Converting Your Attic Into Living Space

Technical issues such as locating a safe staircase and the distribution of additional joists required to accommodate the new load bearing and stress factors.

Converting your attic into living space.

In short you can only convert the attic of your house into a living space if you choose an attic roof truss at the time of construction. Otherwise adding an extra room and optimizing the space at your disposal will be much more difficult. A guide to convert attic space to living space. Regulated for a reason like basement remodels attic conversions have restrictions that make them less attractive for remodeling as they might first appear.

An attic conversion requires easy access from an adjoining second story room or a staircase to provide entrance to and exit from the room. An attic with a steeply pitched roof works best since it allows for enough ceiling height in the room. Below you can see townhouses with and without a third floor. In order to turn your attic space into living space the ceilings must be 7 feet from the floor.

We chose not to do it and i ve regretted it since. How much of that living space will be lost upon building the staircase. Fire as a cause of injury and death is the main reason for these restrictions. Is there a good spot for them to start on the floor below.

You ll need a skilled contractor for either project. This brings up the question of what remains below where the stairs begin. Pull down stairs won t work for an attic room so you must add a permanent staircase. That third floor is how it would look with the unused attic space totally transformed.

Converting an attic has house wide structural implications. Transform your unused attic. Turning that attic into living space is going to add some previously unaccounted for load upstairs. Think of load as weight that additional load at the top of your house was not planned for structurally when your home was built.

One way is by working within the home s existing footprint and converting the attic into living space. Converting an attic into a living space is a great method of adding another room to the house but it is not a job for the average diy person. If your attic isn t 7 feet you could lower the floor or raise the attic height. At least half of your attic space must be 7 feet high by 7 feet wide with a total of 70 square feet.

The international building code requires sleeping rooms below the fourth floor of a home or building to have at least one exterior emergency escape and rescue opening with a minimum size of 5 7 square feet. Storage is always at a premium in most homes and converting an attic into living space presents a wonderful opportunity to create some built in storage solutions such as this brilliant window seat storage unit with built in shelving and drawers to maximize the use of space.