3rd floor attic renovation

10 years ago

Hello all,

I have lurked on this site off and on for years. Anyway, I have a question regarding my 3rd floor attic. Currently my home has 3 bedrooms and a bonus room over the garage. The bonus room is used as my kids play area and I'd hate to give it up for a bedroom (it's 24x24 and too big IMO). I would like to create another room upstairs for a possible future child or guest room.

The attic is a walk-up attic with no trusses. The staircase is already located in the second floor hallway. There is no insulation up there and is REALLY hot or cold in the summer/winter. There is already a pre-existing functioning window. The ceiling is pretty high at the center point. Probably 9-10 ft. Not exactly sure. I only want to finish half of the attic and leave the other half for storage. The house has a boiler with 5 heating zones already in use and central air (house is 2800 sq ft). My ideal is to have a small homework/office area at the top of the stairs with closet space and then the bedroom. The other half of the attic can be left unfinished and used for all the boxes and junk. I have no idea whether the floor joists would need to be resupported. The house's first owner was the builder and he tended to do everything "right" so far. There is no floor there now...just some thin plywood laid down under the tall part of the roof.

I'm thinking we would need separate HVAC and need to move some ductwork for the central air that is running across the floor right now. So what's the cost do you think?

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Comments (8)

User
10 years ago
National average to do what you're talking about is 50K. Where you live will determine if you'll be above or below that figure.
millworkman
10 years ago
More than likely you will need to change the windows as attics windows generally will ever meet egress code.
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nikci
Original Author
10 years ago
The attic window is a full size window. It's the same as the other windows on the second floor. It's definitely an egress window. It looks like a 2.5 story farmhouse from the outside.

Keep the replies coming. I'm surprised at the 50k number. I thought maybe between 20k-30k at most. I think I only want to finish 200-300 sq ft.
worthy
10 years ago
I have no idea whether the floor joists would need to be resupported.

Unless the original builder intended to finish the attic later, the ceiling rafters will be inadequate for comfort.
nikci
Original Author
10 years ago
Worthy,

That's what I'm thinking he did. I think he might have planned for the attic to be finished considering it has a full window and electrical already wired in a few spots. At least that's what I'm hoping.
User
10 years ago
Dealing with the now required arc fault circuits for the bedroom, the egress windows, the reinforcing for the floor joists, the new HVAC, and the required R value for the insulation doesn't come cheap. Once upon a time the building codes weren't as restrictive and you had all kinds of "attic" bedrooms built that weren't safe or comfortable. You can't get away with that type of slipshod conversion any more.

Where are you located in the country? As I said 50K is the average. If you're in one of the expensive centers of the universe like CA or MA, that number goes higher. If somewhere like KS or IA, the number gets smaller.
nikci
Original Author
10 years ago
Hollysprings,

I heard you. I'm not sure about the HVAC. We have a pretty powerful boiler. It's 5 zones. Not sure if we could connect to existing zones since the room size will be so small. It's more the AC that I know will be a problem. Separate unit will probably be cheaper. Our AC is already a bit too small for the square footage so I'm told (though the house stays nice and cold so I dunno). I read somewhere to expect 6k for stand alone HVAC. So I am OK with that. But since we already have a staircase, and egress window and plenty of ceiling height, I thought maybe our job could be cheaper....maybe more in line with a basement renovation. The house is only 17 years old. I don't think the attic would have been built the way it was unless the builder considered having it be easily finished. There is already electrical up there as I said (we put a candle in the window during christmas time and it's plugged in). Would any of these factors bring the job down under the 50k number and move it to the 20k number? I have a guy in the neighborhood who does great work on the cheap side (as long as you cook him food lol). He created an entire room out of a screen porch for my in-laws for 25k. And we do live in MA so it's not cheap. I really just need one kids bedroom up there. Nothing fancy.
User
10 years ago
A basement conversion averages 80K in Boston. The attic conversion averages 63K in Boston.

A 17 year old house might as well be a 50 year old house in construction terms. So much has changed in that time. 17 years ago, arc fault wasn't required in bedrooms. It is now. That means all new electrical in the space. Insulation requirements have also drastically changed and are getting ready to change again to be even more restrictive. Insulating an attic bedroom space is already difficult because of the reduced ceiling height and ventilation requirements for the attic space. It's at the point that to keep the proper head room, pretty much only foam insulation will work to get the R value. That's a lot more expensive than fiberglass batts. The only way to know if your current joists will legally carry a live load is to inspect them. Most likely, they will need to be beefed up.

And there is NO way I'd hire a neighborhood handyman to do something like this. Especially if he's not licensed and insured. It requires permits and inspections.

You need a licensed GC to come in in person to assess what's there and to give you an estimate as to what it will cost. Get several quotes. After you personally draw up the scope of the project so all are bidding on the same thing. Apples to apples.