 80% of the roof as a long shed-dormer (on one side... essentially expanding an existing shed dormer further). The contractor said "Ask the City for 100%. You always ask for 100%, then they scale back what you can do from there."

The other issue for us (that might not come in to play for you) is that our house is, on paper, a three-family house (because of some poor choices made in the 70s, I think). Current code is that three-families have to have a sprinkler system throughout. There's no freakin' way we can afford to run sprinklers through this house. We're fine as is, but if we do any major changes (like a big dormer) we might kick that in. So *If* money for a giant dormer suddenly appeared, we still couldn't do it unless we got variances for "WTF, there's no freakin' way to retro-fit sprinklers without a full gut rehab!"

So, in short, it varies a lot per house in Somerville and weird things come in to play, so make sure you get competent professionals on board.