More room.
Same address.
A second storey can change what your home makes possible, without sacrificing the backyard or starting over on another block.
An extra floor changes the entire home.
The new bedrooms are only part of the design. A good second-storey addition must also make sense of the existing house below: the structure carrying it, the position of the stairs, how the roof and services connect, and how the ground floor will feel afterwards.
It starts
underneath.
Before deciding how the upper floor will look, the existing structure and the way loads reach the ground need to be understood. Lightweight framing can help, but it does not remove the need for engineering.
Loads
What can the existing walls, footings and supporting structure carry?
Layout
Where can a stair land without compromising the rooms below?
Envelope
How do the roof, weatherproofing and new rooms tie in?
Four things to resolve
before drawing upstairs.
Second-storey feasibility is specific to the existing house. These decisions shape the design before the first new wall is built.
Is the existing house a sound starting point?
Footings, walls, previous alterations and roof construction need to be assessed, with a structural engineer confirming the works required.
Where will the stairs actually go?
The stair is a major planning decision. It affects circulation, the room below, the arrangement upstairs and the amount of usable area you gain.
What can the street and site accommodate?
Height, setbacks, overlooking, local planning controls and the architecture of the existing home all influence what is possible.
What happens to the home during the work?
Roof removal, temporary protection, access, services and household disruption should be discussed early—not discovered midway through construction.
Early-stage site works · slab, posts and the existing house in viewWhere the
stairs go.
A second storey creates a new relationship between the floors. The stair should feel like it has always belonged there, rather than taking away the best room in the existing house.
Behind the finished
surfaces.
These are real examples of structural renovation and integration work from Toorak’s portfolio. They demonstrate related experience, not photographs of a completed second-storey addition.
Image provenance: user-supplied site photographs showing staged structural works, framing and floor/roof integration. These images are used as construction examples within this concept page.
Explore our projects ↗Start with the
existing home.
Send us the address, any existing plans and a brief outline of the spaces you’re hoping to add. The early conversation is about whether the idea fits the house and what needs to be investigated.
Discuss your home ↗