Second Story Additions
A second story addition gives you a whole new floor of house on the footprint you already own.
- Structural Design Handled In-House
- Wisconsin Dwelling Contractor #DC072000742
- 5-Year Workmanship and Material Warranty
What a Second Story Addition Gives You
The finished version has three bedrooms upstairs and a full bath, so the main floor stops doing double duty. A primary suite with a door that closes on the noise. An office at the top of the stairs with a window and actual quiet. Downstairs, the room that has been a bedroom since 2016 goes back to being a dining room.
None of it costs you a foot of yard. The garden stays, the mature trees stay, the setbacks stay exactly where they were, and the septic field or the patio you poured four years ago never gets touched.
Building up is the answer when a lot is small, a corner is tight, or the layout simply has nowhere left to push outward. It is also the most structurally demanding thing a remodeler can do to a house, because everything you add has to find a path down through the existing walls, the existing floor, and into footings that were sized for a one-story load.
We build these for homeowners across Central Wisconsin, and we design the structure in-house before we design the bedrooms.
Second Stories We Have Built
3D Home design
5-year workmanship warranty
Trusted by 40+ families
Second-Story Client Reviews
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Patti Shirer
Justin (Rust and Sawdust) has completed many handyman type jobs for us. He is extremely easy to work with, arrives exactly when he says he will, and does an excellent job start to finish.
We trust him completely and will certainly use his services to complete both large and small projects in the future. We give Rust and Sawdust our highest recommendation.
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Susan Kowalski
Working with Justin and his whole crew from Remodeling Journey was a wonderful and heartfelt experience.
Everything I wanted and asked for met my expectations. The perfection and quality of craftsmanship was impeccable. I highly recommend Justin and Remodeling Journey for your project!
What a Second Story Addition Includes
Structural evaluation and design. Existing footing capacity, bearing wall capacity, header sizing over first-floor openings, and new point loads carried down to the foundation or to new interior footings.
Roof removal and reframing. The existing roof comes off, new floor and wall framing goes up, and a new roof structure goes on above it.
Weather protection. Temporary roofing and enclosure through the open phase, planned and priced before the roof comes off.
Stair design and placement. The stairway is the biggest single constraint on the new floor plan, because a conforming run plus landings has to come out of your existing first floor.
Full mechanical extension. Heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing carried up. Existing furnace and duct capacity gets recalculated, since you are roughly doubling the conditioned space.
Interior finish and exterior tie-in. Siding, windows, roofing, and trim on the new level chosen to match what is already there.
Signs It's Time to Build Up
- Your lot has no room left. Setbacks, an easement, a septic field, or a corner location leave nowhere to expand outward.
- Bedrooms are doing other jobs. The dining room is a bedroom, the office is in a closet, and someone is sleeping in a finished basement.
- The single bathroom is a scheduling problem. School mornings run on a queue.
- You want the yard you have. The garden, the trees, and the patio are worth keeping.
- Moving does not pencil out. You like the street, the schools, and the commute, and the houses with the space you want are somewhere else.
- The roof is due anyway. If a reroof is coming, the economics of building up change, because that roof is coming off either way.
- You are planning for family. An adult child returning, a parent moving in, or a growing household changes what the floor plan needs to do.
Why It's Worth Doing
Square footage added above an existing footprint uses a foundation you already paid for, which is the single biggest reason people choose up over out.
You skip the excavation, the second frost-depth foundation, and the drainage rework that a ground-level wing would demand.
You also get the best rooms in the house out of it. Upper floors take light from more directions, sit away from street noise, and give you real separation between sleeping space and living space. That separation is what most families are actually buying.
A well-executed second story changes the character of a home.
The house reads as a two-story from the curb, the roofline is designed as a single piece, and the whole thing looks original to the street.
Your Options at a Glance
| Option | Best For | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full cabin renovation | Dated or patched-together cabins | Whole-interior rework, planned as one design |
| Year-round conversion | Seasonal cabins you want to use in winter | Insulation, windows, and systems upgraded for the cold |
| Kitchen rework | Cabins with a cramped cooking corner | More storage and prep space, cabin-appropriate finishes |
| Added or upgraded bath | Places short on bathrooms | New or fully finished bath for a full house |
| Character restoration | Cabins with worn logs, beams, or trim | Wood repair and matching to preserve the look |
| Loft and storage build-out | Small footprints that need more room | Sleeping lofts and built-ins that add usable space |
How a Second Story Fits a Bigger Project
Building up rarely stays upstairs. The stair opening takes floor area out of your main level, which means the first-floor plan gets redrawn as part of the same project. Once that wall is open, the kitchen or the entry usually deserves a second look too.
That is why we handle second stories inside our broader home additions service, and why the design phase covers the whole house.
Many of these projects end up as whole-home remodels by the time the design is finished, and it costs less to plan it that way from the start than to come back for the main level later.
How We Build It
1
Structure Before Style
2
Design and Walkthrough
3
Open, Frame, and Close
What Sets Remodeling Journey Apart
We design the load path as carefully as the layout
New point loads get carried to a footing that can take them, worked out before framing starts.
Both Wisconsin licenses on file
Dwelling Contractor #DC072000742 and Dwelling Contractor Qualifier #DCQ072000769.
Weather protection is part of the plan
An open roof is planned for and priced for before the work starts.
Five years of warranty, with visits
Workmanship and material defects covered, with annual on-site check-ins during the period.
One company holds the whole project
The designer, the structural work, and the carpenters are all ours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Under Wisconsin’s Uniform Dwelling Code, a second-floor bedroom needs a rescue opening with a net clear size of at least 20 by 24 inches, with the bottom of that opening no more than 60 inches above the floor. Above 46 inches, a permanent platform is required for access. We design the windows to meet that standard from the start.
Let’s Double Your House
Photos of the house and a rough idea of what you want upstairs are enough for us to start on the structural question. Our home additions service covers where a second story fits alongside everything else we build. Call us at (715) 551-7328 or fill out the form and Justin will call you back.