Exterior structures.
Additions, annexes, porches, decks.
What it really involves
An exterior structure rests on new foundations. Screw piles, concrete piles, footings or slab on grade, depending on the soil, the frost depth, the presence of a water table and the load to carry.
So it's a structural and regulatory project well before it's a carpentry project. The part you picture, the floor, the railing, the cladding, is the last and the fastest. What sets the schedule is the soil, the zoning and the permit.
That's why an addition is planned a season ahead, not the spring you decide to do it.
What we do
Single-storey or second-storey addition
Adding a room at the back, extending the kitchen, building a storey over an existing section. A second-storey addition requires checking that the current structure and foundations can carry the additional load, which is the engineer's call.
Annex and sunroom
An adjoining but structurally independent space. It's often the answer when the existing foundation can't be loaded any further.
Porch and deck
Treated wood, cedar or composite. On a sloped or elevated lot, the railing and the anchoring are governed by the code and are calculated.
Foundation replacement under an existing building
Lifting the building, pouring or screwing in a new foundation, setting it back down. That's the Saint-Hippolyte site.
Our site conditions
The waterfront
The shoreline is governed by strict municipal and provincial regulations: protection strip, distance from the high-water line, bearing capacity of soil close to the water table. A waterfront project is designed within that framework from the first sketch, with the required authorizations. Designed otherwise, it gets refused, and the time lost can't be made up in a short construction season.
The sloped lot
The foundations sit at different depths from one end to the other, and machinery access becomes a design constraint, not a logistical detail.
Restricted access
Narrow lot, immediate neighbour, back lane. It determines the foundation method even before the architectural choice.
Saint-Hippolyte cottage
A new foundation on piles under an existing building, on the shoreline, carried out in phases.
A three-season cottage on stilts, authorized by the municipality as a renovation project. On a lakefront, the footprint of a foundation is governed by municipal regulations and by provincial shoreline protection rules.
The building was lifted, a new foundation on piles built underneath, then the cottage was set back down and enlarged one wall at a time. Floor area tripled, height doubled, four seasons, every phase in accordance with the permit issued.
Read the case
So, what are we working on?
Eight questions, two minutes. We call you back to talk it through, and we tell you frankly whether it's a project for us or whether you'd be better served elsewhere.