Eagle Rock Room Additions and Hidden Masonry
Eagle Rock room additions planned after an inspection opening shows whether a chimney sits in the back wall, with the finding written into the quote.
Unreinforced brick may be hiding in the back wall of an Eagle Rock house where an old fireplace once vented, and finding it changes how the addition joins. A chimney carries its own weight on its own footing, so the new room either frames around it with fire clearances or the stack comes down and a beam takes its place. A small inspection opening tells us which before the quote is final.
Reading the stack
A hole cut beside the chimney at floor level and a look from the attic show what it is made of and how it passes the roof. Solid brick, block with a clay liner or a metal flue inside a framed chase each lead to different work. Loose mortar, a cracked crown and rusted flashing get noted. A camera lowered down the flue shows whether the liner is intact. With those findings, a structural engineer decides whether the stack can stay braced to the frame, should be cut down below the roofline or must come out to its footing.
How the plan shifts
Keeping the chimney means the new wall stops short of the masonry with an air gap, and the garden opening slides along the wall to clear it. Removing it frees that stretch for wide glass and a cleaner roof joint, at the cost of new framing, a header and a patch in the roof. Revised sheets showing either route are what LADBS reads during plan check, since the house sits inside the City of Los Angeles. The finding moves one line of the quote, and the price of the new room itself stays where it was.
Room Additions in Eagle Rock: what people ask
Yes, if a beam over the opening is sized to carry the roof and the panes near the floor are tempered. A chimney inside that wall can limit where the opening sits, so the inspection comes before the door width is fixed. Once the masonry question is settled, sliding or folding glass can be drawn to suit.
A second floor over a house with a masonry chimney means extending the flue above the new roof or taking it out, on top of an engineer's review of what the old walls and footings can carry. A ground floor room avoids that work when the lot leaves space beside the yard, and keeps the glass close to the garden.
The quote prices the tie-in as one line: opening the old wall, joining the roofs and patching inside and out. If the inspection opening finds masonry in that wall, its bracing or removal is added to that line with a note saying why, so the change is plain to follow.
Room Additions in other cities
More of what we build in Eagle Rock
Start your project in Eagle Rock
Send the form with the size of the space and what you want to change.