I have two points of egress to my attic space: one in the house proper which contains the HVAC and one over the garage that is large enough to store seasonal items.
The usable area is covered in wires. Every contractor that has ever run a line in the house has done so in starburst style without respect for the potential useful area that is this attic space. Electrical, cable coax, telephone and security lines all run in various directions. Some of the lines have a lot of slack, and simply rest in the space, but many are pulled tight and have wires draped over them. The result is that I have a 20ft x 10ft slanted-height space that I can only really use about 3ft x 5ft of before I start laying boxes on top of or arround wires. Even the clothes dryer duct runs across the area consuming a portion of the space.
I would like to renovate the space to make it very useful, but the house isn't worth a lot of money given the style and the area it is in, and I don't think that the attic yields a big investment return. I wouldnt mind having a roughed in storage area though.
I thought about cutting and junctioning all the wires and the duct in an organized fashion, but after recent review, there are like 20 power lines, 15 security wires, two telephone lines and four cable coax wires. Im confident in my personal ability to junction a data line without unnecessary loss, and most of these lines, if not all, run digital signals, not analog, so junctions shouldnt hurt their capability much.
Alternatively, I could attempt to just run all new line, but that seems like too much of an investment.
I am considering tacking down a lattice of wood that allows the wires to run disorganized through the space, and then putting a floor of plywood on top of that. This would give me a 20ft x 10ft area that is free of wires at the expense of height. I imagine something similar to deck plates that hide computer Ethernet conduits in a server room.
Any constructive thoughts, comments, suggestions or questions?
Thank you for your time,
Patrick
The usable area is covered in wires. Every contractor that has ever run a line in the house has done so in starburst style without respect for the potential useful area that is this attic space. Electrical, cable coax, telephone and security lines all run in various directions. Some of the lines have a lot of slack, and simply rest in the space, but many are pulled tight and have wires draped over them. The result is that I have a 20ft x 10ft slanted-height space that I can only really use about 3ft x 5ft of before I start laying boxes on top of or arround wires. Even the clothes dryer duct runs across the area consuming a portion of the space.
I would like to renovate the space to make it very useful, but the house isn't worth a lot of money given the style and the area it is in, and I don't think that the attic yields a big investment return. I wouldnt mind having a roughed in storage area though.
I thought about cutting and junctioning all the wires and the duct in an organized fashion, but after recent review, there are like 20 power lines, 15 security wires, two telephone lines and four cable coax wires. Im confident in my personal ability to junction a data line without unnecessary loss, and most of these lines, if not all, run digital signals, not analog, so junctions shouldnt hurt their capability much.
Alternatively, I could attempt to just run all new line, but that seems like too much of an investment.
I am considering tacking down a lattice of wood that allows the wires to run disorganized through the space, and then putting a floor of plywood on top of that. This would give me a 20ft x 10ft area that is free of wires at the expense of height. I imagine something similar to deck plates that hide computer Ethernet conduits in a server room.
Any constructive thoughts, comments, suggestions or questions?
Thank you for your time,
Patrick