reclaiming the attic

Is your house bursting at the seams? Do you long for private office space, a guest retreat, or a kids’ bonus room? The solution might be right over your head: no need to leave the neighborhood, or even put on an addition.

- MARY ELLEN POLSON

The conversion of unfinished attics to year-round living space has been a constant in American homes for centuries. Fitting out an attic, however, comes with its own set of constraints and a checklist of dos and don’ts. The first constraint is that attic walls typically slant at sharp angles, cutting down the amount of usable space. You may find a lack of headroom, most notably in low-pitched or gable-ended attics. An attic remodel usually will require flooring, sheathing for walls and ceilings, stair access, and dormers or windows. Then come such big-ticket items as structural support, insulation and venting, plumbing for a bathroom, heating and air conditioning, and electrical service. In essence, you’ll be building a little house in the attic. A good candidate for an attic conversion should be space free of obstructions with a ceiling height of at least 7' over much of the space.

A complex job is defined by what’s missing: adequate headroom in most of the space, say, or lack of a staircase (or limited room to add one on the floor below). The older the house, the more likely that renovation will require increased structural support. You may even need to raise the roof.

The simplest conversions are those where the attic already has adequate headroom, a floor (or subfloor), adequate light and window space, and access by way of a fixed stair. Chances are the joists under the floor will need reinforcement, the stair may not meet modern building codes, and livability will demand more windows than the required minimum. If walls and ceilings are clad in beadboard— a common treatment in the attics of many early-20th-century houses—that will need to be removed so that insulation and wiring can go in.