Converting the attic into a living space

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So that would just be a landing built out of 2x6 or 2x8 about half way and filling about half the room, we can talk about the structure.
An 8 foot ladder attached to the bedroom wall with about 6" to the wall and another ladder the same from the landing up on the far wall.
Then we can get back to the insulation and head room.
 
Can we go over the insulation and head room now, i don't even know if it possible at all to have more head room, and if the floor even support the weight..

nealtw said:
So that would just be a landing built out of 2x6 or 2x8 about half way and filling about half the room, we can talk about the structure.
An 8 foot ladder attached to the bedroom wall with about 6" to the wall and another ladder the same from the landing up on the far wall.
Then we can get back to the insulation and head room.
Click to expand...
 
I grew up with a bedroom built on a 2x6 but it only about 11 ft across :rofl: we removed some knee wall on both sides so the beds would slide out to the expanded area. I don't think my dad knew for 10 years.
To do it right you will be lifting the plywood and adding at least 2x8 joist, costing more head room. You said man cave, one mans hiding place or party room?
 
well this room is 13 feet across and 15 long if my memory serves me right..

It will be mostly me, but I'm sure will have someone up there with me once in a while..
 
I think mostly you are looking at storage but with that big hole from the main floor you will still want to find a way to insulate it.
Do you have box vent that can be seen fromm inside and do you have soffit vents?
 
That sucks..

Well storage is better than nothing, i have plenty of things to place there..

I have one opening to the side wall i think its a 10x15 opening, and 4 soffit vents 2 in each side of the roof
 
Look up at the peak, when there is a ridge vent the sheeting stops short of the peak by an inch or so.
 
A little bit about the venting. It is there for two reasons. In the summer it provides air flow to cool the roofing from below giving some types of roof more life.
In the winter we hear about ice dams. ice dams are caused by heat being transferred from the outside wall up to the roof , which melts snow, the water runs down a little further and re-freezes, over time that build ups until the water backs up under the roofing and you have a leak. In newer houses you will find that the soffet is all vented. In older house it was every so many feet but the soffets were level creating a common area for the air to find it's way to all the bays. so when insulating you apply cardboard or plastic chutes against the sheeting to allow air flow above the insulation. We keep a gap above the insulation all the way to the peak when you are insulation the roof.
If you finished the ceiling as is you would have a common are for the air to find it's way to the vent on the outside wall.
If you remove the ties and finish the ceiling you have lost all venting.
Two fixes here would be 1 remove the roofing , just the piece over the peak , cut some sheeting away and install ridge vent that is not seen very easily from outside. This would be best but comes with strata problems.
2 completely insulate the roof no vents but this might shorten the life of the roof or cause ice damming. The ice damming might be dealt with, with a little ingenuity, but both of these " ifs" might end up with a strata problem.
 
Since you are in Canada you covered the cold weather, how about on the hot summer days ? Will the attic will be nice and toasty ??

nealtw said:
A little bit about the venting. It is there for two reasons. In the summer it provides air flow to cool the roofing from below giving some types of roof more life.
In the winter we hear about ice dams. ice dams are caused by heat being transferred from the outside wall up to the roof , which melts snow, the water runs down a little further and re-freezes, over time that build ups until the water backs up under the roofing and you have a leak. In newer houses you will find that the soffet is all vented. In older house it was every so many feet but the soffets were level creating a common area for the air to find it's way to all the bays. so when insulating you apply cardboard or plastic chutes against the sheeting to allow air flow above the insulation. We keep a gap above the insulation all the way to the peak when you are insulation the roof.
If you finished the ceiling as is you would have a common are for the air to find it's way to the vent on the outside wall.
If you remove the ties and finish the ceiling you have lost all venting.
Two fixes here would be 1 remove the roofing , just the piece over the peak , cut some sheeting away and install ridge vent that is not seen very easily from outside. This would be best but comes with strata problems.
2 completely insulate the roof no vents but this might shorten the life of the roof or cause ice damming. The ice damming might be dealt with, with a little ingenuity, but both of these " ifs" might end up with a strata problem.
Click to expand...
 
You bet ya. You do have a window.
The roof absorbs a lot of heat and with the rafters touching both inside and outside with out a break, heat will transfer as well as all the warm air from the house inside rising to the top.
No matter what you do, it will get warm up there.
 
So after all that is worked thru, I would strongly say do not remove the ties.
Install chutes in every bay for soffit venting ,6" fiberglass insulation vapor barrier " 6 mil poly"
Normally I would add another 2 1/2" to the rafters for more insulation but with the space being so limited, your choice.

air-chutes.jpg
 
What about of the open vents in the roof are they being closed or should i add some type of fans ??

nealtw said:
So after all that is worked thru, I would strongly say do not remove the ties.
Install chutes in every bay for soffit venting ,6" fiberglass insulation vapor barrier " 6 mil poly"
Normally I would add another 2 1/2" to the rafters for more insulation but with the space being so limited, your choice.
Click to expand...
 
For the people , members or non members watching this thread with interest.
There is no one answer, most houses have there own problems and details.
I have spent years doing work like this and I only work from experience, I am not qualified to make decisions on engineering and if I was called to work on this house I would call for an engineer to inspect this work and draw up what he wants to make it right.
We can only assume the contractor that has worked on this house was qualified but he cut ceiling joists with out making any correction to the framing that should be done and he should have worked thru this exercise and things would have been different if the OP understood that stairs would never fit in the space.
 
Reading this thread - mostly as a bystander, and definitely as a non-pro - it sounds like you have a few strikes against your original plan. So are you going forward? How has the original plan changed?
 
I don't know yet, but one thing i know for sure that i need to fix the insulation and add some more lighting to the space, everything else will be an added bonus if i can make it happen..

Edit:

Original plan is otta the window, the question is having turn into a climate controlled storage space..

slownsteady said:
Reading this thread - mostly as a bystander, and definitely as a non-pro - it sounds like you have a few strikes against your original plan. So are you going forward? How has the original plan changed?
Click to expand...
 
My Buddy that is not a member but always has something to say to me about this stuff just emailed me questioning why I didn't explain what should have been done for this opening.:(
To start with may I say, "we don't know what we don't know" and "we only think we know what we think we know" and then there is a little bit that "we do know"
What we do know.
2x6s spanning 13 ft are at their limit for supporting a ceiling, they will carry much more weight but there is a sag issue.
As they land on the walls just below the knee walls we can assume that they are load bearing walls and we did our best to prove that with what looked like good results.
The problem is the wall three feet away that is now supporting the cut floor joists. all the weight from this part of the floor is transferred to the floor below which could cause a sagging issue in that floor.

Anything we do to repair this, the weight some how wants to be transferred to the foundation. An engineer might calculate the weight and how it might disperse thru the structure but I can only go on what they all call for in new construction and renos that I have worked on.
Normally around a staircase like this would be to hang the cut floor joists from a double floor joist which is hung off a double or more at each end.
The problem with this fix it that as it is just 2x6s there still could be a sag, which would then just put the weight back on the non bearing wall and the floor below.
Now we could put bigger beams in but then they would protrude thru the ceiling below. Probably not a good option and then we would also have to open walls all the way to the basement to add more studs.

If I was standing with an engineer I would make suggestions based on what he wants to to do and what would be easiest for me to do.
My suggestion would be to just address the sag in the floor below and that would be to go one floor below that pull the ceiling and double the floor joists or maybe every other floor joist under that area. I think an engineer would go for that.
 
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