Converted an attic to living space, that is.
What was the experience like? Were you living in the house at the time or was it a home you purchased while not living it it?
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Haven't done it ourselves but in our rental, our room and the nursery are on the top floor (what used to be the attic). Whoever did this reno cheaped out on insulation... It's so cold in the winter and blistering hot in the summer. So make sure the insulation is a top priority!
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We are about to turn our attic into our oldest's bedroom! It could be a cool master suite down the road but we aren't there yet with young kids. We have spray foam insulation and already have a full staircase with a door. Our heating unit is in the attic as well and we got vents put there for heating & cooling already. What else would you like to know???
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@creativemomma15: Did you get a general contractor to see if the house could bear the load of an attic reno? Or did you work with an architect? Is your house older or newer?
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@matador84: Our house was built in the 1950s, so old :). My dad is a general contractor so we've been consulting him regarding the work and we have been talking about this since we bought the house. Our attic already had floorboards down so it wasn't like a bare bones attic without anything and since we hoped to get to this point we had made some small steps, like good insulation & heat/cooling vents earlier on.
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@creativemomma15: We have a 1950's home also. The pitch on our roof is pretty high so I think we can make it work, but we weren't sure who to consult with first.
So convenient that your dad is a GC! I think this would be a pretty pricey project and ultimately we would also need a kitchen reno since our kitchen is pretty small--it might not be worth the cost in the end.
Our attic is currently just attic space. We'd need to do a full on add of insulation, another heater/ac unit, re-route of current HVAC since it is all in the attic, add stairs from the inside...super scary sounding project to tackle!
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My dad made our attic into my bedroom. It was awesome as a pre-teen/teenager. I had so much space!
This was a long time ago, so I don't know the work that had to go into it but I think it is a great use of space.
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@matador84: the house we bought a few months ago has our master in the attic area. Few tips:
-make sure you find a structural engineer or architect to give you some pointers before starting or have them oversee the who process. The last homeowners did the Reno themselves (husband was apparently a contractor) and they probably didn't do this which is causing a few issues. There's a lot of work involved and it's different when everything is so close to the roof pitch! Our drywall should have been fastened rather than just nailed on because of roof movement throughout the seasons (even worse is that we had the roof replaced before move in so we have cracks in some of the drywall and nail pops because the person who replaced it probably stepped on the beams
) - make sure your floor is reinforced! A beam was put in downstairs in the den (converted garage) to bear the load but you can feel in a few spots upstairs where they didn't properly reinforce the flooring to accommodate a lot of traffic upstairs. It has caused some cracking in the ceilings dry wall downstairs that is noticeable. We will be having to fix all these things in the coming years
If you have any questions, let me know! I've learned a lot about attic conversions just from the last homeowners mistakes so far! Lol
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