What To Do With Your Attic
One day, you woke up with urge to do something new about your attic. Your stuff up there has been gathering dust for years. Not to mention that every year, more junk is added into a space that, come to think of it, can be utilized more efficiently.
Your mind begins to wonder. There are a number of ideas that thought of and all of which you equally want to try out. There’s always the possibility of adding a new bedroom to your house and the attic is the most likely candidate for that. This can be advantageous if you plan to sell the house in the future. Converting the attic into a bedroom is a good investment and can also help increase the resale value of your house.
Or, you could fully dedicate your attic as a storage area. You won’t have to worry with the extra costs of changing it into a livable area. You just maintain the status quo. Although you will have to clean the area once in a while and check if rodents or pests have began to make themselves comfortable up there.
So you have a bedroom and a storage room. Another idea would be a playroom for the children. All you need is to clear the current attic of junk, clean the floor and the ceiling, and lay down a carpet so the children won’t get hurt when they stumble down the floor, which they offer do.
Also, when you decide to make the attic into a livable work space, you will have to change the insulation system if it’s installed on the attic floor. This will simply not do. You have to redo the insulation and have it installed on the attic roof instead. If you’re worried about the costs, there are ways to keep it at a minimum.
When redoing the insulation, don’t forget to give way to the vents and “breathing” ducts of the house. You can also save money this way. You see by properly insulation your attic and letting the natural air flows, it will no longer be necessary to provide for a heater during the colder months. The hot air from the ground floor will be sufficient to heat up a small space like an attic.
You can also convert the attic into a study if your house doesn’t have one already. You could place bookshelves there and a study table where you can write your articles, stories, or memoirs. This can be cheaper than converting the area into a bedroom. All you need are basic stuff and you can create an office in there.
However, before you begin your little project, you need to look up a few things. There are some building regulations that you will have to follow if you want to renovate your attic. Some of these regulations include following the standard
50 pound per square foot combined live and dead load for the attic floor.
Aside from lights and ventilations, the law has required that an attic which has been converted into a livable space meets a certain measurement for the ceiling height. Smoke detectors are also required to be installed as well as fire exits. Even bedroom designs need to follow certain specifications.
Everything will now depend on which path you will take. Are you going for a bedroom renovation or are you going for an office renovation plan. Or are you going back to sleep and let your attic be?