How To Finish Your Attic Floor

Floor support attic floors generally need to be reinforced with additional joists and a subfloor.

How to finish your attic floor.

The basic space requirements for a finished attic boil down to the sizes of the finished rooms. However finishing an attic comes with its own quirks expenses and tricks to maximize its value. First you ll need to measure the area you want to floor so you can calculate how much wood you ll require. In that sense finishing your attic can feel like stumbling across undiscovered land in your own home.

Flooring ceiling and wall materials and other elements will reduce headroom and floor space and it s the finished area that matters. Attics with existing flooring. You ll have to construct a wooden frame or sub floor with boards 16 inches apart to provide extra support for the floor. Most codes require a specified minimum amount of headroom and it s tough to meet this requirement when insulating a finished attic especially since most codes require insulation equal to r 38 or more.

To meet all three goals insulating your finished attic ventilating the roof and maximizing headroom use a combination of dense batt insulation rigid foam sheeting and air chutes. Note that you will need to check with your local licensing department about required permits or inspections. The lyons used a web of 16 inch deep engineered trusses to accommodate wiring plumbing and ductwork then topped the plywood subfloor with oak or tile. The flooring can pave the way for you to be able to finish off the attic in the future and can help you access your attic by making it easier to walk.

You might be tempted to throw up drywall finish the floors and call it a day. When space is limited sometimes there s nowhere to go but up. To floor an attic you ll need to install a sub floor for support before laying your plywood floor. Finished is important to remember when you re measuring an empty attic space.

Alternatively your attic may already have some sort of floor but this doesn t necessarily mean you can build rooms. The previous homeowner may have simply covered the joists with plywood to use the space for storage. If your attic joists won t bear the weight necessary to finish out a living space but the engineer cleared them to support floor decking for light storage you can install inch plywood or. Before finishing an attic get the necessary permits from your local housing commission so you don t get in trouble later on if you try to sell your house.