How To Make An Attic Livable

Having enough head room in the attic is the first step to making the space into a living area.

How to make an attic livable.

Rafter roof framing or truss framing. Step 1 go up into the attic and observe what type of roof supports you have in your home. The nearly 50 000 average price reported by remodeling magazine drops to a. The cost of remodeling an attic in the united states varies significantly based on the cost of living in your region.

That means you ll need 2x10 floor joists or maybe 2x8 in rare circumstances and at least 2x12 roof rafters. Pull down stairs won t be appropriate in this case and you ll need a permanent staircase. At least half of your attic space must be 7 feet high by 7 feet wide with a total of 70 square feet. How to save for home improvements.

Pull down stairs won t work for an attic room so you must add a permanent staircase. Floor covering area rugs are awesome lighting especially in an attic that might not have tons of natural light wall color could be fabric or can you paint. Dormers range in sizes so decide which will work best for you and your existing structure. Codes vary from place to place but the rule of 7 for using an attic as an actual room typically applies.

You can sister the joists by cutting 2 x8 boards the same length as the joists applying construction adhesive and affixing each to a joist with nails. Home repair maintenance ideas and tips 5 home maintenance tasks you re probably forgetting to do. Attics don t generally offer a great deal of floor space and ceiling height. Four key ingredients to create a livable moment in an empty space.

Obviously a crawl space attic won t do. Once you convert attic space into living space you need to bring it up to the standards of modern building codes. You also have to decide where the loft stairs will begin and check how much space it will need. Fortunately this is a fairly easy fix.

Or even one section of wallpaper chair bed here are a few of my favorite examples. But if your attic was framed with rafters which are beams that support the roof. Figure out if your attic can even be changed into a liveable space. You have rafter roof framing if the roof supports meet the floor joists with no extra supports or diagonal bracing.

Then work with the right professionals to make turning the attic into a living space an exciting reality.