Dormers
If you have a full attic with reasonable ridge height, a dormer is usually far less expensive per square foot than an addition — the foundation and most of the roof already exist.
| Shed dormer | A flat-ish roof running out from the main roof. Gains the most headroom and floor area for the money, which is why it's the standard answer for turning a Cape attic into two bedrooms. Less character from the street. |
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| Gable dormer | A small peaked dormer, usually one window wide. Adds much less space but far more to how the house looks. Often used in pairs or threes on the front elevation. |
| Full shed / rear dormer | Running the dormer nearly the full width at the back. Effectively converts a half-story into a full one. The biggest gain and the biggest job. |
| What decides it | Existing ridge height, roof pitch, where the stairs land, and whether the floor joists below can carry living load rather than just attic storage. That last one catches a lot of people out. |
Dormers also need egress-compliant windows in any room used as a bedroom, and a stair that meets code — which sometimes means rebuilding the attic stair as part of the project.
Garages
Garages in this part of New Jersey tend to be old, undersized for modern cars, and sitting on foundations that have moved.
Any roofline change is a water-management decision before it's an aesthetic one.
Dormers and garages both cut into or add to the roof and drainage of the house, and both are permitted work with inspections at framing.
The failure mode is the same in both cases: a new roof plane meeting an old one, badly detailed, creating a spot where water collects instead of runs. Flashing, valley detailing and kickouts at the wall are the difference between a dormer that's fine in twenty years and one that quietly rots the wall beneath it.
We frame these, dry them in, and detail the water management ourselves rather than handing that part to whoever shows up next.
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