The Sims 4: Expanding a house Sims 4 Guide, tips

Last update: 30 March 2022

A new family member or better earnings may often create a desire to expand the house. Nothing prevents you from expanding your home, adding new floors and balconies, or digging a pool near the porch - you just need to collect the necessary amount of Simoleons. This page of The Sims 4 guide will help you expand your home.

• General information
• Moving the house
• Foundations
• Expanding the house
• Adding a floor
• Adjusting height of walls and doors
• Porches and balconies
• Garden and the space around the house
• Ready-made premises

General information

The house you build or purchase at the beginning may be just right for you for a long time, but sooner or later you will need to expand it. The Sims 4 offers really wide opportunities for enlarging existing rooms without demolishing them. You may expand your house by increasing the size of rooms, building new ones, or creating another floor.

Moving the house

While building a house, initially you may not be aware of how you will want to expand it in the future. If you would like to move the entire building, it is possible. In the main panel, you should select the second icon from the right. Then click on the house and confirm your intent by clicking the icon in the middle, above the house (by using the icons on the sides you can turn the house by 90 degrees).

Now choose a new place for your house, confirm it and voila!

Foundations

To add some class to your house, you may build its foundation. Go to the build mode and select the icon responsible for foundations. It has never been so easy to build this. You just need to adjust its thickness with a scrollbar.

Foundation will automatically "grow in" between the surface and the house itself, which in turn will rise a bit. In the future you may freely modify the foundation - either expand or remove it.

Note that implementing foundation necessitates creating stairs to every entrance, as the floor level has been raised. In the build mode select stairs, then choose their pattern and put them by the foundation. Once placed, they can be expanded or narrowed as you see fit.

Expanding the house

Growing family and kids may force you to expand your house. First, you should consider adding new rooms and reorganizing the already existing ones. Extra rooms are created the same way as before - by raising walls or placing ready rooms of particular shapes. Add wall and floor coverings and do not forget about adjusting the size of the roof.

When expanding the house, remember that the married couple should have their own bedroom, just as seniors, and each child need their own child's room. You can also consider creating another bathroom - with 3-4 Sims in the family this is absolutely necessary. The living room can be separated from the dining room and the kitchen, but you may also create one, big common space.

Adding a floor

If that is not enough for you, or you just want to build your house upwards instead of sideways, you can build another (and then yet another) floor. To that end you should first remove the roof. Zoom out the camera, select the removing tool (hammer) from the upper panel, and click on the roof.

Go back to the lower floor, look for the stairs icon in the build panel, then choose a pattern and place the stairs inside the house. Note that they take a lot of space.

Now you just need to go to the upper level and finish the new space the same way you did on the lower level: divide it into rooms, put windows and doors, cover walls and floors, etc.

Finally, do not forget about the roof - you removed it previously, so now you have to create it from scratch.

Adjusting height of walls and doors

An interesting option is increasing walls height. Customarily they are low. You just have to click at an existing room while in the build mode, and then, using the three icons that appear above the panel, set a different number.

Increasing walls height opens access to taller doors. These are available in a respective category by the list of doors in build panel.

This option is useful, if you already have a huge residence. Increasing walls height, adding massive doors and windows, and putting friezes on the outside and by the roof makes for a splendid house.

Porches and balconies

When creating another floor, you may want to devote some space to a terrace. To that end, do not place rooms on the entire floor - choose a terrace in the build mode.

Then finish the space adding guard rails and door to the terrace as well as its floor. Add furniture, such as armchairs, a table, etc., and your Sims will be able to relax under the moon.

Terrace can also be built on the ground floor by using a proper tool in the build mode. Select a shape as you like, and then place it where you want it. Just as in the case of rooms or roofs, you can use arrows to set the size of the terrace.

You can also add some attractive irregular shapes. Do not forget about the door to the house. You can also create an exit to the yard.

Garden and the space around the house

There is also some space for you to develop around the house. You can make a garden, a playground for children, or a standalone workshop for your Sim.

Do not forget about greenery: bushes, flowers, alleys, fountains, etc. The only limits here are the amount of Simoleons and the size of the plot.

Using the terrain covering tool, you can freely change the look of the surface: it can be flowery grass, sand, gravel, or even stones.

Ready-made premises

If you do not feel like finishing or furnishing your house on your own, you can use yet another tool - custom rooms. You can browse tabs for available kitchens, living rooms, bathrooms, dining rooms, etc. When you choose one of the available rooms and its color pattern, you can buy it and then place on your parcel.

This way you can buy any of the basic rooms - the only thing you should keep in mind is door placement and the freedom of walking around the house. Building a house in The Sims has never been that easy! Note that you can always modify it.