I'm looking to frame in this room (photo 2) to utilize the space for a 1st floor bathroom / 1st floor laundry room / storage.
I think I have the process down having seen my uncles and brothers houses being built from the ground up. On the 2 interior walls, use 2×8's around the perimeter; the 2 exterior walls, build a 2×4 wall from the concrete slab to the bottom of the 2×8 height of the interior wall. Floor joist across the span, 3/4 plywood over and build the remaining 2×4 wall to the ceiling (all of this after the demo of course)
The brick pillars you see in photo 2 are structural, so I won't be touching those. Photo 4 – the bathroom would be to the right of it and the laundry space to the left. trying to leave the sky light in place.
My problem comes in with the concrete steps in photo 1. I don't want to have to take them out as to not disturb the foundation. I think I can frame around them. If my measurements are correct, I think i can simply fill in the void of the top step (just outside the door) to equal the floor in the house inside the door (which has already been refinished with 18 inch porcelain tile)
I will loose the big interior window (connected to the dining room) but will remove the door and make that the entrance into the room. Photo 2, eventually the window on the right edge of the photo will be taken out and converted into a french door or sliding door to access a new patio (some day)
Is that a suitable plan?
-Mario
Photo 1
photo 1 http://jandmcreative.com/room/photo1.JPG
Photo 2
photo 2 http://jandmcreative.com/room/photo2.JPG
Photo 3
photo 3 http://jandmcreative.com/room/photo3.JPG
Best Answer
You are going to need to pull permits unless you live somewhere that doesn't have any requirements for them. Since that is probably visible from the road, there is almost no way that code enforcement or one of your neighbors isn't going to see it and report you.
The stairs look like the precast concrete kind and probably are hollow and not attached to your foundation.
The method you are proposing sounds more like building a deck than building correctly for a house. Most likely, to be legal, you'll need to remove the slab and dig down beneath the frost line and build up with poured concrete or with cinder blocks.
If the slab happens go down around the edges far enough to support the weight, fine, but most likely it doesn't. Assuming you don't care about being legal, you could build up a cinder block wall to the height level with the bricks on the existing part of the house, setting them back so that you could brick the new parts at a later date. The bricks from the first place might be enough to recycle. Then build your new walls on top of the cinder block walls.
The nice thing about doing everything legal is that it will let you remove that fire place and any of the columns. That fireplace almost definitely wouldn't be legal for inside use.