Finishing A Townhouse Attic

Follow the rule of 7s.

Finishing a townhouse attic.

On the other hand attic remodeling is on average about a 53 000 project. To meet all three goals insulating your finished attic ventilating the roof and maximizing headroom use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. A stair designed with an intermediate landing and two runs needs about 8 feet on the lower level. In most cases though the joists cannot support live loads and may not even be covered with boards.

You can learn the proper code specifications and plan to insulate and wire your attic for better purposes than storage. If your home is smaller than other homes in your area or simply lacks the necessary amount of storage or living space for your family finishing your attic is a relatively inexpensive way to increase your usable space. In rare cases especially in new construction homes the attic may have been built unfinished with the correct flooring in place with the idea that the homeowner could later on finish the space. Enlarging an existing stairway or adding a new one will affect spaces below.

Your attic needs to be easily accessible in order to fulfill its function well. Every attic is different but a few established norms and practices will guide your renovation. Figure out how you re going to get up and down from the finished attic space. These systems are small and powerful enough that you can cool off your whole house and still free up your attic space for other uses.

A contractor or a local building official can help you assess how the rule will apply to your attic and how modifications like dormers can resolve height shortcomings. Enforcement varies but codes typically say that at least half of a finished attic must be at least 7 feet high and that this area must be a minimum of 7 feet wide and 70 square feet. In l a traditional additions can easily run 90 000 and often cost more. Stairs can take up a lot of space in both the attic and in the floor below so they are important considerations for planning.

If you re finishing your attic insulating it to the proper r value can cause a dramatic loss of headroom if you limit yourself to fiberglass batts. You also have to decide where the loft stairs will begin and check how much space it will need. In general stairs must be at least 3 feet wide and provide at least 6 feet 8 inches of headroom. A straight run stair will chew up 10 to 14 feet of floor space.