diff --git a/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/impl_std_ops.rs b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/impl_std_ops.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/csr.rs b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/csr.rs
index 3b28ac74..b77d1112 100644
--- a/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/csr.rs
+++ b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/csr.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use crate::ops::{Transpose};
 use nalgebra::{Scalar, DMatrixSlice, ClosedAdd, ClosedMul, DMatrixSliceMut};
 use num_traits::{Zero, One};
 
-/// Sparse-dense matrix-matrix multiplication `C = beta * C + alpha * trans(A) * trans(B)`.
+/// Sparse-dense matrix-matrix multiplication `C <- beta * C + alpha * trans(A) * trans(B)`.
 pub fn spmm_csr_dense<'a, T>(c: impl Into<DMatrixSliceMut<'a, T>>,
                              beta: T,
                              alpha: T,
diff --git a/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/mod.rs b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/mod.rs
index a7615ec4..bb40419f 100644
--- a/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/mod.rs
+++ b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/mod.rs
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ macro_rules! assert_compatible_spmm_dims {
 
 mod coo;
 mod csr;
+mod pattern;
 
 pub use coo::*;
-pub use csr::*;
\ No newline at end of file
+pub use csr::*;
+pub use pattern::*;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/pattern.rs b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/pattern.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6507ad1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nalgebra-sparse/src/ops/serial/pattern.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+use crate::pattern::SparsityPattern;
+
+use std::mem::swap;
+use std::iter;
+
+/// Sparse matrix addition pattern construction, `C <- A + B`.
+///
+/// Builds the pattern for `C`, which is able to hold the result of the sum `A + B`.
+/// The patterns are assumed to have the same major and minor dimensions. In other words,
+/// both patterns `A` and `B` must both stem from the same kind of compressed matrix:
+/// CSR or CSC.
+/// TODO: Explain that output pattern is only used to avoid allocations
+pub fn spadd_build_pattern(pattern: &mut SparsityPattern,
+                           a: &SparsityPattern,
+                           b: &SparsityPattern)
+{
+    // TODO: Proper error messages
+    assert_eq!(a.major_dim(), b.major_dim());
+    assert_eq!(a.minor_dim(), b.minor_dim());
+
+    let input_pattern = pattern;
+    let mut temp_pattern = SparsityPattern::new(a.major_dim(), b.minor_dim());
+    swap(input_pattern, &mut temp_pattern);
+    let (mut offsets, mut indices) = temp_pattern.disassemble();
+
+    offsets.clear();
+    offsets.reserve(a.major_dim() + 1);
+    indices.clear();
+
+    offsets.push(0);
+
+    for lane_idx in 0 .. a.major_dim() {
+        let lane_a = a.lane(lane_idx);
+        let lane_b = b.lane(lane_idx);
+        indices.extend(iterate_intersection(lane_a, lane_b));
+        offsets.push(indices.len());
+    }
+
+    // TODO: Consider circumventing format checks? (requires unsafe, should benchmark first)
+    let mut new_pattern = SparsityPattern::try_from_offsets_and_indices(
+        a.major_dim(), a.minor_dim(), offsets, indices)
+        .expect("Pattern must be valid by definition");
+    swap(input_pattern, &mut new_pattern);
+}
+
+/// Iterate over the intersection of the two sets represented by sorted slices
+/// (with unique elements)
+fn iterate_intersection<'a>(mut sorted_a: &'a [usize],
+                            mut sorted_b: &'a [usize]) -> impl Iterator<Item=usize> + 'a {
+    // TODO: Can use a kind of simultaneous exponential search to speed things up here
+    iter::from_fn(move || {
+        if let (Some(a_item), Some(b_item)) = (sorted_a.first(), sorted_b.first()) {
+            let item = if a_item < b_item {
+                sorted_a = &sorted_a[1 ..];
+                a_item
+            } else if b_item < a_item {
+                sorted_b = &sorted_b[1 ..];
+                b_item
+            } else {
+                // Both lists contain the same element, advance both slices to avoid
+                // duplicate entries in the result
+                sorted_a = &sorted_a[1 ..];
+                sorted_b = &sorted_b[1 ..];
+                a_item
+            };
+            Some(*item)
+        } else if let Some(a_item) = sorted_a.first() {
+            sorted_a = &sorted_a[1..];
+            Some(*a_item)
+        } else if let Some(b_item) = sorted_b.first() {
+            sorted_b = &sorted_b[1..];
+            Some(*b_item)
+        } else {
+            None
+        }
+    })
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/nalgebra-sparse/tests/unit_tests/ops.rs b/nalgebra-sparse/tests/unit_tests/ops.rs
index add03a98..4fb9c232 100644
--- a/nalgebra-sparse/tests/unit_tests/ops.rs
+++ b/nalgebra-sparse/tests/unit_tests/ops.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 use nalgebra_sparse::coo::CooMatrix;
-use nalgebra_sparse::ops::serial::{spmv_coo, spmm_csr_dense};
+use nalgebra_sparse::ops::serial::{spmv_coo, spmm_csr_dense, spadd_build_pattern};
 use nalgebra_sparse::ops::{Transpose};
 use nalgebra_sparse::csr::CsrMatrix;
-use nalgebra_sparse::proptest::csr;
+use nalgebra_sparse::proptest::{csr, sparsity_pattern};
+use nalgebra_sparse::pattern::SparsityPattern;
 
