Renovations and additions in Superior Township
Superior Township is the ground between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and it is really two places. Subdivisions fill the west end. Working farmland and large parcels hold the east. Lot sizes on both ends give you something most of the region does not have: room to build out instead of up.
West end and east end want different things
Eleven completed jobs across the township, and the two ends barely overlap. West of Prospect the houses are subdivision colonials and ranches with attached garages, builder cabinets and basements that were framed for a future bathroom nobody ever built. East of there the parcels get large, the buildings multiply, and the conversation turns to shop space, driveways and how far a utility trench has to run.
Sitting in the middle of Washtenaw County means township review rather than a city building department, and it means neighbors are far enough away that noise and dust are rarely the limiting factor. What limits a project here is usually grade, drainage and where the well or the drain field sits. How a project actually runs from first walkthrough to final inspection is the same either way, but the site work at the front end is not.
Kitchens
West-side kitchens are twenty and thirty years old now, sound in their bones and dated on every surface. Replacing countertops and backsplash alone changes a room when the boxes are still square. Where the family room is walled off, a kitchen remodel that opens that wall is worth the header and the beam pocket.
Bathrooms
Builder primary baths from the 1990s put a corner tub where the shower should be and gave the shower a thirty-two-inch base. Rebuilding that wall line usually yields a proper walk-in shower and a longer vanity without moving plumbing far. Our bathroom remodels start with what the floor framing allows.
Basements
Deep, dry basements with stubbed drains are common on the west side, which makes finishing the lower level straightforward. On the east end the request is different: a basement workshop with dust collection, a two-twenty circuit and enough light to see a saw line.
Additions
Generous lots mean a wing can go on the side or the rear without crowding a setback. A large addition here can hold a primary suite, a real laundry and a family room in one pour. Browse additions of every size to see how scope scales.
Garages and outdoor
Vehicles, tractors and a project car outgrow an attached two-car quickly. A detached garage with a heated bay solves that and keeps the house quiet. Out back, outdoor space on a parcel this size can be a deck, a covered porch or a paved area sized for a fire.
Building sideways is cheaper than building up
A second story means engineering the existing foundation and framing to carry new load, reworking a stair, moving mechanicals and living somewhere else for part of it. A ground-floor wing means a footing, a wall, a roof tie-in and one weekend of noise where the old exterior wall comes out. Same square footage, different project. Lot sizes here make the second option available, and most people take it once they see the two priced side by side.
Staying in the house is the other reason the ground-floor wing wins. New foundation, framing and roof go up outside a wall that is still doing its job, so the family keeps its kitchen and its bedrooms until the week we open the connection. A site visit is where that sequence gets settled, because the order of work depends on where the addition lands and which wall comes out last.
- Lot coverage and side setbacks get pulled from the township before a floor plan is drawn, since they set the buildable width.
- Foundation type has to match what the addition needs. A crawl space under new bedrooms saves money, a full basement adds usable room, and the choice affects the floor height at the connection.
- Roof tie-ins decide how the finished house reads. A wing that meets the existing eave cleanly looks original; one that crashes into a rake never does.
- Parcels on the east end run on well and septic, so any added bathroom starts with a look at the drain field record.
- Long driveways need a plan for material delivery and equipment, especially in a Michigan spring when the base is soft.
Five miles out, which is the shortest drive on our list
The Platt Road shop sits just south of the township line, so this is effectively home ground. Crews get to a Superior job faster than to almost anywhere else, and the same trucks are working Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor on either side. That proximity is worth something specific: a punch list item gets handled in a morning instead of waiting for a return trip.
It also means we can walk a property twice before pricing it, which is how a sideways addition gets sited correctly. Slope, the septic field, the well head, the septic tank access lid and where water goes in a hard rain all narrow the buildable area. Reading what an addition returns alongside that site work will tell you whether to build the wing you want or the wing the lot wants.
Show us the lot and we will tell you where the addition belongs.
