Ogden is the largest city in our service area and the most architecturally diverse. It has the oldest housing stock by far, the most varied neighborhoods, an active downtown commercial core, and a long history of structural engineering challenges that newer cities just don't generate. We love working in Ogden — every project is a little different.
What Ogden projects look like
- Additions to older homes. Adding to a 1920s craftsman is a different exercise than adding to a 2010s tract home. We evaluate existing footings, framing, and lateral systems before designing the new work.
- Carriage house and detached ADUs. Ogden's older lots often have detached garages or coach houses that can become ADUs with the right structural approach.
- Foundation evaluations. Older Ogden basements have all the issues you'd expect: settlement, expansive clay movement, and the occasional bowing wall. We evaluate honestly.
- Load-bearing wall removal letters. Opening up old layouts is a constant Ogden remodel pattern.
- Light commercial TI. We do tenant improvement and change-of-use work in the Ogden commercial core and along Washington Boulevard.
- East bench retaining walls and custom homes. Newer infill on the East Bench generates the kind of bench custom-home work we'd expect in Kaysville.
Ogden specifics
- Historic preservation. Some Ogden neighborhoods have preservation overlays. Structural changes are still allowed but may need to preserve specific façades or elements. We design accordingly when it applies.
- Older lateral systems. Pre-1970s Ogden homes often weren't built with anything resembling modern shear wall design. Adding to them sometimes means upgrading the existing lateral system as well.
- East Bench seismic site class. Some East Bench lots fall into stricter seismic site classes. We check this for every project up there.
- Mixed uses. Ogden's commercial-residential mix means we see more change-of-use and mixed-use TI work here than in any other city in the service area.
A recent Ogden project
An East Bench Ogden homeowner wanted to add a small carriage house ADU on top of their existing 1920s detached garage. We evaluated whether the original garage structure could take the new load (it couldn't), designed a new structural shell that would carry the carriage house independently, and stamped the package. The result is a legal ADU that respects the historic detached garage's appearance from the street.
Working with us in Ogden
20 minutes from our Syracuse office. We schedule Ogden visits in batches when possible, but most jobs still come together within the same 1–2 week window as the closer cities.