Those who start building within the city limits or the nearest suburbs know firsthand that the price of land can reach several million. Because of this, it is much more profitable to expand the living space of the house upwards, rather than horizontally.

The most economical, but functional way to expand the usable area of the building is a living room in the attic. This room can be used as an additional guest bedroom, children’s room or office. In this case, the comfort of a well-equipped attic is not inferior to the usual living space. In this article we will figure out how to equip a cozy attic under the roof of the house.

Distinctive features of a residential attic

In a private home to convert the attic for a room is quite simple, if you approach this case wisely. For the first time, the idea to use the under-roof space as a living space came to the French architect F. Mansar, whose name was given to his invention.

Practical French began to build houses with attics everywhere, suitable for living in any season. To room under the roof could be comfortably used, it must have the following characteristics:

High ceilings. For life and rest in the attic ceilings should be high enough. It is believed that the distance between the ceiling and the floor should be at least 2-2.2 meters for comfortable movement of a person of average height. The space in the lowest part is appropriate to use for the organization of storage areas.

Heating. In the living space under the roof will need heating to be able to use it during the cold.

Natural light. A prerequisite for the equipment of the attic – the presence of natural light, ie windows, in sufficient quantity for the room of such an area. The view of the windows in the attic can be any: they can be mounted directly inside the roof slope or on gables.

Thermal insulation. When arranging a residential attic is insulation of the underlay space. This insulation is placed directly between the rafters of the frame. Heating efficiency, if not provided insulation, much less.

Ventilation. When insulating the attic space must take care of forced ventilation of the room, which will not give the heater to dampen due to condensation, and provides access to fresh air. Also usually install a smoke removal system.

Shortcomings of the technical solution

Before making a room in the attic of the house, you must calculate that this event is usually associated with serious financial costs. The area of the attic roof is larger than usual, so its arrangement requires more roofing material and boards for installation of a wooden frame.

In addition, it will require additional installation work on the lining of the frame, installation of wiring and ventilation. In the process of arrangement of attic roofs may have the following difficulties:

More weight structure. Because of the work associated with thermal insulation, and a larger area roof weight can be 1.5-2 times higher than normal. Because of this, we have to provide a more solid foundation and a solid framework and you need to consult this with a roofing contractor like roofing company in Naples Florida.

High cost. Because of the large area of the roof, the need for thermal insulation, installation of ventilation and the high cost of dormer windows, arrangement of residential attic is usually quite expensive.

Increased complexity of installation. To equip a room in the attic with their own hands is quite difficult. Therefore, most often in the installation work involve hired workers, whose services are quite expensive.