 use nalgebra::{DVector, DMatrix, Scalar, DMatrixSliceMut, DMatrixSlice};
 use nalgebra::proptest::matrix;
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@ use nalgebra::proptest::matrix;
 use proptest::prelude::*;
 
 use std::panic::catch_unwind;
+use std::sync::Arc;
 
 #[test]
 fn spmv_coo_agrees_with_dense_gemv() {
@@ -99,6 +101,19 @@ fn trans_strategy() -> impl Strategy<Value=Transpose> + Clone {
     proptest::bool::ANY.prop_map(Transpose)
 }
 
+fn pattern_strategy() -> impl Strategy<Value=SparsityPattern> {
+    sparsity_pattern(0 ..= 6usize, 0..= 6usize, 40)
+}
+
+/// Constructs pairs (a, b) where a and b have the same dimensions
+fn spadd_build_pattern_strategy() -> impl Strategy<Value=(SparsityPattern, SparsityPattern)> {
+    pattern_strategy()
+        .prop_flat_map(|a| {
+            let b = sparsity_pattern(Just(a.major_dim()), Just(a.minor_dim()), 40);
+            (Just(a), b)
+        })
+}
+
 /// Helper function to help us call dense GEMM with our transposition parameters
 fn dense_gemm<'a>(c: impl Into<DMatrixSliceMut<'a, i32>>,
                   beta: i32,
@@ -167,4 +182,26 @@ proptest! {
             "The SPMM kernel executed successfully despite mismatch dimensions");
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn spadd_build_pattern_test((c, (a, b)) in (pattern_strategy(), spadd_build_pattern_strategy()))
+    {
+        // (a, b) are dimensionally compatible patterns, whereas c is an *arbitrary* pattern
+        let mut pattern_result = c.clone();
+        spadd_build_pattern(&mut pattern_result, &a, &b);
+
+        // To verify the pattern, we construct CSR matrices with positive integer entries
+        // corresponding to a and b, and convert them to dense matrices.
+        // The sum of these dense matrices will then have non-zeros in exactly the same locations
+        // as the result of "adding" the sparsity patterns
+        let a_csr = CsrMatrix::try_from_pattern_and_values(Arc::new(a.clone()), vec![1; a.nnz()])
+            .unwrap();
+        let a_dense = DMatrix::from(&a_csr);
+        let b_csr = CsrMatrix::try_from_pattern_and_values(Arc::new(b.clone()), vec![1; b.nnz()])
+            .unwrap();
+        let b_dense = DMatrix::from(&b_csr);
+        let c_dense = a_dense + b_dense;
+        let c_csr = CsrMatrix::from(&c_dense);
+
+        prop_assert_eq!(&pattern_result, &*c_csr.pattern());
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file