You’re not outgrowing your neighborhood. You’re outgrowing your floor plan.
Adding a dormer means you can finally give the kids separate bedrooms. Or carve out a quiet home office away from the kitchen table. Or add a full bathroom upstairs so mornings aren’t a battle. It’s functional space in the part of your home that’s been sitting there unused—your attic.
On Long Island, lot sizes and zoning restrictions make it hard to build out. Building up makes sense. A dormer doesn’t eat into your yard, doesn’t require you to lose your driveway, and doesn’t force you into a bigger mortgage in a town you don’t know.
Most North Wantagh homeowners who add a dormer see their property value increase by 15-22%. That’s not just extra square footage. That’s equity you can use later, and space you can use now.
Ray Coleman Home Improvement has been serving North Wantagh and Nassau County since the early 1970s. We’re licensed, insured, and ranked in the top 1% of New York contractors on BuildZoom.
We specialize in large-scale projects—dormers, extensions, full renovations. The kind of work that requires permits, planning, and crews who show up on time and clean up before they leave. We answer the phone. We respond to texts. If your pipe freezes at 3 a.m., we’re the ones you call.
North Wantagh has some of the oldest housing stock on Long Island. Cape Cods, ranches, split-levels built in the 50s and 60s. Great bones, but not always great layouts for how families live today. We’ve added dormers to hundreds of these homes, and we know what works structurally, what passes inspection, and what actually looks good from the street.
First, we come out and look at your attic. Not every attic can support a dormer without structural reinforcement, and we’ll tell you up front what’s required. We measure headroom, check your roof pitch, and talk through what you’re trying to add—bedroom, bathroom, office, storage.
Then we draw up plans and handle the permits. In Nassau County, that means working with your local building department, submitting engineered drawings, and scheduling inspections. We manage that process so you don’t have to.
Once permits are approved, we start framing. We cut into your existing roofline, build out the dormer structure, and tie it into your current frame. Roofing, siding, and windows go on next. Then insulation, drywall, electrical, and HVAC if you’re adding climate control to the new space.
The whole process typically takes 6-10 weeks depending on size and scope. Weather delays happen—this is Long Island. But we keep the site clean, the work moving, and you updated the entire way through.
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Most dormers we build in North Wantagh are shed dormers—they run along the back or side of the house and give you the most usable square footage. Gable dormers are smaller, usually added for light and ventilation or to create a specific architectural look.
You’re typically looking at 100-200 square feet of new space. That’s enough for a full bedroom with a closet, or a home office with built-in storage, or a primary bathroom with a walk-in shower. Some homeowners go bigger and add multiple rooms under one dormer roofline.
On Long Island, you’re also adding value. Homes in North Wantagh with extra bedrooms or finished second-floor space appraise higher. Research shows you can recoup 65-80% of your dormer cost in resale value, and that doesn’t account for the years you get to actually use the space.
We handle everything—framing, roofing, siding to match your existing exterior, windows, insulation, drywall, electric, HVAC tie-ins, and finish work. If you’re adding a bathroom, we run plumbing. If you want recessed lighting or hardwood floors, we coordinate that too. You’re not managing five different contractors. You’re working with one crew from start to finish.
Most dormer projects in North Wantagh run between $25,000 and $50,000 depending on size and what you’re adding inside. A basic shed dormer that adds a bedroom and closet will cost less than a full primary suite with a bathroom and custom finishes.
Labor makes up about half that cost. The rest is materials—lumber, roofing, windows, siding, insulation, drywall, and anything you’re adding like plumbing or HVAC. If your attic needs structural reinforcement to support the new load, that adds to the budget.
We give you a fixed-price estimate after we see your house and understand what you want. No surprises, no change orders unless you change the scope. And yes, most homeowners finance this kind of project—either through a home equity line or a renovation loan.
Plan on 6-10 weeks from permit approval to final inspection. Smaller dormers can be done faster. Larger projects with bathrooms, custom windows, or complex rooflines take longer.
Permitting in Nassau County adds time up front—usually 2-4 weeks depending on the building department’s workload. We submit engineered plans, wait for review, make any revisions they ask for, and then get approval to start.
Weather affects the timeline too. We can’t frame or roof in heavy rain or snow, and winter on Long Island means frozen ground and short daylight hours. If you’re planning a dormer, spring and fall are the easiest seasons to get it done without delays.
Yes, if it’s done right. We match your existing siding, roofing material, window style, and trim details so the dormer looks like it was always part of the house.
That means if you have vinyl siding, we source the same profile and color. If you have cedar shakes, we match the exposure and stain. If your windows are double-hung with grids, that’s what goes in the dormer. The goal is seamless integration, not an obvious addition.
We also pay attention to proportions. A dormer that’s too big or poorly placed can throw off your home’s curb appeal. We’ve been doing this long enough to know what looks balanced from the street and what doesn’t. You’ll see renderings before we build so you know exactly what it’s going to look like.
Yes. Any structural change to your roofline requires a building permit in Nassau County, and that includes dormers.
You’ll need engineered drawings that show the framing, load calculations, and how the dormer ties into your existing structure. You’ll also need to show compliance with setback requirements, height restrictions, and energy code for insulation and windows.
We handle the permit process. We work with engineers and architects who know Nassau County’s requirements, and we submit everything on your behalf. You don’t have to deal with the building department or schedule inspections—we do that. It’s part of the service.
Yes, and a lot of North Wantagh homeowners do exactly that. Adding a second full bathroom upstairs is one of the most common reasons people build a dormer.
You’ll need to run plumbing up from the first floor, which means opening walls and connecting to your existing waste and supply lines. If your house is on a slab, that’s more complicated than if you have a basement or crawl space. We’ll tell you what’s involved after we see your setup.
You’ll also need to account for ventilation, electrical for lights and outlets, and waterproofing for the shower or tub area. A dormer bathroom isn’t a simple add-on, but it’s absolutely doable and it significantly increases your home’s functionality and resale value. Most families with kids or aging parents find that second bathroom pays for itself in quality of life alone.
A shed dormer runs horizontally along your roofline and has a single sloped roof. It gives you the most interior space and headroom, which is why it’s the most popular choice for adding bedrooms or living areas.
A gable dormer is smaller and projects out from the roof with a peaked front. It’s usually added for light, ventilation, or architectural detail. You don’t get as much usable square footage, but it can make a big visual impact from the street.
In North Wantagh, most of the dormers we build are shed style because homeowners want maximum space. But if you’re working with a Cape Cod or Colonial and you want to preserve a certain look, gable dormers can be the right call. We’ll walk you through both options and show you examples of what we’ve done on homes similar to yours.
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