Second story additions in Cahaba Heights

Cahaba Heights has lived three lives: it started as New Merkle — named for the engineer of the 1887 Cahaba Pumping Station — spent decades as an unincorporated Jefferson County community, and in May 2002 voted to join Vestavia Hills. That last vote quietly changed the math for every homeowner here: the eclectic, mostly post-1950s houses of Cahaba Heights now come with Vestavia Hills schools and services, which makes investing in one of these houses more rational than it has ever been.

That is exactly what a second story addition is: investment in a house whose neighborhood finally matches it. The 1950s and 60s stock around Meadowlawn Gardens and the Heights' winding streets is classic conversion material — one-story homes with honest structure on settled lots near the Cahaba River, in a community that is minutes from everything Over the Mountain but still feels like the small place it started as. Building up adds the bedrooms and the second bath without touching the yard or the trees that give these streets their character.

One thing longtime residents still get wrong: since the 2002 annexation, permits here come from the City of Vestavia Hills' Department of Building Safety, not Jefferson County — with the city's current 2021 codes applying to the new work and an erosion-control step ahead of the building permit. Precision Homecrafters handles that jurisdiction correctly from day one, verifies the existing foundation with an engineer before design, and builds with the new level weatherproofed above your existing roof before the old roof is removed. The family stays home; the house grows into its second life.

Neighborhoods we serve in Cahaba Heights

ZIP codes served: 35243