This old house s two minute expert explains what goes into creating a bonus room under the rafters.
Steps in finishing an attic.
Check your local building codes to see what requirements they have for finishing attic or basement space.
Now let s read about the steps for properly finishing the attic walls and ceiling.
In general stairs must be at least 3 feet wide and provide at least 6 feet 8 inches of headroom.
Here s a look at some building code basics when it comes to turning attic space into living space.
The location of the top of the knee is marked and after checking the level long boards are attached to the ceiling joists.
Finishing a walk up attic adds stairs and flooring for a total of 8 100 to 26 000.
Access and egress code generally requires a full size staircase with a minimum 6 foot 8 inch clearance.
At least 50 percent of the attic space must have 7 foot 2 1 m clearance.
Cost of finishing a walk up attic.
5 steps to finishing an attic.
In the first step a knee wall is installed.
The price to install a staircase ranges from 1 000 to 2 900 depending on the style and materials.
Measure the clearance and estimate the square footage of your attic.
Stairs can take up a lot of space in both the attic and in the floor below so they are important considerations for planning.
Look at where you can put stairs to the attic where windows can go and attic space you can use for storage because it doesn t meet height restrictions.
Finished attics need stairs that meet all of the standard staircase requirements.
An attic can be finished and used for a variety of different rooms such as a bedroom sewing room bonus room.
The cost to install wood flooring is 2 500 to 6 800 a popular choice for this project.
Remodeling an attic requires only a few specific steps.