Attic Trusses

Attic trusses can be the key to allowing you to make more space for you and your family, through an attic remodeling project that maximizes the place for less than it would cost to add on a whole addition onto the house. To remodel the attic can be a bit involved, particularly with the limits that attic trusses can put onto your place. Though think of an attic as an untapped bonus room, just waiting to be brought into your plans, and made to shine.

Actually, it depends a lot on how the attic trusses are built as to how likely you are going to be able to implement your ideas for changing your old attic from a forgotten over-sized storage locker into a livable place. It could be that you need an office to call your own, now that you are working from home, whether you are telecommuting to work or just starting out on your own business. If you are starting your own business, it is an excellent idea to have your room separate from the rest of the house, both for practical, tax purposes, and also for privacy and quiet.

What Shape are You in?

Though, if your attic trusses are not open, such as in a Z or W shape, they are not usable. The idea is to have an A frame attic trusses. These kinds of trusses allow you to have open places, which is where you will renovate for living purposes or perform an attic antenna installation. Yes, you will have the walls finished, and the like. Though, you will actually be able to use the open areas.

Though, if you have any question about how likely you are to be able to use your existing attic trusses to re-fabricate and renew your place, then call a contractor or an architect or an engineer. In particular, it is a good idea to find a professional who knows your local building codes as well, even for the trusses. This will help save you a lot of time and headaches by ensuring that any building and trusses are up to speed with your local rules.

Other Areas

With the attic trusses figured out, you know that you can make room for you and your family to live under the trusses, then you can take into consideration other areas of the place. For one, you may have had a nifty hide away ladder, full with creepy creeks and squeaks. But, this is surely not going to work for you from one day to the next. Your project will require some kind of stairs to replace the old ladder. Spiral stair cases take up less horizontal room, and take up the same amount at the top as they do at the bottom. Though, traditional stairs take up many feet of room beyond where they start.

The one beautiful item to consider, is that because you are building at the very top of the house, you will be able to incorporate natural light between those attic trusses. The trusses area already supporting your room, and now you can see how you can transform the attic from a dank, dark and creepy crawly kind of area into a bright, sizable room filled with natural sun light. The most challenging part of the project may be where you will put the windows, sky lights and how you want the stair posts built.

Origins for Inspiration

Consider also looking at design magazines, just to get an idea of how others have tackled similar projects. If you cannot think of what to do with your own area within the attic, beneath a truss, consider adding a window seat. You may even consider making a file full of photos that make the trusses seem to melt into the background. It is ideal when the actual room takes over and makes itself known beyond the old features that made it the one room you never wanted to visit. It is time to take it into the opposite realm, where everyone in your household is fighting to move in upstairs and take over the new area.

Attic trusses can help you to add on extra living areas to your home, without having to add on an addition. An addition would add onto the cost of your building project in a considerable way because there would be the factoring in of measuring, digging and pouring a new foundation, then extracting, expanding and re-wrapping the house in new siding, adding roofing and utilities. At least when just expanding into an already built out area, you are just finishing the arena, just as you might finish a basement. This can help for growing families, or those who need a little more privacy in their own master bedroom suite.